Jim’s Quote of the Month

All things are difficult before they are easy.” ―Thomas Fuller, African Slave 1710 – 1790 Thomas Fuller was 14 years old when he was taken from his native West African home and sold to a Virginia planter. We have no record of what he experienced during this time, outside of the sure knowledge that his...Continue reading Quote of the Month: August 2023 →Read More »

Members of Congress serving on [Senate and House Finance committees] have collectively received over $3.4 million from the payday lending industry” ― OpenSecrets For many years we have worked with other groups who fight for fair treatment of those who need small short-term loans. “Payday” loans unfairly punish those with few resources in general, but...Continue reading Quote of the Month: July 2023 →Read More »

Prisons are woefully ill-equipped for their current role as the nation’s primary mental health facilities” ―Jamie Fellner Jamie Fellner is senior counsel for the United States Program of Human Rights Watch, which often deals with issues of the maltreatment of prisoners in the U.S. These are generally episodes against an incarcerated individual in a singular...Continue reading Quote of the Month: June 2023 →Read More »

Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.” —Charles Thomas Studd Charles Thomas Studd was born in Great Britain in 1860, and as he grew, he became a star cricket player in a game that was the premier sport...Continue reading Quote of the Month: May 2023 →Read More »

Ruin is the road to transformation” —Elizabeth Gilbert Do we park at the point of our pain? Or do we try again? When Larry Bird’s father committed suicide, he was lost. He tried college but couldn’t deal with it, so he went back home and became a garbage collector. When Oprah Winfrey was sexually assaulted...Continue reading Quote of the Month: April 2023 →Read More »

There’s a difference between remorse and repentance. Remorse is being sorry for being caught. Repentance is being sorry enough to stop.” —Greg Laurie, Author, The Jesus Revolution Who among us could not apply this statement to our own lives? Greg Laurie, who wrote about his life in the book and new movie, The Jesus Revolution,...Continue reading Quote of the Month: March 2023 →Read More »

I got 16 years to life” —Pastor Jeff Osborne Jeff Osborn is a pastor who talks candidly about surviving prison and turning his life around. He was a kid, an army brat in a loving family who went to church, believed in God, and was brought up to come under authority. But one day, when...Continue reading Quote of the Month: February 2023 →Read More »

There was a time in my life when I thought I had everything – millions of dollars, mansions, cars, nice clothes, beautiful women, and every other materialistic thing… Now I struggle for peace.” —Comedian Richard Pryor I was in college when I became aware of Richard Pryor. He was raw, funny and hugely popular. As...Continue reading Quote of the Month: January 2023 →Read More »

Hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth, good will toward men” —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow In 1861 Fanny Longfellow, died after her dress was set ablaze by a falling candle. Her adoring husband, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, rushed to smother the flames, covering her with his body, but was too late to save...Continue reading Quote of the Month: December 2022 →Read More »

You oughta be thankful, a whole heaping lot, for the places and people you’re lucky you’re not.” —Dr. Seuss Cute. It rhymes. But the truth is—it’s the truth. Most of us are the lucky products of the grace and blessings we were handed in this world. We are the “lucky ones.” For the most part,...Continue reading Quote of the Month: November 2022 →Read More »

I don’t want to do this.” —Brittany, Jobs for Life Graduate Three days ago we celebrated the graduation of women who have completed a 16-week Jobs for Life course to prepare them for work and help them secure a job. All of them have recently been released from incarceration. Some wore ankle monitors under the...Continue reading Quote of the Month: October 2022 →Read More »

When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace” —Jimi Hendrix Who doesn’t know the name Jimi Hendrix? He was an insanely talented guitarist, the world’s highest paid musician in 1969, the headliner at Woodstock and so many other famous concerts all over the U.S. and Europe. But those...Continue reading Quote of the Month: September 2022 →Read More »

The Lord sometimes has to short-circuit even our best plans for our benefit.” —Tony Dungy Tony Dungy knows about success, but also bitter disappointment. After a stellar football performance in high school and college, he signed on as a free agent with the Pittsburg Steelers, winning a Super Bowl ring in 1978. Before long he...Continue reading Quote of the Month: August 2022 →Read More »

My name is Jonathan and today seems like a good day to die” —Greenwood Mall Shooter July 19, 2022 This kid’s quote sparks more questions than we have room to print. To start off with, he posted photos of himself wearing an ammo vest and mask, holding a pistol to his head. Did no one...Continue reading Quote of the Month: July 2022 →Read More »

These are black people killing black people. It’s self-genocide. People have been accepting this like it was normal.” — Sharif Amenhotep, Newark Anti-violence Activist Our new Federal holiday, Juneteenth, is a powerful reminder of the millions who were enslaved in our country, as well as those who fought to end slavery. Unfortunately, the holiday was...Continue reading Quote of the Month: June 2022 →Read More »

“If we don’t defend what’s important to us, what’s important to us will disappear.” — Anonymous So, what’s important to you? Your family? Would you defend them? Or, your money or house? Maybe your possessions? What about your rights? Where do they come in your list of “Top Ten Things You’d Defend”? Under the heading...Continue reading Quote of the Month: May 2022 →Read More »

“There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread.” — Mahatma Gandhi For those who see God in the form of bread, God is getting more and more expensive. The price of bread has gone up 36% in the last year. Beef prices have...Continue reading Quote of the Month: April 2022 →Read More »

“This is the most money I have made legally!” — An overjoyed former inmate holding up his first paycheck from one of our partner employers Some people might think a quote like that is pretty negative. Undeniably, it reminds us that this person used to support himself as a criminal. Let’s call him “Bobby.” Perhaps...Continue reading Quote of the Month: March 2022 →Read More »

Do it until you do it right. Then do it until you can’t do it wrong.” ——Monica Almada, Navarro College Coach Unknown by most of the world, are the annual National Cheer and Dance Championships in Daytona, Florida, where a small Texas community college, Navarro, has racked up 14 Association Championships and five Grand National...Continue reading Quote of the Month: February 2022 →Read More »

In any city, there is a small number of very high-risk individuals who are responsible for the majority of gun violence.” —David Mohammed David Mohammed is known for his work in reducing gun violence in Oakland California—a city consistently ranked in the top 10 most violent as far back as the 1980s. Oakland called their...Continue reading Quote of the Month: January 2022 →Read More »

He who opens a school door, closes a prison.” —Victor Hugo French writer Victor Hugo wrote about the atrocities of prison in the early 1800s. His seminal work, Les Miserables, is a story of the horrific conditions in the prisons of his day and the life of a man who was never quite free from...Continue reading Quote of the Month: December 2021 →Read More »

Fear kills more dreams than failure ever will” —Anonymous Fear is the very basis of everything that holds us back from our true destiny. For a person who is reentering society after incarceration, it can be traumatic to even think about living on the outside. Inmates become “institutionalized,” by living in a system that makes...Continue reading Quote of the Month: November 2021 →Read More »

It is easier to build strong children than repair broken men” —Frederick Douglass Fredrick Douglass escaped slavery at the age of 16, maturing into a national leader of the abolitionist movement. Over the years, he became an international social reformer, orator, writer, and statesman, whose position on the value of intact families was wrought in...Continue reading Quote of the Month: October 2021 →Read More »

If you carry the bricks from your past, you will end up building the same house.” —Anonymous For many of the people coming out of long term incarceration, there is no blueprint to follow with which to build a better life. A majority of reentrants carry with them scars of a difficult youth. They have...Continue reading Quote of the Month: September 2021 →Read More »

I love data, but data with the power to change lives is the best!” —Dr. Kathy Paulson-Gjerde, Professor of Economics, Butler University’s Lacy School of Business Historically, employers have not exactly jumped at the chance to hire those who have been incarcerated. It is true even now, in spite of the facts that we have...Continue reading Quote of the Month: August 2021 →Read More »

We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear.” —Nelson Mandela I met with Allison Luthe from Martin Luther King Community center a while ago. She told me that two of “her kids” had been killed in gun violence recently. In another shooting, Jordan Jackson a...Continue reading Quote of the Month: July 2021 →Read More »

Every form of refuge has its price” —The Eagles’ Don Henley and Glenn Frey Every so often there are lyrics that take on a meaning of their own. In 1975, The Eagles released “Lyin’ Eyes” which contained a sentence that jumped out of the music and into the thought process of a generation. You didn’t...Continue reading Quote of the Month: June 2021 →Read More »

Dying is easy, living is harder” —George Washington in Hamilton FULL DISCLOSURE: We have zero proof that the real President George Washington actually said those words, but his character in the Broadway show Hamilton definitely did. Either way, the statement is provocative. The world has changed since 1776. Maybe it’s the quickness of a handgun...Continue reading Quote of the Month: May 2021 →Read More »

Poverty is not just a lack of money, poverty is not having the capability to realize one’s full potential as a human being” —Amartya Sen Amartya Sen was born in India in 1933 and lived through an economic downturn that cost the lives of three million of India’s poor. This staggering loss of life led...Continue reading Quote of the Month: April 2021 →Read More »

A few months ago I was hopeless, sitting in my cell, thinking how I’d wasted the last 33 years. Now every time I turn around there are these men telling me Jesus loves me, and He’s got a plan for my life…” —Name withheld There’s no guarantee that a prison or jail sentence will produce a...Continue reading Quote of the Month: March 2021 →Read More »

I’ll do whatever you need.” —Doug Evans To all those working in the mission field, a statement like Doug’s is a dream come true. An unqualified sentence like that is so rarely heard, when he said it, it stopped me in my tracks. For a split second I had to pause as I considered the...Continue reading Quote of the Month: February 2021 →Read More »

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.” —Martin Luther King, Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. was not merely eloquent, but with words that emanated from his deep belief in the promises of God, he issued forth...Continue reading Quote of the Month: January 2021 →Read More »

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” -Pierre Teilhard de Chardin About 100 years ago, a young monk by the name of Pierre Teilhard was suffering from what today we call post traumatic stress disorder. Like most young men in Europe, he had been swept...Continue reading Quote of the Month: December 2020 →Read More »

When you attack poverty you attack racism; when you just attack racism, you’re still stuck with poverty.” -Greg Enas Greg Enas is no stranger to the effort of improving lives. As a PhD in Biostatistics, he was trained in researching questions in medicine and biology to improve pubic health. His working life is all about...Continue reading Quote of the Month: November 2020 →Read More »

Remember, amateurs built the Ark. Professionals built the Titanic” -Sir Richard Needham Sir Richard was a Brit, known for his wit, and even though no one really knows now to what he was referring, his quip is a powerful reminder of the great value of a motivated amateur. After years of working with those in...Continue reading Quote of the Month: October 2020 →Read More »

Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” -Charles Swindolln Recently, our family took advantage of the long Labor Day weekend to rent a house on the shore of Lake Michigan. We got into a conversation about some of the things I had done, where I had worked, and...Continue reading Quote of the Month: September 2020 →Read More »

If you take away religion, you can’t hire enough police…” -A Chinese Marxist to Clay Christiansen Clay Christiansen was a Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. Forbes called him “one of the most influential business theorists of the last 50 years.” He is an unassuming man who stands 6’8″ and played college...Continue reading Quote of the Month: August 2020 →Read More »

If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change” -Wayne Dyer Wayne Dyer spent his first ten years in an orphanage after his father walked out leaving his mother penniless. Though he’d been tossed away by his father, a man he’d learn to hate, Dyer survived. He became a...Continue reading Quote of the Month: July 2020 →Read More »

A house divided against itself, cannot stand.” -Abraham Lincoln What unrest we have suffered this month, as one appalling murder led to more killings, many injuries, millions of hard-earned dollars in property loss and great damage to our neighborhoods, in an explosion of division. Lincoln knew a lot about division, and while his overwhelming concern...Continue reading Quote of the Month: June 2020 →Read More »

Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.” -Oscar Wilde In 1854, during the Victorian era, Oscar Wilde was born into an educated family in Dublin. Highly intelligent, he spoke English, French and Greek. He was an artist, poet, playwrite, and a famous wit. But Wilde was also gay. When the father of Wilde’s partner had...Continue reading Quote of the Month: May 2020 →Read More »

We were given the Scriptures to humble us into realizing that God is right, and the rest of us are just guessing.” -Rich Mullins You know Rich Mullins as the writer/performer of Christian songs like “Our God Is An Awesome God,” Step By Step,” “Winds Of Heaven,” and so many more. He was born in...Continue reading Quote of the Month: April 2020 →Read More »

When you are going through something hard and wonder where God is, remember the teacher is always quiet during a test.” -Anonymous In 1632 the Bubonic Plague that had swept through Europe finally made its way to the little village of Oberammergau, 50 miles south of Munich in Bavaria. The inhabitants had quarantined themselves, but...Continue reading Quote of the Month: March 2020 →Read More »

Nothing stops a bullet like a job.” -Homeboy Industries’ Founder Greg Boyle In 1986 Father Gregory Boyle was assigned to the poorest Catholic parish in Los Angeles, a parish which included the largest public housing project west of the Mississippi and the highest concentration of gang activity. Since the 80s he has put together a...Continue reading Quote of the Month: February 2020 →Read More »

How many times in the last year has this city lost a child at the hands of another child?” -Barack Obama We know the statistics – that children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools...Continue reading Quote of the Month: January 2020 →Read More »

Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.” -Oprah Winfrey Here it is, the end of another year. A year of great memories and probably some things we’d like to forget. We aren’t perfect–we are merely little lead tokens moving around the Monopoly board, hoping to “get it right,”...Continue reading Quote of the Month: December 2019 →Read More »

I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me insufficient for that day.” -Abraham Lincoln The nation was at war with itself. In 1863 the Civil War had raged for more than two tortuous years,...Continue reading Quote of the Month: November 2019 →Read More »

I’d rather work in reentry anywhere in Indiana but Marion County.” -Anonymous My wife Nancy was asked to be the moderator for a panel discussion on faith-based reentry for the Marion County Reentry Coalition’s very popular annual conference. In preparation, she met with a number of folks who work in reentry for the state. Since...Continue reading Quote of the Month: October 2019 →Read More »

I’d be half a man if I didn’t help my neighbors” -Kenny Vaughan As forty-one inches of hurricane Irma’s rain poured over the east coast of Texas and water filled the same homes that had only recently been rebuilt from hurricane Harvey, Kenny Vaughan was once again in his boat doggedly searching from house to...Continue reading Quote of the Month: September 2019 →Read More »

Wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then” -Bob Seger Naïveté is a precious thing. Most of us can look back on times when life was great. We were loved, we were happy—maybe we were five, or maybe it was high school. But something happened and we learned that life is not golden...Continue reading Quote of the Month: August 2019 →Read More »

Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.” -Henry Ford My wife, Nancy, and I took our youngest grandchildren to the Henry Ford museum in Dearborn Michigan recently. It was a great trip and we learned a lot about history and one of the men that made it happen....Continue reading Quote of the Month: July 2019 →Read More »

You cannot fight a battle you don’t think exists.” -John Eldridge Most of us live in peaceful neighborhoods, where gunshots don’t awaken us in the night, but just because we don’t hear the gunshots, doesn’t mean they are not being fired. As I was driving north on College Avenue on Saturday, I was stopped by...Continue reading Quote of the Month: June 2019 →Read More »

I never let my schooling get in the way of getting an education.” -Mark Twain Graduation day is looming for many of our children—a time when we take a nostalgic look back wondering what they’ve learned, hoping they’ve learned enough. But in fact most of what they learn is not taught in the classroom, it...Continue reading Quote of the Month: May 2019 →Read More »

If you’re only going to look for your keys under the street light, you’re never going to find your keys.” -Anonymous Scientists and others refer to this as the “Streetlight effect” which represents a form of bias in searching for answers. It comes from a joke that was published in a Massachusetts newspaper in 1924...Continue reading Quote of the Month: April 2019 →Read More »

When our thoughts are filled with hate against anyone, negro or white, we exist in a living hell that is as real as hell will every be.” -George Washington Carver For all of us who need reminding, George Washington Carver was born a slave in Missouri about 1860 and rose to brilliance and world-wide celebrity...Continue reading Quote of the Month: March 2019 →Read More »

My wife and I were happy for 20 years, then we met each other.” -Rodney Dangerfield The late Rodney Dangerfield was a comedian whose career spanned the 60s, 70s, and 80s. He was a regular on The Tonight Show and had his own New York night club. For a man who built his entire persona...Continue reading Quote of the Month: February 2019 →Read More »

How long will it take? I come to say that however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long because no lie can live forever.” -Martin Luther King Jr., at the Alabama capitol in Montgomery, March 25, 1965 Watch Clarence Moore, Northside New Era Baptist Church recounting King’s speech at St....Continue reading Quote of the Month: January 2019 →Read More »

God bless us, everyone!” -Tiny Tim, in Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” In 1843, Charles Dickens whose last three books had been flops, now had a wife, pregnant with child number five, and a publisher who was threatening to substantially reduce his income. He had to produce another book—and quickly. The first chapter came to...Continue reading Quote of the Month: December 2018 →Read More »

To ignore the facts does not change the facts.” -Andy Rooney ancy quoted some startling statistics about fatherless homes during one of our published Round Table discussions. Today 50 percent of children are born into fatherless homes across the country, and the number is 75 percent in some minority communities. She pointed out the importance...Continue reading Quote of the Month: November 2018 →Read More »

A place where Jews are not safe is a place where no one is safe.” -Bishop Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows Episcopal Diocese of Indianapolis The people streamed in. Traffic on Meridian Street was at a standstill at 5:30 Monday night. Standing room only was augmented by another great room where the proceedings were televised for all to...Continue reading Quote of the Month: October 2018 →Read More »

The only white people that thank Jesus are Republicans and ex-crackheads.” -Michael Che at the Emmys The 70th Primetime Emmy Awards program opened a few days ago from Los Angeles with a slew of political jokes and jabs as expected, but one remark from comedian Michael Che left many viewers wondering why they had tuned...Continue reading Quote of the Month: September 2018 →Read More »

I try real hard not to get between a dog and a fire hydrant.” -Anonymous Public Employee It seems today that we all find ourselves in this difficult place. There is no room for differing views. Families are divided over politics, leading otherwise loving people to attack each other verbally as if they could change...Continue reading Quote of the Month: August 2018 →Read More »

It can’t just be after their child is killed or arrested for a violent crime that somehow their parents care. They have to care before that.” -IMPD Deputy Chief Christopher Bailey A couple of days ago the Indianapolis Police announced that they are tracking a group of 45 teenagers and young adults who have committed...Continue reading Quote of the Month: July 2018 →Read More »

God began to move, as He does… He’s famous for moving.” -David Palmer, Purposeful Design My friend, David Palmer, said these words at our most recent UNITE INDY forum as he described how God moved to help him provide needed jobs for men he had met at Wheeler Mission. But last week this quote appeared...Continue reading Quote of the Month: June 2018 →Read More »

I gave my life to Christ in the County jail, was baptized in that orange jump suit…” -Kurt Moore Kurt Moore is now a successful businessman, but years ago after college he came back to his neighborhood in Indianapolis and decided to make money the easy way. He was arrested and charged with selling drugs...Continue reading Quote of the Month: May 2018 →Read More »

I’m so far past being angry and frustrated. I have to fight my way UP to those feelings. Leaching off family and friends is degrading when I should be, and want to be supporting myself.” -Name Withheld While everyone in Washington is patting themselves on the back, touting the lowest black unemployment in years, there...Continue reading Quote of the Month: April 2018 →Read More »

Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” -Jesus As T. D. Jakes said, “The amazing thing about Easter is that Christ in his dying moments on the cross gives us the greatest illustration of forgiveness possible.” This highest act of love came at the greatest cost to the least deserving of people...Continue reading Quote of the Month: March 2018 →Read More »

“God loves the hell out of us so we can love the hell out of others” -Colts Chaplain Ken Johnson Ken Johnson works to pastor some of the biggest men in Indianapolis. They are big physically and they make big money. As pastor to the Indianapolis Colts football team, he wants them to be big...Continue reading Quote of the Month: February 2018 →Read More »

“We are in a State of EMERGENCY!! 17 BODIES DROPPED IN JANUARY 2018 VERSUS 9 IN JANUARY 2017. Including: A woman shot and pushed from a car Sunday afternoon in the parking lot of an east side store.” -Anthony Beverly Anthony Beverly is a soft-spoken man. You’ll recognize him as the tall guy with three...Continue reading Quote of the Month: January 2018 →Read More »

“The hands of the Almighty are often found at the end of our own arms.” -Anonymous In this deep mid-Winter where cold and want surround, where pantries go without needed volunteers and children cry for absent parents, we find our place. “Send me,” the hymn demands, but the army has yet to materialize. In truth,...Continue reading Quote of the Month: December 2017 →Read More »

“My momma didn’t send me to school to learn. She sent me to school to eat. I watched as people passed on their way to church as I dug through garbage cans for food.” -Kevin Brown Kevin Brown was born to a 15-year old girl and lived in an unheated hovel. His mother would have...Continue reading Quote of the Month: November 2017 →Read More »

“We are not called to sameness. We are called to oneness.” -Jason Petty aka “Propaganda” When I was invited to speak at Q Commons, a Christian think tank event held this month on the subject of “Healing a Divided Nation,” I was blessed to hear the words of Jason Petty. He is a hip-hop artist...Continue reading Quote of the Month: October 2017 →Read More »

“The prevailing methodology of urban ministry is that the very people we are called to serve are required to provide the support for the ones who serve them regardless of the fact that they themselves are in need” -Rev. John Girton Christ Missionary Baptist Church Pastor Girton’s inner-city mission field has challenges similar to those...Continue reading Quote of the Month: September 2017 →Read More »

While you guys up on the Northside in your gated communities are talking, houses are on fire down here.” -Rev. Dr. Darryl Webster Emmanuel Missionary Baptist Church Those words pierced my heart. It wasn’t good enough to just talk about the problems of multi-generational poverty, sky-high unemployment, poor education, drugs, mental health issues and more...Continue reading Jim’s Quote of the Month: August 2017 →Read More »