The Chosen watch parties causing ripple effect in prisons

Multiple ministries are coming together to offer watch parties of The Chosen in prisons across America. 

Heather Rice-Minus, president and CEO of Prison Fellowship along with the Come and See Foundation are giving inmates access to a show about the life of Jesus Christ, The Chosen. 

"The Come and See Foundation really wanted to expand their audience to reach everyone with the authentic Jesus from the palace to prison, if you will," says Rice-Minus. "And, so, we said, 'Well, we would love to help with that.'"

For prisons with chaplains and ministry programs, the Prison Fellowship is helping set up screenings and make the TV series available on Floodlight, a streaming service set up by the prisons during COVID. Rice-Minus shares firsthand the effects the show has already had on prisoners. 

"We’ve just been seeing such amazing transformation in the men as a result of the opportunity to see the authentic Jesus. And not only that, to see the people he chose — many lost, the least, and really being able to resonate with the disciples that Jesus chose to be part of the greatest awakening the world’s ever known — and I think they really resonate with that in the position that they’re in."

Even though recently director Dallas Jenkins shared how the streaming service is being delayed, that isn't the case inside the prison. 

"I look to Hebrews 13, which is ‘remember those in prison as if you were there with them,'" says Rice-Minus. "That’s our call … to know that Jesus came for everyone and he especially, as so brilliantly demonstrated in The Chosen series, he especially came for the least and the lost."