Bethlehem Baptist Church History and Background of The Prison Ministry Program

In order to understand more about Bethlehem Baptist Church and their Prison Outreach Program, we reached out to Deacon Vanessa Brown with a list of specific questions. We felt that these questions covered anything we could possibly have wanted to know about the history of the church and program itself. Having this perspective and knowledge gave us even more confidence in our ability to capture exactly what foundation these two were founded upon and what influenced their creation.  Initially we had reached out to gain access to tangible evidence and documents related to our research from the church, however scheduling conflicts allowed for us to only be able to conduct an interview over email. When asked about the general history of the Church, Deacon Brown provided us with a multitude of impactful moments throughout its 135 year long history. After finding its roots in Spring House, Pennsylvania the church has endured a series of hardships including multiple “mysterious” fires in 1905 and again in 1907, and an unresolved bombing of its chapel in 1964. Thankfully, no injuries were reported from any of these attacks, but all cases remain open as no investigation has been conducted by local authorities into their causes. Deacon Brown also provided us with the history of Bethlehem’s prison outreach program, beginning under Rev. Leonard Smalls in 1956. Smalls used his own credibility as a respected community leader to create “a liaison between Bethlehem and the prison administrations in Montgomery County for the purpose of rehabilitating inmates towards spiritual renewal and restorations of their faith and societal standing.” Others have since stepped into Small’s role and continue his mission even despite the recent pushback from prison administrations during the Covid Pandemic. This Program, like most everything in 2019, was hampered by new restrictions including: the elimination(s) of distributing religious material, exchanging personal information, and bringing bibles inside prisons in order to prevent the virus’ spread. Quarantine periods effectively canceled in person visitations and forced the Bethlehem ministry to begin virtual bible lessons rather than their in person visitations, which were not as effective. Even after the pandemic ended, some restrictions such as bringing physical copies of bibles inside prisons are still in place. However the lifted quarantine restrictions allowed the ministry to resume its in person bible studies once again. Currently, Bethlehem ministers provide bible study to inmates at State Correctional Institute Phoenix every third Sunday afternoon.