He calls the program New Life Ministries.

In it, ex-offenders come to the church for a backpack of materials to help them in their new life out of the jail system. But they stay to learn more about their Savior and the new life they have through him.

"It isn't about the old," says Ron Whittaker, coordinator of the program at Risen Savior, Milwaukee. "You have a new life in Christ. You have a new foundation."

He continues, "I don't talk about prison because I want them to forget that. That's part of their past. Throw that away. This is about being a new man of God."

Ron—born and raised in Detroit, Mich.—can talk from experience. "I come from the streets of hard knocks. I got into trouble too. That was just a way of life."

But he also knows about redemption and having a new life through Jesus. "I know today that nothing's possible—I couldn't accomplish anything—without the love of my Savior," he says.

Although Ron was raised in a church-going family, he struggled in his understanding of the Word as he grew up. "I was raised in an African Methodist Episcopal Church, where at the service we went down to the basement and smoked cigarettes in the church," he says. "I thought that I knew the Bible backwards and forwards. Yeah, I read it, but did I understand it? No."

When he was 21, he began searching for a new church because he wanted to grow in his faith. He tried Catholic and Baptist. He even went to see a televangelist faith healer. He says, "I found out that wasn't real. I thought, There are so many people out here playing with religion, playing with God. God sees all of that."

When Ron attended the Apostolic Way, a sanctified church, he says he thought he had found the truth—even when the pastor told him he needed to be baptized again. This time Ron had to be completely submerged and come out of the water speaking in tongues.

Ron's best friend went first. When he came out speaking in tongues, Ron was flabbergasted. "I looked and said 'Holy moly. I gotta get me some of that right away. I'm ready, Lord,' " says Ron. "So I got in the water and came up, and I looked around, and I ain't speaking in tongues. I ain't nothing. You know what the preacher told me? I hadn't surrendered enough. It was something I hadn't done. I didn't do it right."

The pastor had Ron come back the next day to pray. For three straight days, Ron prayed at the church for hours, but nothing happened. Finally he had enough. "I thought, I am going to be part of this church. I want to. They seem to be all right. I spoke and said 'afjadslkfjasl.'  They looked at me and said, 'You're not speaking in tongues.' Right there I knew that wasn't the place for me."