It is 6:48 a.m., on Sept. 17, 2025, and I am sitting at a desk looking through barred windows with a now warm cup of coffee to my right. The morning’s glory has not yet awakened the day, but my Spirit is already overjoyed, because I have had the opportunity to wake early and read the article written by one of Chimes religion reporters, Joe Toly, from Sept. 15, 2025: What is church? There are two reasons for my joy. The first is that while I am on the Handlon Campus, I am granted access to receive the Chimes student newspaper, and the second is the subject of the church.

Furthermore, being a carceral learner on the Handlon Campus, I have been taught by Dr. Todd Cioffi. Toly was also a student who attended an Honors course with Calvin Prison Initiative (CPI) students on the Handlon Campus, where discussions of morals, ethics and commitments were woven into discussions involving politics, social justice and community building. These class discussions helped to bridge the generational gap existing between the two campuses. The “Inside Out” course offered by Calvin is such a great experience, serving the dual purposes of allowing a younger generation of learners to extend their experience to help socialize their fellow students in a very unique atmosphere, and allowing a more seasoned learner to articulate experience from diverse social lenses. This particular Honors 280 Course was documented in the Sept. 23, 2024 Chimes — the article is called Flippin’ the Script. At the core of these discussions was the church’s role in these affairs. Because Calvin includes the School of Graduate and Continuing Studies, alongside CPI, I am in a position to help bridge a social gap, with the church being the catalyst.

Being an incarcerated learner, I recognize some unique challenges of how to define what church is. Toly has already done his due diligence by noting the difference between church and church-like, which creates space for me to add to the conversation from a view where all denominations — excluding Catholic services — are drawn together under the umbrella of Protestantism. In other words, on the Handlon Campus, the primary Christian service houses numerous denominations in one church service. How does this affect the definition of church? I would suggest that it defines the church in more robust detail. Take, for instance, how our church body is shaped by individual creeds, confessions of faith or even some confirmation biases. We are asked to examine scripture through a lens of grace as a means of becoming fitly framed together, hoping to become one unified body — every piece to God’s puzzle trying to find its place. The struggle is when only a Methodist, or only a Presbyterian, or only a Baptist or even only a Hyper-Pentecostal framework is used as the blueprint for liturgy. This results in ideological contentions that require navigation.

However, when every denomination finds its space under the umbrella and cooperates to accomplish what it is formed to do, by extension of the Holy Spirit — similar to the perichoretic union of the Godhead — the church is a good witness to a secular world. Whereas the conversation on the Knollcrest campus is to define what church is to incoming students, on the Handlon campus, our Protestant leadership similarly hopes to equip the newly incarcerated with similar information. Yet, much of this activity is done through church-like activities, like Bible studies, that are performed in a crowded day room — despite the fact that there can be anywhere up to 60 other inmates congregating in the same space to play card games, dominoes or chess. Additionally, fellowshipping through meals prepared and shared in the same crowded space is an act of the church. One constant theme emerges in all of our actions: community. 

So, what is church? I define it as the very Word and Spirit of God being proclaimed and displayed to a secular world — in Irenaeus’s language, “the two hands of God” reaching beyond demarcations, drawing a community of believers unto God. As a matter of fact, I like the use of the term “home” used by Cioffi when asked where to go to church, because my home is not my location. Rather, it is found in my community — a community that I pray will be expanded. Does this mean that we always get along? I say no — we do not always get along with those in our community, or agree over certain positions of a particular denomination’s views. However, we should learn how to display grace. Ultimately, it is perfect timing for such a conversation to be had. I was recently asked to show grace to an individual, and I pushed back against this idea —  in fact, I called it cheap grace. And here, as the coffee has long run its course, and the sun has raised the curtain, I can see what church is — the space of hope and grace.