Life in Prison

Scott later returned to Ohio University to complete his master’s degree. During that time, he met Maureen, and the two were married in 2001. He continued to work as a sports therapist with sports teams for 12 years, managed physical therapy clinics, and eventually went into medical sales.

Through the years, Scott began to sense a longing for something different, something focused on caring for the soul.

Out of the blue, he received a call that a position in children’s ministry had opened up at his home church, Grace CMA Church in Middleburg Heights, Ohio.

“Seventeen years into my career, I made a switch,” Scott said. He started taking online Bible classes and eventually moved from children’s ministry to men’s ministry. Six years later, he began to hear a new call.

In 2019, Scott asked Mike Swiger from True Freedom Ministries to speak at a men’s conference. Mike was a good friend and former inmate who ran a ministry to incarcerated men. Afterwards, Scott couldn’t stop thinking about reaching inmates with the life-saving message of Jesus Christ through a unique, prison-based church.

COVID-19 put that vision on hold, but behind the scenes God’s plan was still moving hearts. Mike called Scott a year and half later with extraordinary news. “He said, ‘Scott, you're not going to believe this,” Scott recalled, “but Jennifer Gillece Black, the warden at Lorain Correctional Institution, wants to have your church plant a campus inside her prison.’”

What made the development even more amazing to Scott is that “You could see that prison from my bedroom window in the house that I grew up in,” he said.

Though Scott initially believed God would call someone else to lead this outreach, Scott’s pastor and others who knew him well believed he was the perfect person for the job. Brian Dahlen, host of Moody Radio Cleveland’s Mornings with Brian, brings Scott on his program regularly as a guest. Brian wasn’t surprised at the votes of confidence Scott received.

“Scott Lessing is a deeply humble man who loves Jesus passionately,” Brian said. “God is using him in an incredible way at Lorain Correctional, and lives are being transformed. He ministers to people that society has written off and discarded. He’s a model of what it means to be a follower of Jesus.”

Scott and his team of 40 volunteers from Grace CMA Church have a dedicated office at Lorain Correctional, located in Grafton, Ohio. They serve at the facility nearly every day for church services, Bible studies, group sessions, and times of prayer with the inmates.

In a prison that houses 300 long-term sentence inmates as well as 900 parole violators who spend an average of nine months in the facility, the nature of building relationships varies between the two populations.

“We have 17 different programs. Fifteen of them are going on at the prison, and we have two programs that go on outside the prison,” Scott said.

Sundays are set aside to work with a small group of inmates who are growing and maturing in their walk with Christ. “DMD (Disciples Making Disciples) started before we even had our first church service,” Scott recalled. “It started with about five guys, and now we have 26 guys in that group.”

Those 26 men represent a staggering total of 500 years of prison sentences. “But,” Scott noted, “all of those men love Jesus fervently, and they are truly transformed from the inside out.”

Mondays at Lorain Correctional feature two church services. On Tuesdays, inmates can attend a morning character development class or an evening Bible study.

Wednesday’s options include Alpha, sessions focused on men who are just being introduced to the basics of the Christian faith, or a group called Rooted, the next phase of studies for men who complete the Alpha sessions.

Thursdays offer a release and re-entry program that addresses housing and jobs needs, two of the major reasons that men commit crimes and end up back in jail. On Fridays the church runs a Christian substance abuse recovery group called Galvanize.

The team from Grace Church also ministers to two other prison populations largely ignored and despised by society: the men in the mental health block and the men in segregation in the highest level of security, a place called “The Hole.”

“Four of us go down and we pray with every single person in those cells that only get an hour of release time a day,” Scott explained. “Their doors are locked. It's a steel door with a glass window, so you can't really hear them. You have to put your ear up to the crack in the door, and you talk through that crack.”

This simple gesture of prayer breaks through to even the hardest of hearts.

“I’ll say, ‘Hey, I'm Pastor Scott, I'm here to pray with you.’ A lot of those guys will jump out of their bed and come running up to the door,” Scott said. “They're so grateful that we came to talk to them and to pray with them.

Sometimes, they're really broken and they're crying. We pray healing over them. “Other times they want us to pray for their families. Some guys have a question about the Bible, so we have our Bibles ready to answer questions if we can.”

Outside the prison, Grace Church offers help and support for female family members, girlfriends, and wives of inmates. “One of our team members will call them and walk alongside them,” Scott said. “And all of the people on that team—their husbands were formerly incarcerated, so they know what it's like.”

Serving a unique community in such an intense environment can be wonderfully fulfilling. It can also be stealthily draining. Moody Radio, especially Cleveland’s WCRF station, continues to be a source of encouragement for Scott more than 30 years after he came to trust Christ while listening to a Moody Radio program.

“Moody Radio still plays a huge part in my life,” he said. “I listen almost every morning to Brian, and I listen throughout the week. JD Greer and others are really impactful for me.” Scott has been a guest on Moody Radio Cleveland’s morning show several times, even co-hosting with morning host Brian Dahlen.

In March, Scott and his team worked alongside Moody Radio’s Walk Worthy men’s conference crew to bring the event experience inside the walls of Lorain Correctional. “We live-streamed into the prison,” Scott said. “We had 100 guys sitting in our chapel listening and watching, and they just wept. They were so moved.”

Brian Dahlen was host of Walk Worthy that day. “The day of the conference, we made an intentional effort to ensure the speakers at Walk Worthy knew the men at LCI were listening and watching,” Brian said. “Both Ed Stetzer and Dr. Jobe (speakers at Walk Worthy) specifically mentioned the men at LCI during their messages. The entire Moody team wanted to ensure that the men felt welcomed and loved.”

One of Moody Radio Cleveland’s listeners reached out directly to Scott to see how she could help with the event.

“She ended up paying for all of the men joining us from inside Lorain Correctional to get a Chick-fil-A lunch just like the other conference attendees,” Brian said.

One of the inmates who watched the livestream is Muslim. “I spoke with him for an hour and a half over lunch. I ate in the chow hall with him. We talked about Jesus, and he's moved because of what happened that day with Moody Radio.”

Scott Lessing continues to be astonished at how God has used Moody Radio, the vision of LCI’s warden, and the prison ministry team of Grace Church to reach the men of Lorain Correctional with the love of Christ.

“It's all for the glory of God. It's all for the sake of Jesus,” Scott said. “The only credit we can take is that Jesus saved us and encouraged us to go and make disciples.”