Alumni Profile: Steve Christianson ('98)

Many of Regent Law's 2,500+ alumni are presently working in human rights law or are involved in agencies and organizations dedicated to rescuing the enslaved, trafficked, and oppressed. We hope you enjoy reading the following alumni profiles which represent a small portion of our many alumni literally changing the world.

Steve Christenson '98

After earning his JD from Regent Law, Steve's legal practice in criminal defense and juvenile and domestic relations took him into the jails, detention homes and city projects. He soon found himself ministering to his clients, who were very receptive to spiritual matters.

Within a few years, Steve realized that the Lord was calling him to the ministry, not in the local church, but in the local jail, as a chaplain. He became a chaplain at the Virginia Beach Correctional Center with Good News Jail & Prison Ministry in 2002, and in 2003 became the Senior Chaplain.

"The Lord used my work as a defense attorney to prepare me for the jail ministry," he says. "My clients were so open to spiritual matters that I was shocked. I could see that these people were looking for something, and were willing to listen to their legal counselor, who in my case, became their spiritual counselor."

"We can't help inmates escape the consequences of their actions," he says, "but we can give them hope."

Good News Jail & Prison Ministry mobilizes spiritually mature, equipped, and motivated Christian chaplains to serve in correctional facilities nationally and internationally, and works to meet the spiritual needs of both inmates and staff through ministry that includes evangelism, discipleship, and pastoral attention, while facilitating other religious faiths within the guidelines established by law and the individual correctional facility.

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