Men who spend 23 hours a day in prison cells, and are considered to be the most violent inmates, came together last week to be baptized. 

Gateway Church, in Dallas, TX, opened a church campus at Coffield Prison, in Anderson County, TX, in November 2018. Since that time the prison church has seen incredible growth.

"They knew that this decision meant, to some of them, certain death"

Niles Holsinger is one of the pastors that work at the Coffield campus. He said in a video this week that they were able to recently do something "that no church has ever been able to do in the history of this prison, and that is water baptize men from what's called Administrative Segregation."

'AdSeg,' as it's known as, is extreme isolation. Men in AdSeg are allowed out of their small cells for only one hour a day into a slightly larger cell, according to Holsinger. "These guys cannot be around other people, they cannot be around friends, they cannot be around family."

Holsinger says that the prison warden asked church staff members if they would baptize five men from AdSeg who had made a decision to follow Jesus.

The men were brought into the prison gymnasium, with shackled feet, hands, and around their waist. The men are considered so dangerous that the guards would not let go of the men until they were placed into the baptismal tank and then guards remained on each side.

Rival gang members, now marked for death

The men were placed at opposite ends of the gym from one another as some were from rival gangs. Holsinger says guards were worried about violence breaking out. But Holsinger points out these men from rival gangs made a declaration to all follow the same Jesus. For those men, that decision is one that could cost them their lives. That's because the only way to leave the gangs is by death.

"They knew that this decision meant, to some of them, certain death. That they walked out past men, who when they were walking back, soaking wet, dripping wet because of the decision they made - they knew that these men they were walking past were going to mark them for death."

It was as if there was an instant transformation, Holsinger says. "They walked out together in a line, guards not holding on to their arms anymore, because God had done something in their lives."