History

Brief History

            
The Heart of Texas Foundation, Inc. received 501(c)3 nonprofit status in December of 2009. From the beginning, the heart of The Heart of Texas Foundation has been to serve others with the heart of Jesus Christ as we share the good news of Christ with the mind of Christ.

In 2010, The Heart of Texas Foundation, through its founder Grove Norwood, invited Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, Texas State Senator and Chair of the Criminal Justice Committee John Whitmire, and Texas Department of Criminal Justice Executive Director Bryan Collier to tour the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola to determine whether offering a Bachelor of Science in Biblical Studies to inmates with extremely long prison sentences through a Bible college in Texas would be a viable endeavor for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. It was determined by this group of leaders that the answer was, “Yes.” Grove suggested, with unanimous approval from this group of leaders, that he move forward with approaching Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary to provide the instruction for the degree funded completely by The Heart of Texas Foundation.

From the earliest days, The Heart of Texas Foundation’s vision for the Texas Field Ministers Program was something far more than a degree offered to men with extremely long prison sentences. That vision was of “sending” graduates to do the work they had been trained to do. But the workers and the work needed a name and a plan. As a result of multiple research interviews carried out by The Heart of Texas Foundation at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, Grove Norwood wrote the document, “Proposal for the Texas Prison Field Ministry Program,” and submitted it to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice on October 26, 2012. The 27-page document consisted of the following 20 chapters:

Chapter 1:    Building a Best Practices Model for Inmate Field Ministry
Chapter 2:    Significance to Texas and The Prisoned States
Chapter 3:    Overview and Baselines
Chapter 4:    From Application to “Certified Field Minister”
Chapter 5:    Preparation for Field Ministry Internship Before Graduation: The Undergraduate Practicum
Chapter 6:    Preparation for Field Ministry Internship After Graduation: The SWBTS “Boot Camp” Summer 
Chapter 7:    Prescriptive Guidelines:  Dos and Don’ts
Chapter 8:    The Field Ministry Internship at a Host Prison
Chapter 9:    Which Prisons? Assignment of Graduates to Field Ministry Prisons
Chapter 10:  The Field Ministry Coordinator 
Chapter 11:  The Field Ministry Advisory Council 
Chapter 12:  The Supervising Field Ministry Chaplain
Chapter 13: The Host Warden in the Field Ministry Program
Chapter 14:  The Field Ministry “Internship” Program 
Chapter 15:  Ministry and Service Opportunity for the Certified Field Ministers After Internship Completed
Chapter 16:  Establish a “Certificate Program” in the Field Ministry Prison for the Certificate Field Minister
Chapter 17:  Supervising Chaplain’s Training
Chapter 18:  Important Questions to be Answered
Chapter 19:  Administrative Forms to Be Developed
Chapter 20:  Ongoing Professional Development: The Chaplain’s Field Ministry Academy

            The Heart of Texas Foundation carefully chose the terms “Field Minister” and “Field Ministry” to identify the heart of this work. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice accepted the Texas Field Ministers Program through the submission of the document including the terms Field Minister and Field Ministry. The document went through three more revisions before submission of the final board-approved version from The Heart of Texas Foundation to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice on August 8, 2013.

            The Texas Department of Criminal Justice accepted the Texas Field Ministers Program in 2014 and created its own policy statements for Field Ministers. Everything was ready for the graduates to be appointed as Field Ministers. Two weeks after the first graduation held on May 11, 2015, the 33 graduates were appointed as the first Field Ministers and transferred to seven prisons in carefully selected teams and locations. The transition from general population inmate to student to Field Minister marks the dedication, planning, and work from the earliest days to now of The Heart of Texas Foundation with state executive and legislative officials, and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice—without any of whom the quality of the Texas Field Ministers Program would not be what it is today.

In the summer of 2021, The Heart of Texas Foundation received permission from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and the Texas Workforce Commission to operate as college in Texas. The Heart of Texas Foundation received approval from the state to do business as The Heart of Texas Foundation College of Ministry.

On August 1, 2021, The Heart of Texas Foundation College of Ministry at the Memorial Unit (Rosharon, TX) began with Juniors, Sophomores, and Freshman, as well as the newly recruited class of 2025 in the application and interview process all under a brand new curriculum pursuant to the Bachelor of Arts in Applied Ministry. And for the first time in history, The Heart of Texas Foundation College of Ministry at the Hobby Unit for women includes the first class of 30 women pursuing the Bachelor of Arts in Applied Ministry. These men and women are being trained to become great readers of Scripture so that they can apply it to their life and ministry, thus becoming upon the completion of the degree, Texas Field Ministers.

We are committed to pursuing the highest level of accreditation recognized by the United States Department of Education because we believe it is the what the Lord is leading us to do and as a way of continued excellence for generations to come. The accreditation is a multi-step, multi-year process.

Our first project:
The Darrington Chapel Restoration

Before

The Darrington Unit Chapel restoration began in early 2011 and was complete in August 2011 so that the first Convocation could be held in the chapel to kick off the Texas Field Ministers Program.

This picture was taken at the beginning stages the chapel renovation. The chapel leaked when it rained, the pews were rotten, the floor was missing tiles, and there were no lights. No one was using the chapel. It had become unusable. The renovation was dependent on private donors because the state could no longer lawfully spend money to restore the chapel.
Once lights were restored, the first step was to remove the rotten pews.

With generous help from the faithful men and women who have served the men at the Darrington Unit for years through Kairos, The Heart of Texas Foundation’s first project was to refurbish the chapel inside the Darrington Unit.

After

Now, the chapel at Darrington is used every day, all day by a robust roster of volunteers, the Darrington chaplain, and the Field Ministers. We are grateful to be able to hold the annual Convocation and Graduation in the beautifully renovated chapel thanks to our donors.

The newly restored chapel was immediately used by the men in the Texas Field Ministers Program when they chapel was newly opened.
Field Minister John Blevins talks with Senator John Whitmire in the chapel as other Field Minsters look on.
Field Ministers Reading Acceleration Center. Field Ministers certified by The Heart of Texas Foundation as Literacy Instructors work with men at Darrington to improve their ability to read.

Vision

“How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed?
And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?
And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
And how are they to preach unless they are sent?“

Romans 10:14-15

Mission of The Heart of Texas Foundation:
The Heart of Texas Foundation College of Ministry takes the gospel of Jesus Christ into the darkest of places in the Texas prison system through our bachelor degree program which educates men and women with long-term prison sentences. Graduates of the Heart of Texas Foundation College of Ministry are allowed to serve their peers as Field Ministers throughout the Texas prison system.


The Heart of Texas Foundation College of Ministry and The Texas Department of Criminal Justice recognize the Bachelor of Arts in Applied Ministry for Men at the Memorial Prison Unit and the for Women at the Hobby Prison Unit as the only degree qualifying the completion of the first step in becoming a Texas Field Minister. 

The Texas Field Minister job opportunity provides men and women who have extremely long prison sentences the opportunity to display a new way of life by faithfully handling responsibilities that flourishing people enjoy to the benefit of themselves and everyone around them, even in the midst of difficult circumstances.

The Heart of Texas Foundation College of Ministry makes a lifelong commitment to men and women who enter the Texas Field Ministers Program and successfully keep their jobs as Field Ministers. There are currently 202 active Field Ministers in 42 locations across the state of Texas.

What Makes Us Different

              What makes The Heart of Texas Foundation College of Ministry different?

What makes The Heart of Texas Foundation College of Ministry unique is our curriculum and our student body and our faculty. Our bold curriculum of 42 courses in the 126-hour Bachelor of Arts in Applied Ministry is a consistent and fierce pursuit of the truth. Our students are men and women with extremely long prison sentences. Our faculty have the highest level of scholarship in the world, but they also have proven ministry experience—they are able to use real-world examples as they teach.

This movement to educate men and women with long-term prison sentences to serve their peers is unique in the history of prisons anywhere in the world.

Senator John Whitmire, Dean of the Texas Senate and Chair of the Criminal Justice Committee shares the uniqueness of the Texas Field Ministers Program.

The Texas Field Ministers Program Consists of Six Key Elements.

        Each of the six key elements described below, together, make the Texas Field Ministers Program unique.

L.E.T.L.A.P. = Lifers,Equipped,Transferred,Live-in,Access,Peer to Peer

● L: Lifers and Long Sentences. Only “lifers” and inmates with extremely long sentences need apply to the Texas Field Ministers Program. We don’t want someone to earn his or her theological training and then leave the prison, when the prison desperately needs the word of God as do the inmates who live in it. We want men and women who will be Texas Field Ministers for the rest of their long sentences. What better option does a lifer have, who wants to build a new life and serve others, than to become a Field Minister while in prison?

●  E:  Education. The Heart of Texas Foundation College of Ministry offers the Bachelor of Arts in Applied Ministry. This degree is the only degree accepted as the qualification of the first step to becoming a Texas Field Minister. The Heart of Texas Foundation College of Ministry entirely funds this education.

●  T:  Transferred. When a man or women with a long prison sentence applies to The Heart of Texas Foundation College of Ministry, he or she goes through a multi-layer, multi-step application process including an interview. Once accepted, each student is transferred to either the Memorial Unit for men or the Hobby Unit for women. Once the students complete the Bachelor of Arts in Applied Ministry, each is allowed to become a Field Minister, appointed by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. He or she is transferred by TDCJ to a prison to begin service as a Field Minister. The new Field Ministers are placed in teams of two or more. With this transfer out, the new Field Minister’s entry into the mission field begins.

●  L:  Live-In. These Field Ministers, whatever their faith, take into their new prisons the education and training poured into them, and they take the gospel of Jesus Christ with them if they are Christians. And, unlike all Wardens, Chaplains, and all volunteers, the Field Ministers don’t “go home at night.” They are home! And they live in that large “village” around the clock, seven days a week. They don’t go on vacation. They don’t go home on the weekend. They live in their mission field, and most will die in that mission field. They are like any other missionaries anywhere in the world: they live with their people, they speak the same language, they dress like their people, and they indeed are culturally identical to their people. But Field Ministers take no furlough.

●  A:  Access.Field Ministers would be like any other inmates if they were not, by special permission, given access to all areas of the prison where inmates live, function, and go. While each Warden carefully monitors his or her own Field Ministers, TDCJ has officially sanctioned and encouraged Wardens to allow the Field Ministers to have access to any housing area a man or woman lives. This is where the “darkest of places” comes into view. The Field Ministers are allowed to have daily, and sometimes hourly, visits to places no volunteers can go. And Field Ministers can usually go to these places at any time of the day and also be called out during late hours of the night. Such areas include restricted housing (familiar to civilians as solitary confinement); inmates on Constant Direct Observation (CDO) for circumstances such as threat of suicide. The Field Ministers have a large impact on inmates who are totally separated from their peers because of their crimes or because they are known gang members. Field Ministers can bring comfort to inmates who are in the medical or hospice units. The Field Ministers are trained in how to preach sermons in the chapels, teach Bible studies, or counsel the grieving and depressed in their cell blocks. Such state-approved access for inmates such as Field Ministers exists nowhere in the United States. 

●  P:  Peer-to-Peer. Inside the culture of all prisons is the overwhelming influence that one inmate has over another. This peer influence is at the core of why prisons contain dark and violent cultures. That culture is usually founded upon intimidation, suspicion, retribution, extortion, violence, and hostility. The most influential inmates control every prison’s culture. And who are the inmates with the most peer influence? Typically it is those who have the longest sentences, the lifers, because they have committed the worst of crimes and have to do the longest time. They are instantly given “respect.” They are the “role models” for all the other inmates. They have the respect and the power. And of those with long sentences, the avowed gang members are the ones who bring fear into the hearts of other inmates. Their influence always sets the culture inside a prison. The prison’s culture is totally invisible to the outside visitor, to the staff, and to the volunteers. It underlies, controls, and directs all relationships inside the prison. It is not a culture of light. It is a culture of darkness. No warden, no chaplain, no volunteer can have the impact that a Field Minister has as a peer.

            Remove any one of these above, and the unique mixture of what makes the Field Ministers so effective is lost. At times, those who have seen the effectiveness of the Texas Field Ministers Program will attempt to replicate it in an “easier” way by reducing the length of the prison sentence requirements, reducing the length or standards of the education, not granting graduates the access they need to serve others, or focusing solely on education without service. Any attempt to reduce any one of the key elements in L.E.T.L.A.P. will not result in the same measure of impact seen in the Texas Field Ministers Program. It simply will not be the same thing. We believe that any attempt to replicate the Texas Field Ministers Program without the gospel of Jesus Christ will lose its impact entirely.

            Something impacted the culture of our prisons when the Texas Field Ministers arrived. The Texas Field Ministers brought new and positive “role-models” as scholar-mentors into the prison system. Inmates are stunned to find out that Field Ministers don’t intimidate; they don’t retaliate, can’t be bought, have markedly different countenances, and live their lives in total contrast to the gaming, deceit, and distrusting culture in the prison. They are not snitches; they are not spies for the warden. The Field Ministers are front-line spiritual responders, positive role-models that are unlike any the inmates have ever seen.[1]They bring into the prison a new kind of peer-influence because of the exemplary lives they live, in full view of every inmate.

[1]Kate Shellnut, “COVID–19 Shutdowns Are Shifting Seminary Education,”Christianity Today, April 23, 2020.

Our Graduates: The Field Ministers

Mission of the Heart of Texas Foundation College of Ministry:
The Heart of Texas Foundation College of Ministry takes the gospel of Jesus Christ into the darkest of places in the Texas prison system through our bachelor degree program which educates men and women with long-term prison sentences. Graduates of the Heart of Texas Foundation College of Ministry are allowed to serve their peers as Field Ministers throughout the Texas prison system.

The Heart of Texas Foundation College of Ministry is an IRS approved 501(c)(3) non-profit Christian undergraduate college which accepts no state, federal, or tax-dollars of any kind from any agency or donor.

The Heart of Texas Foundation College of Ministry actively provides, as a no-cost service provider to TDCJ, the Field Ministers, their ongoing development, integrity, and funding. 

Graduation rate:

Men (Instructional site: Memorial Prison Unit for Men):

Academic YearNumber of Students at OrientationOrientation DateClass ofGraduation DateNumber of GraduatesGraduation RateComments
2021152 
(113 (Transfer and 39 Freshmen)
No graduates in 2021 due to Covid Recovery
2022192 
(113 Transfer students and 79 Freshmen and Sophomores)		No graduates in 2022 due to transfer student population
202338Transfer students, August 20212022December 6, 20233284%The Class of 2022 graduated in 2023 due to the Covid delay. 
202475

(Class of 2023 = 37; 

Class of 2024 = 38)		Transfer students, August 20212023; 2024Class of 2023 graduated July 17, 2024; 

Class of 2024 graduated December 4, 2024		64

(Class of 2023 = 29;

Class of 2025 = 35)		85%

(Class of 2023 = 78%; 

Class of 2025 = 92%)		Two graduations in 2024 as planned for Transfer students
202539August 19, 20212025December 3, 20252667%
As of December 202515212280%TOTAL MEN

Women (Instructional site: Hobby Prison Unit for Women):

Academic YearNumber of Students at OrientationOrientation DateClass ofGraduation DateNumber of GraduatesGraduation RateComments
202534August 20, 20212025December 10, 20252059%Benchmark year
202534August 20, 20252029December 2029––
As of December 2025342059%TOTAL WOMEN

Total graduates with graduation rate:

Academic YearNumber of Students at Orientation Orientation DateClass ofGraduation DateNumber of GraduatesGraduation RateComments
202338Transfer students, August 20212022December 6, 20233284%
202475Transfer stduents, August 20212023, 2024July 17, 2024; December 4, 20246485%
202574August 20, 20212025December 3, 2025 (Men); December 10, 2025 (Women)4662%Benchmark year
As of December 202518614276%TOTAL

Current number of students with rentention rate:

Men (Instructional site: Memorial Prison Unit for Men):

Class of Students at OrientationCurrent StudentsStudent retention rate (%)Comments
2026403078%
2027403383%
2028403075%
2029444295%
As of December 202516413582%TOTAL (Men)

Women (Instructional site: Hobby Prison Unit for Women):

Class of Students at OrientationCurrent StudentsStudent retention rate (%)Comments
2029August 13, 2025
As of December 2025343294%TOTAL (Women)

Total students with retention rate:

Class of Students at OrientationCurrent StudentsStudent retention rate (%)Comments
2026403075%
2027403383%
2028403075%
2029787495%
As of December 202519816784%TOTAL (12/31/25)

The Field Minister Job Description:

What is a Field MinisterDownload

The official Dot Code of a Field Minister:

Field_Minister Job Dot CodeDownload

Field Minister Teams: Where are they now?

Because our graduate has a very long prison sentence, they do not go home. They are allowed to serve as Field Ministers in teams across the state of Texas in every prison in th Texas Department of Criminal Justice. We do not yet have teams in every prison inside of TDCJ, but with every graduation we grow closer to acheiving this goal. The map belwo includes the current locations of more than 55 Field Minister teams in TDCJ’s 100+ prisons.

Field Minister Graduation Photos

The beginning of Field Ministers as graduates from Heart of Texas Foundation College of Ministry occurred with the men’s Class of 2022.

2010-2021 The work of the Heart of Texas Foundation:

The Heart of Texas Foundation, a non-profit organization orginally chartered to serve the rural poor in the name of Jesus, was quickly exposed to the incarcerated men and women in Texas. The work of the Heart of Texas Foundation became completely dedicated to the creation and development of what would come to be known as the Field Minister. The Heart of Texas Foundation fully funded and provided leadership and support to the Field Ministers from their beginning in a meeting in Houston dating back to February 2010 through our growth into the college—the Heart of Texas Foundation College of Ministry. Our work, prior to 2021 was recognzied by Texas Governor Greg Abbott through a Texas Department of Criminal Justice Service Award on April 22, 2022. The picutres below are of all of the Field Ministers prior to our becoming a college, who we served, funded, and supported from 2010-2021. These men are still Field Ministers today though some have been released and several have gone on to be with the Lord.

Donate

(Romans 10:14-15, ESV)

If you would like to donate by check:

Follow these steps:

  1. Write a check payable to Heart of Texas Foundation College of Ministry
  2. On the memo line of the check, indicate any information you would like us to have regarding your donation or simply write “General donation.”
  3. Mail your check to:

Heart of Texas Foundation College of Ministry
P.O. Box 110
Bellville, TX 77418

Your tax-deductible donation is greatly appreciated!

No ministry can move forward without donors, givers, supporters.  Whatever they may be called, they are the ones who actually do the “sending.”  We pray that is you, or will be you, or will be someone you tell of our work of educating men and women with long prison sentences through our Bachelor of Arts in Applied Ministry who will serve as Field Ministers in the darkest of places, as we are called to do.

Our aim is to see that our graduates, Texas Field Ministers, will be generational in their impact.  That is, our work will continue into the next generation.  

We believe that there is every reason to believe that Texas Christians can make sure that every year, without fail, new teams of our graduates—gospel-trained inmate men and women are sent into our huge prison system.  Texas has more churches.  Texas has more Christians.  Texas has the means.  And we know that many Christ-followers in Texas have the vision to do this. Will you join us?

We don’t want to grow bigger, we want to go deeper.

For every 50,000 inmates who leave Texas prisons each year, another 50,000-plus come into Texas prisons. We have the population. We have the proven plan. We have the partners. We have the permissions.  The doors are open to continue on. We know how to do it.

Will you become one of those who helps us send them?

All we need is your consistent help to go generational.

With great hope, and with thanks for you,

Grove Norwood