A homeless drug addict who broke into Church of Arkansas and vandalized $100,000 worth of property was baptized at the same congregation seven months later – all because the staff and church members showed grace and got him much-needed help.
Brenton Winn, 23, was detained in February after breaking into Central Baptist Church of Conway, Ark., and destroying $100,000 in church belongings. Winn threw the soundboard over the worship center balcony. He destroyed computers used for the church. He set part of the family life center on fire. At the time, the church’s senior pastor, Chandler, told KTHV it was “about as wrecked of vandalism as you could picture out.”
Winn, who was homeless and on drugs, faced multiple charges and seemed fated for years behind bars.
But Chandler, while meeting with the public prosecutor, chose to extend grace, according to Baptist Press. Don Chandler desired Brenton Winn to get saved.
“You can’t preach something for how many years without doing it, especially in front of your whole people,” Chandler told Baptist Press. “Had we not shown some grace and mercy to him, everything we’ve preached about and encouraged to people, would have gone by the roadside. It was certainly the right thing to do. He was not a tough criminal. He was a young man who had made some mistakes in his life. He was high on drugs and alcohol when he did what he did. But he was redeemable.”
The judge gave Winn a choice: Face up to 20 years in jail or voluntarily enter a 13-month rehab and recovery program run by a Christian-based ministry, Renewal Ranch. Winn chose the latter, Baptist Press reported.
Winn had been doing methamphetamines and other drugs, off and on, since age 13.
“Before I knew it, I had a complete drug addiction,” Winn told Baptist Press. “From the time I was 17 until a few months ago, my life was nothing but chaos, disorder, brokenness, and suicide attempts.”
Winn accepted Christ at one of the Renewal Ranch Bible studies. In August – seven months after his crime – he was baptized at Central Baptist Church, the same congregation he tried to destroy.
“As I’m starting to appreciate how God works, I’ve realized I didn’t pick the church that night. God chose me,” Winn told Baptist Press. “If it had been to another church, I think I’d be sitting in prison right now.”
He added, “I think it was a chance [that I pick to break into the Church of Arkansas that night], but now I call it validation that God is true and real to his promises, and He answers prayers. What was weighing on my heart was that I needed a relationship with Jesus Christ.”
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Thank you Christian Headlines and Michael Foust for sharing this.
