The sinking feeling Christopher Hendrix experienced when he heard the judge deliver a sentence of 74 years for multiple armed robberies is a feeling he will never forget. However, he didn’t let that moment, or the acts that led to that sentence, define him.
Through what can only be described as God’s mercy and intervention, Hendrix was released after serving 12 years of his sentence and today serves as Executive Chaplain of Oklahoma Jail and Prison Ministries, where he passionately shares the message of God’s love with those incarcerated throughout the state.
“I go to about seven prisons or so in the states, and more often than not, I will see someone that knows me from being in prison with them. They will always tell me, ‘Man, every time you come in here it gives me hope and lets me know that, hey, this can be done. And it lets me know that God is actually real,’” Hendrix said. “I’ve seen it spark a hope in people, and I let people know all the time that I’m no more special than anyone else is to God. God loves us all and God is not a God that shows partiality. And, so, I just go and I minister to them the hope of Jesus Christ.”
Listen to the full podcast interview here.
Reality check leads Hendrix back to Jesus
“As I’m standing in the courtroom before this judge, and I hear the sentence of 74 years, automatically, in my mind, the first thing I thought was I was just given a life sentence, and there’s no coming back from this,” Hendrix recalled. “How will I be redeemed from what has just happened? And I’ll be honest with you, it was one of the loneliest feelings that I’ve ever felt in my life.”
Hendrix grew up hearing of God’s love for him. His father was a pastor, and his mother and grandparents were missionaries. But a series of bad decisions took his focus off what he had been taught about Scripture and God’s love for him. A string of bad decisions began with theft from a store and escalated.
“Even when I would fall short, get in trouble, all those different things, (his parents) would come again and again,” Hendrix said. “But of course it hurt them because I was not raised that way.”
He recalls the first phone call he made to his mother, three days after his incarceration. She spoke life-giving words that he clings to still today.
“In the process of her showing compassion she says ‘I know that you have the knowledge of God and I know that you know how you was raised… but as your mother, I’m going to tell you in this moment of trouble in your life, don’t make any kind of promises to God that you don’t expect to keep.’”
Education plays major role in determining Hendrix’s fate
While in prison, Hendrix received a scholarship and earned his college degree. He began studying law books and taking a fresh look at the facts in his case. As he did, he pieced together a legal brief that eventually would lead to his freedom.
“When I first opened the law books, I mean, I’m not a lawyer. I didn’t understand much,” Hendrix said. “It was reading a foreign language to me. So, when something would stick out, I would copy it down on a piece of notebook paper. I had pieces of paper everywhere with all kinds of notes on them.”
As he sat in his prison cell, amidst the scattered notes, God spoke to his heart.
“One day I laid my hand on the papers, and I prayed, and I told God ‘I’m not no lawyer. You’re going to have to help me with this’ and it’s as if I would be writing and He would say ‘Hey, that not you got right there, put it right here and this not you got right there, put it right here, until a whole brief was formed.”
The facts that ultimately freed Hendrix were there from the beginning of his prison sentence, but God allowed him to walk through the fire and be redeemed behind prison walls.
“Looking back on it, the reason I know it was a God thing is because the thing that I wrote in the brief that freed me in Year 12 would’ve freed me in Year One,” Hendrix said. “But God didn’t allow me to see it in Year One because I wasn’t ready in Year One.”
God had big plans
Hendrix credits chaplains with Oklahoma Jail and Prison Ministry for bringing him to the Lord, so he was more than eager to accept the call when the ministry offered him the role of juvenile chaplain upon his release from prison. From there, he climbed the ranks to his current role as executive chaplain of the ministry.
In a state that has roughly 34,000 people incarcerated in prisons and jails, it’s a big job, but Hendrix and his staff joyfully and dutifully share the light and hope of Jesus Christ with those desperate to hear His Word.
In April 2025 alone, the ministry counseled 1,121 people, had 60 professions of faith, 17 rededications, distributed 50 Bibles and completed 128 Bible lessons. In 34 years of ministry OJPM has counseled 577,177 people, witnessed 98,767 professions of faith and 36,358 rededications, distributed 236,833 Bibles and completed 922,659 Bible lessons.
“It’s so amazing what God does because you can never put God in a box,” Hendrix said. “In a correction facility, you’re going to encounter people from all walks of life. Most of the time they come from broken homes, whether it’s people who were in the custody of the state, didn’t know their parents, dealt with addiction, homelessness.” Hendrix said, adding that his message is one many have never heard.
“Jesus Christ is the answer regardless,” he said. “The moment you see the light come on and they realize that Jesus is actually the answer and there is a God that loves them and died for them and the life that may seem unimportant to people is important to God, is a special moment.”
Learn more about Oklahoma Jail and Prison Ministries at ojpm.org.