{"id":42791,"date":"2013-08-01T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-08-01T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/pastor-starts-village-for-sex-offenders\/"},"modified":"2013-08-01T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-08-01T11:00:00","slug":"pastor-starts-village-for-sex-offenders","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/pastor-starts-village-for-sex-offenders\/","title":{"rendered":"Pastor Starts a Village for Sex Offenders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Miracle Village in Florida is populated with an unusual demographic. Half of its population are registered sex offenders. Under Florida&#39;s state law sex offenders can&#39;t live close to schools, day care centers, parks, or playgrounds. And in some places swimming pools, bus stops, and libraries are out of bounds too. The effect has been to push sex offenders out of densely populated areas.<\/p>\n\n<p>So, the late pastor Dick Witherow began the unusual community of Miracle Village (the name was changed to Restoration Destination in 2024) with a vision of providing a haven for people usually shunned by society (and the church). Convicts with a history of violence or diagnosed pedophilia can&#39;t join.<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>The BBC comments: This is a Christian community dedicated to helping sex offenders rebuild their lives, but non-Christians are accepted, and everyone is welcomed at church. There are anger management and bible study classes. And, as a condition of their probation, most of the sex offenders attend psychological treatment programs. Some of the offenders have jobs in local towns.<\/p>\n<p>\n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[4461,4541,4546,4782,4825,4896,4957,4961],"tax_ctp_topics":[395,399],"class_list":["post-42791","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-mercy-of-god","tax_ctp_tags-new-life","tax_ctp_tags-news-that-illustrates","tax_ctp_tags-redemption","tax_ctp_tags-restoration","tax_ctp_tags-second-chance","tax_ctp_tags-sexual-abuse","tax_ctp_tags-sexual-sin"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pastor Starts a Village for Sex Offenders - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/pastor-starts-village-for-sex-offenders\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pastor Starts a Village for Sex Offenders - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Miracle Village in Florida is populated with an unusual demographic. 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