The Rev. Lowell Ivey has been appointed to serve as the Metanoia Prison Ministries Director for Mission to North America.

Ivey served over 15 years in prison for armed robbery, where he was set free by the gospel of Jesus Christ. After his release in 2009, he was welcomed into the fellowship of a small Presbyterian church in Longview, Texas. There he met his wife, Mae, whom he married in 2011. He attended Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary with the dream of serving in full-time prison ministry as an ordained minister. After graduating from seminary in 2015, he served a yearlong internship and felt the Lord was calling him into pastoral ministry. He has served as pastor of Reformation Presbyterian Church in Virginia Beach, Virginia, for over seven years.

Brent Andersen, president of the Metanoia Prison Ministries board of directors, expressed his enthusiasm for Ivey’s appointment: “On behalf of the Metanoia Board of Directors and staff, we look forward with eager anticipation to what God will accomplish at Metanoia through Lowell Ivey. We believe Lowell is uniquely qualified to provide the seamless leadership Metanoia will require, and that he will be able to build on and add to the great work that God did though Mark Casson, in Mark’s long tenure in leading Metanoia. We are grateful for Lowell’s obedience in answering God’s calling, and we are prayerfully hopeful that through Lowell’s leadership, many more incarcerated men and women will hear the good news of the gospel and that through God’s Spirit, many will come to know Christ as Savior and Lord.”

MNA Coordinator Irwyn L. Ince, Jr., “Lowell has many years of experience in leading prison ministries. I am excited about the love, grace, and mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ [that] Lowell and his team will share with men and women in the prison population who need the gospel and mentoring to grow in Christ.”

Ivey will begin his position as director of Metanoia Prison Ministries effective January 1, 2024.