Ministering to the prisona calling for Royal City pastor

Fourth from right, Pastor Tim Snyder of the Royal City Church of the Nazarene attends a training session of the chaplains of the state prison system.

by Ted Escobar & Royal Register Editor
| July 8, 2015 6:05 AM

ROYAL CITY - Most people around here know Rev. Tim Snyder as the pastor of the Church of the Nazarene with a ful-time job on the side.

But some would be surprised to know he works inside the prison walls at Coyote Ridge in Connell, ministering to those prisoners who ask for his attention.

But before you praise Pastor Snyder too much for this act of Christian decency, you must know that it took him years to work up the courage to go inside those walls.

Prisoners are in there for a reason that is generally not good. In order to serve, Pastor Snyder had to accept the fact the doors would be locked behind him and that he would not be able to get out until let out, even in the case of a riot.

"There is a stress level (even today)," he said. "There could be a time you don't come home."

Pastor Snyder was a devout Christian from early age. He earned his Masters of Divinity from Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City in 1991. He pastored in Wapato that year before coming to Royal in 1996.

But the ministry was not Pastor Snyder's first career choice. He really wanted to be a police officer. At about the same time he took over here, 19 years ago, he also became a police chaplain.

"Jesus Christ opened the doors for me," he said.

As the chaplain for the Royal City Police Department, Pastor Snyder is not needed for every call, but he's summoned for the serious ones, such as car crash deaths or injuries and suicides or suicide attempts.

When Pastor Snyder finally decided to apply for a prison chaplaincy, he sought and got an Ecclesiastical Endorsement and a Police Chaplaincy endorsement from the same seminary where he had studied.

Pastor Snyder started with the state patrol in 2013. He's also the chaplain for the Grant County Sheriff's Department and region 2 of the Washington State Wildlife Department.

Pastor Snyder took on the prison ministry in December of 2009. He works there 10 hours a day, Thursday through Sunday.

"On Sunday I preach here (Royal City) in the mornings and go in in the afternoon," Pastor Snyder said.

The state patrol chaplaincy is similar to the RCPD chaplaincy. He also works with police and patrol officers who are having personal struggles with work-related matters, family matters and the like.

"I'm responsible for the spiritual care of the officers," he said.

That's also the case at Coyote Ridge, including all staff. Added to that is the inmate population. Coyote Ridge is the biggest prison in the state, and there is another chaplain on duty when Pastor Snyder is not.

Spiritual well-being of the prisoners is broadly defined by the government, and Pastor Snyder can't deviate from that. He deals with each prisoner as he wants to be dealt with. He ministers to Muslims as Muslims and Pagans as Pagans. He attends a two-day training each year to learn more.

"I can't talk about God and Jesus Christ unless a prisoner asks," Pastor Snyder said. "I can't talk about my church unless a prisoner asks."

And Pastor Snyder can't preach. His duty is to arrange for other ministers to come in and lead worship services. He even sets up a Native American Pow Wow each year.

Despite the imposed limitations, Pastor Snyder loves the work. He believes spirituality changes people's lives.

"Jesus said: 'If you seek me, you will find me,'" Pastor Snyder said,

If Pastor Snyder is on duty at the prison and a fight breaks out and then escalates to the point that a lockdown is required, Pastor Snyder becomes one of the guards, so to speak, and helps establish control. After it's all over, it's his duty to go to the cell of everyone involved and start calming people.

"That could be 600-700 doors you call on in one day," he said.

Whether or not the prisoners ask about God or Jesus, some of them eventually become Christians.

"Some of them have done great things," Pastor Snyder said. "One who will be getting out soon, plans to become a minister."

"They didn't know it was God leading them when they came to me," he added. "It's really fun to watch God work in someone's life when you shut your mouth and listen."

One thing Pastor Snyder wants the public to be aware of is the myth that prison life is grand. There is nothing grand about it, he said. It is bleak, and you have to live it for long periods of time.

"There is no TV or telephone in every room," he said. "A lot of them have lost everything, their wives, their children."

That may be why the first President George Bush signed a bill in the early 1990s to make chaplains for prisons. It stated that spiritual life was to be afforded to every prisoner who wanted it.

"It makes a big difference in the lives of prisoners and officers (guards)," Pastor Snyder said.