Mission Makers
A Birmingham native, Gerrel Jones experienced a tumultuous childhood. His mother was 15 years old when he was born, and his biological father was a drug addict. “My mother didn’t want to marry my biological father so she married a soldier thinking it would bring security,” Jones shares. The marriage caused Jones to become part of a military family often moving around the world. He was diagnosed as legally blind at the age of seven. Once he received glasses, he academically excelled in school, but his home life was difficult. “By the time I was 17, my mother was the first person to put a gun to my head,” Jones shares, adding, “I hated my parents.”
After graduating high school in Germany, he returned to the Birmingham area and became involved in criminality. “In 1987, I got hooked on crack cocaine and committed armed robbery,” he says, adding, “I went to prison until I was released in 1990 and was worse off than when I went to prison.” Jones committed homicide in 1992 in Pratt City, turned himself in, and received a life sentence. Jones also had a spiritual experience. “The god that I grew up with in my family was not the God I would discover,” Jones says, adding that he witnessed hypocrisy in the church growing up. “I had a life sentence in prison, so I decided to study religion.” As he began to study the Scriptures, God revealed Himself to Jones and his life changed. As he got to know Jesus personally, Jones started to mentor fellow prisoners. “I settled into prison, but my idea was to change the prison around me,” he says. One prisoner he mentored was named Eric. “I walked him through the Scriptures, and he broke down and cried,” Jones shares. Jones was introduced to Eric’s family during a family day. Eric’s brother, Doug, felt called to help Jones get released from prison. “I had just been denied parole for the fifth time and was like that’s probably not going to happen,” Jones says, adding, “Doug’s family lawyer was a former state senator. I don’t know what happened in the background, but I was released in 2012. I knew it was a miracle.”
Once he was released, he started looking for a job. Jones shares it wasn’t easy considering he was in prison for 20 years. He met Micah Andrews, CEO of The Foundry Ministries, and started working at ministry’s warehouse. He worked there until he was recruited for a job with the Birmingham Violence Reduction Initiative. “This job opened up the doors to people in the nonprofit world,” Jones says. Jones felt called to contribute to the Ensley community where he was living and developed the Ensley Renaissance Festival which is an annual community outreach event. “I continued establishing my footprint in putting the neighbor back in neighborhood by working with the Build UP school in Birmingham and Blight Free Birmingham.” Jones was introduced to Richard E. Simmons, III of The Center for Executive Leadership who “shared that he felt he heard God say we need to do something for the poor in Birmingham, but he wasn’t sure where to begin,” Jones says. He told Simmons III about the outreach he was doing in the city and was offered a position at Renew Birmingham and became the Executive Director on July 1, 2022. Renew Birmingham focuses on “empowering residents in five key areas.” The areas are housing, adult education and workforce development, job opportunities and transportation, youth education programs, and community health and wellness. To learn more about Renew Birmingham, visit www.renewbham.org. As Jones looks back on his life and where he is today, he can only describe the journey as “revelatory and prophetic. I should not have survived the pistols and shotguns that were pointed at me. I should not have survived the prison life sentence. I should not be out here. It’s miraculous.”
-Melissa Armstrong
