The GMA Dove Awards are adding something new this year, and the first honoree is a ministry most of us will never see up close. God Behind Bars has been named the inaugural recipient of the Community Impact Award for Peace & Purpose, presented by Jesus Calling. The award will be handed out Tuesday, October 6, at the 57th Annual GMA Dove Awards at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

God Behind Bars exists to bring Jesus to people who are incarcerated and to their families. Roughly 1.2 million people sit in American prisons on any given day, and many of them have never had a church that came looking for them. This ministry goes looking. It has planted 87 satellite church campuses inside prisons by partnering with local congregations, so the same Sunday service you might attend on the outside is happening behind the walls too. Its Pando app also puts sermons and worship music on more than 670,000 inmate tablets, free and available around the clock.

CEO Jake Bodine summed up the heart of the work in one sentence I keep reading over: “There is no wall thick enough, there’s no razor wire high enough, and there’s no past dark enough that keeps the love of Jesus out.”

The Gospel Music Association created this award to honor organizations doing faith-driven work beyond the music industry. Jesus Calling, the devotional by the late Sarah Young that has sold more than 50 million copies, is presenting it. Emmy winner Julie Chen Moonves will hand it over, and she shared that “prison ministries have always held a special place in my heart,” because they bring the promises of Jesus “to people who often feel hopeless.”

I appreciate the GMA for using one of its biggest nights to point at a group of people the world would rather forget. A lot of us have a son or a cousin who has been inside, and we know how easy it is for them to believe God is finished with them. Ministries like this one tell them otherwise. Redemption does not stop at the prison gate, and it never has.

The Dove Awards will be hosted by Tauren Wells for the fourth year in a row. If you can’t be in Nashville, TBN will air the show Friday, October 9, at 7:30 p.m. and 10 p.m. Eastern, with a rebroadcast on October 16. Congratulations to God Behind Bars. Heaven has been celebrating this work for a long time, and now the rest of us get to join in.