Off The Chain Ministries
Daryl Townsend lives in Middleburg, Florida, just south of Jacksonville. A lifelong member of the church of Christ and affiliated with the congregation in Middleburg for over 20 years, he has been teaching and preaching in Florida Prisons since 2004. He began doing prison ministry full time in December of 2005 and is currently being supported by about seven congregations of the Lord’s church. Daryl works primarily in prisons in the NE Florida area, including the Florida State Prison at Raiford, particularly the Reception and Medical Center, Union Correctional Institution in Lake Butler, Baker Correctional Institution in Sanderson and the Lawtey Correctional Institution, the state’s only men’s faith and character-based prison, which is located near Starke. Daryl teaches classes, conducts worship services, does individual and group Bible studies and performs individual and group counseling, developing close relationships with inmates who desire to change their lives through Christ. He has baptized between 30 and 60 men per year since 2005. Daryl and his wife, Missy, own two transition houses. They have been married for 34 years and have three adult children.
Daryl Townsend is a graduate of the University of Florida. After a career in the dairy industry for 20 years he has devoted himself to full time evangelism in the Florida Prison System. For the last 10 years he has been preaching, conducting Bible Studies, teaching Christ based 12 Step Programs, Re-Entry Programs and doing individual inmate counseling daily at several prisons in North East Florida. Most of his activities are conducted at RMC Main Unit and Lawtey CI. He is the president of Off the Chain Ministries, Inc. a not for profit 501 (c) (3) Florida Corporation designed to help support work with men in prison and released from prison. He has been operating a transition program to assist men leaving prison since 2006.
