CEO Bio

Ian Carlisle

Ian Carlisle is the founder, CEO, and lead chaplain for Ambassadors of Reconciliation Ministries, or ARM, a ministry dedicated to carrying the gospel of Jesus Christ to inmates of the Butte County Jail and their families.  He left a position of leadership in private industry to train for the ministry, earning his M.Div. from Fuller Theological Seminary.  He was the senior pastor of the Richvale Evangelical Free Church for six years, and since 2007, he’s been leading inmates in the Butte County Jail to Christ and helping them and their families grow in their faith.  He served on the Butte County Sheriff’s Community Impact Mentoring Steering Committee, a program designed to pair ankle bracelet releasees with mentors from the community who can help them succeed in their transition from jail to productive life.  He mentored the first releasee assigned to the program for several years.  That program was later cut when the county employee supervising the program retired, leaving ARM’s CJM program as the only inmate mentoring program in Butte County.

In 2012, Chaplain Carlisle and the ARM board members brought the ministry into legal existence as a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation.

Chaplain Carlisle and his wife, Roxanne, currently live in Oroville, just three miles from the Butte County Jail.