“God is using FS to transform the culture of our church. People are walking in the fullness of Christ after being set free from sorrows, strongholds and issues that have held them captive for years. I want everyone in our church to go through FS, including me.” |
| Leadership FAQ |
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Please note: These and other more difficult FAQ's are addressed in the last Facilitator Training DVD included in the FS 'Director Kit.' Who is Freedom Session for?Freedom Session is for people who hurt or sense something is missing in their lives. It's for people who've been wounded in their childhood and/or their significant relationships. It's for broken women and emotionally frozen men. It's for victims of sexual abuse and those who are married to alcoholics/addicts. IIt's definitely for those struggling with a alcohol or drug addiction. But it's also for co-dependants and sexual addicts, for those struggling through the pain of divorce, and those who lack purpose and/or motivation in life. It is also helpful for those struggling with homosexuality or same sex attraction and for women who've had abortions. Freedom Session is likely for you! Freedom Session is also equally effective for those without any previous Christian experience and those raised in the church all their lives. Just so you know, I was one of those raised in the church. I knew a lot about God but somehow my experience with God and what I was taught were miles apart. He seemed distant and only seemed to 'show up' in the form of guilt when I'd done something wrong. What I needed was for someone to break up God's word for me in bite size pieces that would apply to some of the pain in my life and the sense of inadequacy I felt. And that is what Freedom Session is all about! Freedom Session seeks to include all the different recovery themes in the same large group teaching format. We firmly believe that the key to a healthy recovery is to deal with the deeper root issues that cause people to seek escape through a "chosen drug of choice." That is why Freedom Session works. I may have chosen alcohol. Perhaps you chose perfectionism, people pleasing or living in a fantasy world of pornography. If we expose the pain and bring it to God for healing, we're much less likely to return to our vices and habits. We were told bringing all the recovery themes into one program wouldn't work - but, frankly, it works better than any other we've heard of. And the track record of our grads speaks for itself. We also seem to end up with more people stepping into other roles of leadership/ministry than becoming "addicted" to the recovery process. I know that might sound critical but that's not my heart. We just want to move people past recovery and into healing. Then, we want them to take their healing experience and new found authenticity and change the DNA of their relationships, homes, churches and communities. What makes Freedom Session Different from traditional 12 Step recovery programs?Traditional 12 Step recovery programs ask you to turn your life and your will over to God 'as you understand him to be'. I personally have attended AA meetings and variations of them. I always struggled with the idea that I could pick any god or that any god would do. 'If there really is a God,' I reasoned shortly after giving up my alcohol, 'surely He would be able to communicate with me in a way I can understand and respond to.' I concluded that I would be much better off seeking and finding the true God rather than making one up. I did find Him and found that He has a name '“ the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's not all. He also knows your name, and has the power to heal your pain and take away your shame. Freedom Session is also quite a bit deeper than most 12 Step programs. Homework is mandatory because without applying what participants learn in their own lives, nothing much will really change for them. Anyone can "audit" the large group teaching part of the evening, but the small group is reserved for those wanting to get well. Another major difference is the Freedom Session teaching in Steps 10 through 12. During these Steps, Freedom Session teaches participants how to deal with current pain (Steps 1-9 deal with past pain), learn how to communicate personally with God, keep a daily inventory journal, break unholy sexual Soul Ties with those they've been intimate with and develop a detailed Relapse Prevention Plan. This plan then becomes a life plan. What makes Freedom Session Different from other Christian 12 Step recovery programs?That is a question we are asked a lot and I need to be careful in my answer. I am grateful for all the Christian recovery programs being used today. Nonetheless, there are some significant differences. First of all, Freedom Session is captured live on DVD which means churches do not have to have someone with a strong teaching gift running the program. All they need is someone who loves hurting people and is honest with their own issues. I have pastored in small and large churches and wanted to make it possible for either to successfully run the program. Secondly, we have attempted to make Freedom Session 'dummy proof.' You know those point and shoot cameras? That is what we've worked towards when we published the Participant's Guides '“ everything the participant needs is there in the book with clear instructions. And for the FS Director, we created the FS Director Kit, giving them everything they need including strategic briefings on every session, PowerPoint, color coded teaching scripts, etc.. Thirdly, the homework has been very carefully and strategically designed to lead, sometimes even force, participants to face the truth about their lives and bring it to Jesus for healing. There are a lot of solid Christian psychology and effective self-counseling tools in the homework sections. People repeatedly tell us the homework (and the program) is deeper than recovery programs they've tried. On the "Intro to FS/Materials Sampler" menu, we given you samples of the teaching via audio, DVD, the Participant's Guides/homework and teaching scripts. We encourage you to compare the various materials available and prayerfully make your own decision. God will show you the program He wants you to run that will work best with the people He sends your way. Whether it's Freedom Session or another program, we're very grateful for your partnership in bringing hope to the broken. What a Typical Freedom Session Looks Like?Freedom Session looks slightly different in every unique setting but there are three essential elements that need to occur. These are:
For an overview of what the Freedom Session year looks like, visit the Intro to Freedom Session page Can people use the Freedom Session materials on their own?Yes. As of September 2009, we are offering "Freedom Session on DVD" to all at a very reasonable price. However, participants will benefit much more if they attend an existing Freedom Session program or invite a few friends to join them in their journey. We have repeatedly found that the healing journey requires us to be in community with like-minded people. God never intended us to do life on our own. Besides, doing life on our own is what caused most of our lives to become 'broken' in the first place. People in our church think Christian Recovery is for drug addicts and alcoholics. What can we do to break down the stereo typing?Our best suggestion is to ask one or two staff persons or church leaders to serve as facilitators each year. Then begin inviting people you know are going through relational pain. This problem will go away after the first two years because 'non drug addicts and non alcoholics' who attend your church will begin hearing stories and seeing changes in the Freedom Session grads that they wish they saw in their own lives and relationships. Another suggestion is to make your FS grad a really big deal. Suggestions for grad are included in the FS Director Kit. How long is Freedom Session? What is my commitment? What is the commitment of a participant?The 2009 version of Freedom Session consists of 27 'sessions' that run between 2 and 2 ½ hours long. There are also 5 optional evenings called 'Going Deeper' that can take place on another night or be strategically placed in your FS calendar. Your commitment as a FS Director or Facilitator is for all 27 weeks or one complete ministry year. For participants, we find it helpful to only ask for an initial 9 week commitment (Participant's Guide 1). Most people, especially hurting people, don't like making 27 week commitments. Then, near the end of the first book, we invite them to make another 9 week commitment (Participant's Guide 2). Here is what we typically find, supposing you start with 40 participants. During the first 9 weeks (Participant's Guide 1), you will grow 20% (to 48) and then back down to your original number (40). During the second 9 weeks (Participant's Guide 2) you will grow in depth but shrink 20% (8) in numbers down to around 32. You will lose about 5% (2) on the transition to Participant's Guide 3, down to 30 and most of these will finish off the program. Your first year, you will likely have about 24 of the 30 remaining graduate. If you start with 20, 60 or 100, you will experience the same trend.
After you run FS a couple of years, you will do a bit better but the trend will continue. But remember, even those who quit after the 1st 9 weeks will have grown. Success or failure is more about your faithfulness than the numbers. Some sow the seed, some water and some harvest. God causes the growth and the healing. My interested group is small? How many do I need to have before Freedom Session can work in my setting?We started our recovery ministry with 22 participants and 4 facilitators. You can start with even less than that if you run it as a small group. The smallest number we suggest, however, is one facilitator and three participants. You can still choose either the live teaching or DVD option. With the public release of Freedom Session in 2009, we anticipate more people trying it on their own or in pairs. Ultimately, we have developed the program and made it available. God will need to determine how He and those interested see fit to best use it. What is the ideal Freedom Session size?I'm not sure we've ever come up with an ideal ministry size. The smallest FS ministry we've heard of was three women (all graduated by the way). The largest we know started out with about 220. I'm not sure large or small really matters that much. One advantage a large ministry has is that is seems more "normative to go." One advantage of a smaller ministry is intimacy. Graduation percentages are roughly the same in large or small ministries, perhaps a bit higher in the small. When thinking through how large to anticipate your FS ministry to be, a lot depends on the size of your church. For churches under 150, we suggest running FS in a gender specific support group format. If you have interest from both men and women, you can run two groups or watch the DVDs together and then break into gender specific small groups for discussion. One cell based church we know of, simply identified 4 "cells" or small groups that were dealing with difficult issues to meet together and watch the Freedom Session DVDs. They didn't even train their facilitators and somehow it worked for them. Remember, you need to adapt Freedom Session to meet your needs, not do it the way we found it to work. Freedom Session is the tool, not the rule. God will guide you and help you make those decisions. If your church is 150 '“ 500, we suggest you advertise it well and count on starting with 30-40 participants. In churches larger than 500 that can afford to assign a staff member as Director, you can likely count on starting with 40-60 your first year and then growing closer to 100 within three years. I'm interested but not sure. Is there any way to try it out?Sure. Visit out Materials Sampler page on this web site. Of you'd like to order any materials, you can order directly on line using your credit card. The very best way to try out FS is to have your pastor email us for a special Pastor Promo Code that will allow him/her to purchase "FS on DVD" along with "FS Director Kit" and receive 9 additional Participant's Guide 1 books free. In this way, you can run a 9 week pilot project through Participant's Guide 1. If it works for you, you've just trained a handful of facilitators and you can open it up to others by starting over again with Session 01. This is how many groups start. So far, we're not aware of any groups who've tried a FS pilot project that haven't gone ahead and completed at least one complete Freedom Session season. If you don't like the program or it doesn't address the types of issues you are faced with, you've really spent very little and lost nothing. Even working through the first 9 sessions will help you and those in the pilot project deal with pain in a healthier way. If you're wanting a less expensive "test drive," purchase the smaller "FS Starter Kit" that comes with a Participant's Guide and the teaching DVDs for the first 9 sessions only. Visit the "Purchase Materials" page for details. How do we create healthy small groups? What issues can go together?If Freedom Session is to be run publicly (i.e. in a church setting) we recommend you start with at least 2 men's groups and 2 women's groups if possible. This would assume you are anticipating 20-30 participants. You can come up with better group names if you like but I would suggest these themes:
Note: I know some disagree with me, but I generally put those with food addictions with the H2H groups as food addiction is more of an emotional comfort addiction verses an actual chemical addiction or the more hormonal/adrenal addictions associated with gambling and sexual addiction. As your ministry grows, you will be able to sub-divide the groups. At the same time, I would caution you against thinking it is essential that people with the same 'drug of choice' need to be together. We have found people groups made up of participants in the same life stage (age, maturity & marital status) is more critical.
Note: we have typically placed gamblers with the chemical or sexually addicted. Gambling often mirrors the 'adrenaline high' experienced by those caught in sexual addiction but there is also a good measure of drinking/drugs associated with gambling. How large is a small group?We have found that the ideal number is 6-8. We used to start groups with 4 and add to them as more people registered. However, in the last few years we have encouraged larger "start up" groups and the Facilitator and Assistant Facilitator model. This means we attempt to create a group of 6-8 participants plus two facilitators. We usually choose the more experienced as the main facilitator and the other as the assistant. During small group time they will often sub-divide into two groups for more intimate discussion. If these sub-divided groups remain consistent, and if the group grows, you can always officially split them into two groups without much trouble. On the other hand, if the group loses a few, you will still have a viable and healthy group. If one facilitator is sick or away, you don't have to worry about a substitute. Make sure you ask the main facilitator to give leadership opportunities to their assistant as part of a mentoring process. And make sure the two facilitators get along and don't have a sense of competition between the two. What do you do when participants drop out?You let them but first you encourage them to keep the commitment they made to complete the book they are on. Some will; some won't. Jesus repeatedly invited people to follow Him but He didn't go after them or let it throw Him off His mission when they choose to leave or reject His teaching. Of course He continued to love and pray for them but He focussed the majority of His efforts on those willing to learn and receive from Him. This is a good model to follow. Realize that you will have the greatest attrition in the chemical dependency groups. Don't let this discourage you or your facilitators. These men & women typically have all the other issues represented at Freedom Session plus a drug or alcohol addiction. It is possible to lose up to 50% of a chemically dependant group in the first few weeks. If they have been part of traditional 12 Step recovery groups, they may not be used to the expectations and commitments of those who take Freedom Session. Some are also very offended that we don't label alcoholism or addiction as diseases. You also may lose members from other groups but don't let that bother you. Many of these will return the next year after they see the changes in those they started out with. We suggest you invite all who dropped out to your year end grad. FYI: One year when I led a chemical dependency group, it grew from 6 to 11, then down to 4 and eventually 2. In the end, I had only one graduate and I think I am a pretty good facilitator. The good news, however, is that three of them still keep in contact with each other. The one grad I did have saw his marriage restored and spent a couple of years facilitating. The other guy who stuck it through to the end eventually moved out of his common law relationship, married the girl he was living with and Freedom Session has now been started at his church. You just never know! This is why you must define your success based upon being faithful and not your numbers. Other years I have led groups that start with 6, grow to 10 and graduate 8. In years like that I need to be careful not to become proud or think it's because of me. You just never know! You will soon realize that Christian recovery is one of the toughest ministries in the church but it is also one of the most critical. Churches cannot continue to invite people to 'ask Christ into their lives' without showing them how to ask Christ also into their pain/woundedness. By being involved in Freedom Session, you are helping to set captives free, bring sight to the blind and healing to the broken hearted. Your rewards will be at grad and in heaven. What do you with participants who relapse?That is a tough question because there are many forms and degrees of relapse. I'm assuming this question deals with chemical, sexual, gambling or food addictions. A lesson we learned from Mike Conner at the Dream Center in LA is that relapse is part of the recovery process. It's going to happen. When it does, there are always consequences we can't protect the participant from but we can offer a 'grace card' and a community in which he/she can pick up and keep walking if they so desire. At this point, we try to mobilize the group to rally around that person and help him/her maintain the next week of sobriety from their chosen drug of choice. However, we never let participants in relapse attend Freedom Session while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Nor do we perpetually allow those struggling in sexual addiction to continue their rituals and habits. There are changes people can and have to make. If a participant has repeatedly relapsed and is abusing the grace offered him/her, we sometimes let their small group decide whether or not they are allowed back in. Sometimes the answer is no, especially if they've "burned too many bridges." At that point, we may ask another group to consider taking the participant in after the participant explains to them why he/she was asked to leave the other. This is our way of trying to help participants take responsibility for their lives and relapses while at the same time attempting to create a culture where relapse does not make one a failure or disqualify them from continuing their journey. Though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again. (Proverbs 24:16) Of course, each situation is different and needs to be discerned on an individual basis. Then, there are times we must remove a group member whose actions or attitude threatens the healing of the others or the security of the group. Consulting your pastoral staff for wisdom in situations like this is highly recommended. Do not become trapped in the idea that you are responsible for everyone's freedom and healing. That is God's role. Your's is to be faithful in showing broken people the path on which you found healing and walking with them as they bring their pain/addictions and wounds to Jesus. If people don't want to walk down that path, Jesus gives them the freedom to turn around and so must we. If/when this happens, let them know they are always loved and welcome to come back/start up again after they've hit their 'bottom.' When is the best time to start a Freedom Session?Freedom Session can be started at any time throughout the year but most groups start in September and ruin through May. Churches running a dual entry often start another session in January (completing Participant's Guides 1 & 2 before summer and Participant's Guide 3 in the fall). Churches that host a Christmas evangelistic outreach have found including Freedom Session on the commitment card (if used) to be very effective. If someone is hurting deeply, offering only Alpha is not always enough. We find when people meet Christ in their pain, they are often willing to invite Him to be leader of their lives as well. What happens after Freedom Session is over?This question kept coming up so we finally developed and published 'the Next 90 Days' which is an optional Freedom Session workbook that helps grads or ex-participants walk in their healing by applying the tools they learned while in Freedom Session. But the real answer to what happens when Freedom Session is over is witnessed when those who take the freedom journey seriously, continue to walk in healing and start sharing their 'God stories' with others. Many of these end up as facilitators for a year or two but it is not our intent to make people dependant on this program. We are just as thrilled when we hear of FS grads becoming small group leaders, children's and youth ministry workers, deacons or elders in their churches. In the latter stages of the program, we tell the participants that the goal of Freedom Session is not recovery but healing. To you, we say that the goal extends even beyond healing. Ultimately, we are attempting to train up a Christ following culture that has dealt with their pain, experienced forgiveness and freedom from their guilt/shame and are embracing their calling in life as Christ representatives on earth. Where can I buy Freedom Session Materials?Currently, you can purchase Freedom Session materials on line with a credit card or via an email order if you have established credit with Freedom Session Resources. We will ship your materials direct to whatever address you give us. If you are purchasing from the US, you will be purchasing in Canadian funds and your credit card will take care of the exchange rate. How much does Freedom Session cost?Please visit the "Purchase Materials" menu for our current retail pricing. If you have a FS Username and Password combination (on your most recent invoice), you can use it to log in and visit the wholesale "shopping cart." Are there discounts for larger quantities of Freedom Session resources?You'll be surprised at our answer. There are actually no quantity discounts but we do offer wholesale pricing to those ministries who've purchased the FS Director Kit. We've pastored in a small church and a large church and frankly, the small church that orders 10 participant's guides at a time needs the wholesale price as much or more than the large one ordering 100. Hint: If you are purchasing for the first time and are planning on ordering the FS Director Kit, purchase it on your first order with FS on DVD. Wait until you receive your first invoice and Username/password combination to order your Participant's Guides so you get the wholesale price. The Freedom Session on DVD kit is already discounted as much as possible so you need not wait to order it. In fact, it is the first resource most people order. What ages does Freedom Session work with? What about youth?The youngest we recommend taking Freedom Session is age 18 or just finished high school. The oldest grad we've had was 84. She also accepted Christ during the program and was baptized. The youngest grad we had was 17 who was attending our interns program/school in our church. We had prayerfully considered writing and publishing a FS Youth Edition but that is currently on hold. Does Freedom Session work for depression and mental illness?Yes and no. Here is our belief and experience: If one's depression is caused by a chemical imbalance, then divine healing is the only cure and prescription medication is the only treatment. In this case, we have no challenge with medical treatment. If however, one's depression is caused by trauma, relational breakdown, self esteem, poor life choices or other psychological reason, Freedom Session has seen tremendous results. Medical treatment, at best in our opinion, should be considered a temporary approach. Keep in mind that anyone who is depressed will have a chemical imbalance '“ our emotions are a product of chemical reactions/stimuli in the brain. The key question is which came first. I know this is not politically correct to say, but we get tired of seeing people accept a clinical depression diagnosis and settle for a life of drug therapy while the real issues that caused the depression are left undealt with. While we are not opposed to medication, we have seen many people reduce or even eliminate the medication they have been taking for years. Of course we encourage participants to consult with their doctors before making any adjustments to their medication dosage. We've also had medical doctors and psychologists refer people to Freedom Session. With mental illness, we believe there is authentic mental illness. There also appears to be inauthentic mental illness that people hide behind as an excuse for not taking responsibility for their lives. We don't feel we are qualified to make that call which is why we recommend (when we are personally leading a FS ministry, we require it) that those diagnosed with a mental illness receive permission from the psychologist or psychiatrist before registering in Freedom Session. An individual with authentic mental illness will likely not be able to engage the material and homework requirements and may do much better with individual counseling. The same is sometimes true of people who've had brain injuries or other trauma affecting the mental faculties. Please note: These and other more difficult FAQ's are addressed in the last Facilitator Training DVD included in the FS 'Director Kit.' |