You've been preaching through the responsibilities of a Christian and invariably you devote a sermon on the Great Commission. You challenge your people to begin reaching out to their neighbors and they begin to respond. One of them, let's call her Stacy, invites her recently separated neighbor named Kim to your church. By now you're preaching through the book of Joshua and, as engaging as the messages are, you can only go apply the main points so far in 30-40 minutes. Besides, you have to speak to everyone in the congregation and not everyone is facing divorce at the moment. "Joshua" doesn't even mention divorce or come close to addressing how to face one. Kim sits and cries through most of your messages. You connect her to a small group that is currently studying the book of Acts. A few weeks later you hear from the group leader that she is just too much for them to handle. She's too needy and tends to feed off the attention and sympathy of group members. It turns out this is her second marriage gone sour. Unfortunately, there is more. Kim grew up in an abusive home, an abusive "Christian" home. You hear she's fairly controlling. Stacy, the friend that invited Kim on your bidding wants you to help her. What do you do?

Counseling? For sure. Perhaps you have a staff member available to help her. Maybe you can even meet with her a few times yourself. Or you can refer her to a local Christian counselor and perhaps your church can absorb the first four sessions. You can send her to a "Boundaries" course or a larger church that offers ministry to singles. Hopefully she makes out okay. You did your part, and you did! I'm with you. I've been there myself.

But what if others in your congregation start inviting people with hurts in their lives as well. What if you're preaching through Galatians and one of these comes to the altar one Sunday morning asking to be set free from his closet alcoholism. Even worse, an addiction to crack cocaine. A young couple is invited to your church who are living together - the woman doesn't want to get married because the man is too heavily involved in pornography and illicit chat lines.

Father's Day has come and gone and you thought your message on the Fatherhood of God went over well. It did, except for a few recent "guests" who were routinely raped by their fathers. Finally, with all the new people in your church talking about some of these darker issues, you've accidentally begun to expose some of these same behaviors and issues in some of your "old faithfuls."  If this began to happen in your church, what would you do? Perhaps you're facing this already. What are you doing?

And, then, what if God began really answering your prayers for the lost to find Christ and, in the middle of all the pain beginning to surface, the church begins to grow by 50%, many of whom are being attracted to a church that actually deals with the issues they are facing?

The problem is that none of these scenarios are "what if's." They are "what when's" for any church that is going to reach out to the lost or even become authentic with the "found."  Pornography is running rampant in your church. Some of your leaders are trapped in it. Gambling has become a national sport for our young adults (and older). They are walking into addictions they can't tell anyone about because of the shame of money lost. Wives are secretly curling up in fantasy romance novels while their husbands close down their hearts by pouring themselves into their careers. We know how many kids have grown up in single parent homes. We've all heard the unfathomable sexual abuse statistics which means you also likely have those in your midst who've been the perpetrators.  Then add the recent rise in homosexual behavior acceptance as "normal" in our societies and church attendees. What do we offer when the sermons we deliver on Sunday mornings are no longer enough?

If you're a pastor in a church that reaches out to lost people, then you know that, today, "the harvest is broken." The people we lead to Christ are broken, wounded and often bleeding from the heart. Typical discipleship and new members 101 classes don't cut it with many who are new to the Christian faith. This is where Freedom Session finds its niche. One pastor calls Freedom Session "Alpha for the broken." Truth is, Freedom Session is a very effective means of evangelism. The name is inviting and speaks of hope. It's less threatening than coming to "church" for hurting, lost people, yet, if these people are loved, most of them will show up in your pews/chairs within 10 weeks of joining Freedom Session.

And by the way, if you're a pastor whose church is not facing any of these issues, then you need Freedom Session more than anyone. It will either expose these issues that are brewing beneath the surface in many church members' lives, or it will force you to begin reaching out, because broken people are looking for Christ centered programs like this because the secular renditions of recovery are powerless to produce any true measure of healing and freedom. If you don't believe me, just try advertising Freedom Session in your local newspaper.

Freedom Session, particularly Participant's Guide 03 (Sessions 20-27), is also the beginnings of basic discipleship for any new or even "old" believer. One pastor took his entire leadership and most of the church he'd planted a few years earlier through Freedom Session. It has changed his ministry significantly.

When we started recovery ministry back in 2001, it was simply because we couldn't handle the counseling needs of the hurting people God began to bring into our midst. The "what if" scenarios I listed above?  We faced them all. Our church faced them all. We started with 22 participants and within eight years were ministering to between ~ 180 and 220 Freedom Session participants every week. Other churches have risen up and joined us in the battle for the lost and healing for their souls/lives.  I'm hoping you might do the same whether or not you choose Freedom Session to help you.

We have attempted to make Freedom Session as inexpensive, as transferable and user friendly as we know how. If you can identify with any of what you've seen and heard on this web-site and would like to pursue starting Freedom Session in your setting, please contact us.

If you are a pastor and would like to run a 9 week "FS Pilot Project" with 6 people, we have created a special "FS Starter 6 Kit" that you can test for a reasonable investment and save $47.00.  This kit includes Teaching DVD Album 1 (Sessions 00-09) and 6 copies of Participant's Guide 1.

Or, if you have already perused our sampler materials and are fairly certain FS will meet your needs, we encourage you to seriously consider the special "Pastor Promo Package" that saves you $195 and includes:

• "FS on DVD"
• the FS "Director Kit"
• 10x Participant's Guide 1 workbooks
• 1x Participan'ts Guide 2 and 3 workbooks
• a Wholesale Username/password combination for purchasing additional Partcipant's Guides.