You can do this!
If unable to find a suitable Freedom Session that meets in your area, we’re here to help you start your own Freedom Session small group in your home, a room in your church or even online.
To start a small group, you need three things: Community (participants), Teaching Videos and Workbooks.
Creating Community is up to you. You choose the people with whom you want to share the experience. You choose the time, date and place that works for you.
Our updated Teaching Videos do much of the work for you. We’ve recently added instructional segments that coach you through the entire session, including the small group experience and discussion. It’s like having one of our team members in your group. As of August 2022, FOUNDATIONS I&II teaching videos are FREE to access so there is no better time to start a small group than now.
The Freedom Session workbooks tie the whole experience together and keep everyone moving forward. During the teaching, participants follow along in their workbooks and work through the Small Group Reflection questions. During the week, group members complete their homework assignment after watching a Mid-Week Mentor video.
Create a Welcome Enviroment
You can host your Freedom Session Small Group in your home, in your church and even online – whichever works best for you. Each has its advantages. Church environments are less intimidating if participants don’t know each other. Homes can feel safer and more personal for those who do know each other. If you have a friend who has a more suitable home and would like to take the journey, you can share some of the tasks.
Your primary responsibility is to invite participants, create a safe and welcoming environment, provide refreshments (optional) and keep participants on track for the small group discussion. The relationships that develop in Freedom Session small groups often last for years.
WHICHEVER ENVIRONMENT YOU CHOOSE, YOU NO LONGER HAVE TO WAIT FOR A LOCAL CHURCH TO LAUNCH FREEDOM SESSION TO EXPERIENCE THE HEALING JESUS PROMISES.
Gender Specific
Freedom Session Small Groups are gender specific, typically three to nine participants including the host. Simply stated, men and women consistently share deeper and feel safer discussing personal issues within their own gender.
Men, in particular, are hungry for an environment in which they can have real conversations (with a couple of trusted brothers) that make a difference in their lives. Freedom Session gives them the opportunity and a process to make it happen. Women are usually comfortable with deep, personal discussion and appreciate the intention focus of Freedom Session questions.
During the Small Group Experience, you will often be asked to further break down into Triads for more meaningful discussion so try to form your Small Group in multiples of three, including yourself.
Mixed-gender groups (including couples) can meet in a larger home, enjoy the teaching together and then separate for gender specific small group discussion.
MARRIED & PRE-MARRIED
Married couples can easily take Freedom Session together; we encourage it! But we still ask that you invite two other couples to take the journey with you, watch the videos together and split into men and women triads for Small Group discussion. Couples can discuss their homework questions with each other during the week if they like. Sometimes, especially when there is tension in a marriage, a husband or wife might want to share things with other men/women they are not yet ready to discuss with their spouse. Just so you know, there is a point near the end of Freedom Session Foundations where greater disclosure is recommended.
Freedom Session is excellent for those considering marriage or re-marriage and is recommended by counselors. Many marriage tensions are influenced, even caused by hurtful or past experiences that can be processed and resolved in the Freedom journey. Couples learn excellent personal/relational skills to begin their marriage right. One couple’s experience: “Freedom Session saved our marriage before it started.”
Online Groups
Online groups make Freedom Session possible for participants who travel for work or for friends who live in different locations to form a small group. Many people are now video conference savvy. In this model, you can watch the teaching videos via “screen share” or each watch the teaching separately and video conference for the small group discussion.
MULTIPLE GROUPS
Some churches run an entire Freedom Session ministry in small groups, up to 40 groups at a time. The Covid-19 pandemic motivated churches to reconsider a decentralized discipleship model and Freedom Session fulfills that need with excellent content that inspired real life change. Freedom Session is what healthy churches offer after the sermon.