Proclaiming Freedom to the Captives
Let me tell you how a new evangelistic ministry is reaching the lost in our community!
First a Bit of History
A middle-aged friend of mine, Wynn Freeman, who came to Christ as a young man in the back seat of a squad car after he was arrested for drug possession, had made me think deeply about the need to reach drug and alcohol addicts with the gospel of Christ.1 My pastor, Dr. John Monroe, and I met to discuss the possibility of starting some sort of addiction ministry in our church. We even discussed the possibility of asking a former BJU student of mine, Larry Pierson, to head up such a ministry in our church, should God lead us in that direction. Before moving to Greenville, he and his wife, Charlene, had spent the bulk of their adult lives working with those enslaved to life-dominating sins.
What started as a casual conversation with Pastor Monroe about ministry to addicts accelerated very quickly into reality when I witnessed to a twenty-eight-year-old man who was helping me with some work on my house. He readily testified that he had come to Christ as a young boy but had drifted far from God and was now addicted to crack and marijuana. He had been through various recovery programs but had never been able to stay clean for long. My new friend told me that he had been praying that God would send someone his way to help him. I offered to meet with him daily that summer, and he began attending church with Patty and me.
Since most addicts have friends who also want to be delivered, it was not long before we had several of his friends seated with us in church—and our journey to beginning an addiction ministry began. Soon there were too many to meet with individually, so Patty and I began meeting with them as a group on Friday nights.
We picked them up in our minivan because many had had their driver’s licenses suspended. They helped us set up the tables in a Sunday school room. I taught a lesson, and we broke up into two groups. My wife, Patty, took the women; I took the men. Afterwards we ate snacks my wife had prepared. They helped us tear down the room, and we drove them home.
Phone calls throughout the week and additional private times with some of them filled our weeks that summer of 2010. They were like newborn infants—hungry, puzzling to us, and sometimes messy. But as the lost ones came to Christ and the saved ones surrendered to Him and both submitted to His Word, they were growing! Others, not willing to pay the price of discipleship, dropped out— some to return later when they hit bottom again, but others never to be seen again.
Within weeks our group grew to twenty-five as church members brought struggling relatives and coworkers, and a formal ministry, Freedom That Lasts™, was born. I wrote several iterations of a curriculum before it was ready to be published by BJUPress. Larry and Charlene helped Patty and me put together a Friday night program that included times of singing, testimony, small-group accountability, teaching, and celebration of progress.
Two-and-a-half years later, we minister to an average of one hundred students2 every Friday night, and God has enabled us to begin helping other churches begin their own Freedom That Lasts™ chapters.3
What Have We Learned
The Gospel Is the Answer—We have been reminded once again in a most powerful way that “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature” (2 Cor. 5:17)! The transforming power of the gospel is wondrous to behold! Let me give you just one example.
David (not his real name) was tall, handsome, winsome, generously tattooed—and lost. David’s care group leader, a seminary student at BJU, led him to Christ. His testimony of salvation the next Friday night electrified the meeting!
Several weeks later when he was baptized, David testified to our entire church of how he had been reading through Luke’s Gospel and had come to the crucifixion portion. David said he had been just like the two thieves who initially mocked Jesus, but now he was like the believing thief and one day he would be with the Lord in paradise. As David spoke, a young lady, who had been attending FTL but had refused to come to Christ, texted her care group leader in the service and said, “I want what David has.” After the service she, too, was born again.
Others have come to Christ, and many who have been wayward children have returned to Christ. Both groups have seen God do amazing things in their lives as they have submitted themselves to God.
Communities Are Anxious for Help—When our students canvass a neighborhood with flyers for Freedom That Lasts™, almost everyone is positive and thanks them for their concern.
Every home in our communities is touched by addiction. Someone in that home or someone they know and care about is addicted to a substance (drugs, alcohol, tobacco) or a destructive behavior (gambling, cutting, eating disorders, pornography, etc.). Our church’s neighborhood contacts are welcomed—not resented—because we are meeting a need that everyone feels.
It is very likely that addiction ministries are the twentyfirst century equivalent to the bus ministries of the past few decades.4 Furthermore, instead of reaching the children first and rarely seeing adults come to Christ, as is often the case with a bus ministry, an addiction ministry brings the adults to Christ, and the children come naturally.
Our People Are Engaged—Ministering to dozens of people every week has mobilized many of our church members as care group leaders, food service personnel (we feed all one hundred every Friday night at the end of the meeting), and transportation providers, since many addicts don’t have driver’s licenses. Others man the registration table, keep records, and run the book table.
The commitment level is demanding, but the rewards are well worth the effort. Our care group leaders have led students to Christ, gone to court with them, helped them pass their driver’s license test, helped them find jobs and transported them to and from work, counseled them about their finances, and provided temporary housing for still others.
None of our workers expected to have to give themselves to this level when they started, but their lives began to take on an apostolic flavor because as Paul, they “were willing to have imparted unto [them], not the gospel of God only, but also [their] own souls, because [these students] were dear unto [them]” (1 Thess. 2:8).
Saints are actually answering Jesus’ call to discipleship: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23). The lost come to Christ, the saints are built up, and most of all, our dear Savior is honored because He is seen as the glorious One who “died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again” (2 Cor. 5:15).
We remind our students every Friday night, “Jesus Christ is the only source of freedom that lasts.” He is a wonderful Savior—and those imprisoned in sin need to hear of His work on their behalf. Only He can set captives free!
Jim Berg is a seminary professor at Bob Jones University, executive director of Freedom That Lasts™, executive director of Rebuilders (a ministry to hurting ministry couples), and director of Faith Counseling Institute, a counselor training ministry of Faith Baptist Church in Taylors, South Carolina (www.fbctaylors.org).
(Originally published in FrontLine • March/April 2013. Click here to subscribe to the magazine.)
- Technically, alcohol is a drug, but most laymen see them as different substances. [↩]
- Everyone who attends—including the workers—is a student because we all need to learn more of Christ. [↩]
- You can find out more at www.FreedomThatLasts.com. [↩]
- This is not denigrating bus ministries when properly done. Our church has one, and we are thankful for its impact upon many children in our neighborhoods. [↩]