Living Free Update

October 5-8, 2008
Cohutta Springs Conference Center
Crandall, Georgia

Our theme this year for the Living Free International Training Conference is Transformed into His Likeness, with an emphasis on the transforming power of Jesus Christ. Our theme verse, spoken by Paul, is II Corinthians 3:18: “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit”.

In this year’s conference, we will have a number of breakout groups addressing pertinent subjects that small group leaders encounter. This will be great at the Cohutta Conference Center, because we will be family and have the time to build relationships with people from different cities, states or even countries.

Our presenters include:

• Dr. Don Finto – Nashville, Tennessee
Don Finto became Senior Pastor of Belmont Church in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1971 during the height of the “Jesus Movement”. His own personal encounter with the Holy Spirit had already brought significant changes in his life. These changes enabled him to be a leader and challenge many of the young people who were turning to Jesus during that time, including some of the early contemporary Christian artists and Jewish young people.

In 1996 Don founded “The Caleb Company” (www.calebcompany.com), and since leaving the pastorate in 1997, Don has given most of his time to this vision and its practical expressions. His Regal-published book (2001), “Your People Shall Be My People”, with accompanying Teacher's and Student's Guides in several translations, has opened doors of ministry around the world.

Don has a unique understanding of life-controlling problems and the need for transformation and discipleship in people’s lives. He has tremendous insight about this addictive culture in which we live and has the ability to teach people how to minister to those with life-controlling problems.

The seeds of the ministry of Living Free stem from the time that Dr. Lee spent in Nashville under the tutelage of Don and his ministry.

• Pastor Andres Bunch - El Pacto Ministries, Bogotá, Colombia
Pastor Bunch, formerly a practicing attorney in Bogotá, has pastored the El Pacto Church for fifteen years. Seventy percent of his congregation is made up of rehabilitated drug addicts, and most of the elders of the church are former drug addicts. El Pacto Church has birthed ten sister churches in marginal sections of Bogotá, is responsible for two men’s drug rehabilitation facilities, and has recently opened a women’s rehabilitation center. The church oversees a school for 250 underprivileged children and has a television program that covers most of Colombia. Pastor Bunch will be sharing about El Pacto’s very effective outreach ministry where they build relationships with the broken hearted and disengaged, hurting people.

• Dr. Mike Chapman – City Church, Chattanooga, Tennessee
Dr. Mike Chapman is the pastor of City Church of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Pastor Chapman has served on the Turning Point Board of Directors for thirteen years and currently serves as the Vice Chairman. Mike is known as a gifted communicator and visionary. You have seen Pastor Chapman on the Turning Point promotional video and in the Living Free Video Training Series. He is a graduate of Lee College and Luther Rice Seminary and received his Doctor of Ministry Degree from North American Biblical Seminary.

To sign up for the conference click here.

Some months ago officials in South Africa asked missionary Tom Lofton to help with their anti-drug campaign for elementary children. In response we are working together with Tom and Jean Brunson and a team of people highly credentialed in children’s ministry, to develop Insight Group curriculum for elementary children. The country of South Africa plans to make this new curriculum a major part of their anti-drug program and will be using the curriculum throughout their Cape Town school system. At this point, the material is being developed for use in the U.S. and South Africa, but other countries are already expressing an interest.

We are so excited about this new outreach and believe that God will touch the lives of many children—and their families—through it.

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Matthew 19:14

Dr. Gareth Icenogle's excellent book, Biblical Foundations for Small Group Ministry, is a rich resource for those who want to explore the roots of small group ministry from a biblical perspective. What follows is an adaptation of portions of chapter 20 "Mutual Ministry in the Small Group." I think everyone interested in small groups focused on profound personal change will find this material interesting. (This book is available at our website or by calling 800.879.4770.)

Dr. Icenogle begins the chapter by listing 52 "one anothering" passages in the New Testament such as Colossians 3:13, "forgive one another". He mentions that in the early Christian gatherings "there was nothing of their life together that was not transformed by the story and presence of Christ among them. (page 292). He goes on to describe the early house church gatherings as places characterized by the following practices, which should also be found in groups today.

A PLACE OF HEALING

Unless a group is a place of healing characterized by risk-taking self-disclosure, the group is not going to be a place of healing.

In the book The Great Divorce, C. S. Lewis uses an image of how “real” (that is, self-disclosing) people become more dense and how “unreal” people become more like ghosts. A healthy small group of Christians is a place where people become more dense (real) and less like phantoms (fake). These groups provide a place where people can be authentic and not feel the need to project a false self in order to be accepted.

A PLACE OF REMEMBERING

A transformational small group is a place where we remember our past and find encouragement as others listen and help us process the events that have shaped our lives.

It is also a place to remember how each individual and the group as a whole have experienced God's faithfulness. Our shared stories and reflections will encourage one another and be remembered for many years.

Remembering how God worked in the lives of those recorded in the Bible will challenge us to live in similar ways, and to expect God to be active in our lives.

A PLACE OF PRAYER

There is a dimension of group prayer that goes far beyond what most of us experience. Most group prayer is formal, superficial, trivial, and full of clichés. As a result, our group prayers often lack guts, feeling, honesty, transparency, emotion, and confession.

To help the group break free of safe and familiar patterns of prayer, try praying the Psalms in your group to get the feel of how authentic group prayer sounds.

A PLACE OF SELF-EXAMINATION

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book "Life Together" offers this explanation of why groups fail to achieve true fellowship.

“The final breakthrough to fellowship does not occur because, though they have fellowship with one another as believers and devout people, they do not have fellowship as the undevout, as sinners. The pious fellowship permits no one to be a sinner. So everybody must conceal his sin from himself and the fellowship….The fact is we are sinners."

A PLACE OF CONFESSION OF SIN

Even though it is God who forgives our sin, James 5:16 tells us to confess our sins to one another and to pray for one another.

Confession of sin in a group is the riskiest, most threatening, and therefore the highest level of small group communication. Before people will take the risk of confession, they must trust one another.
If a group cannot achieve this level of trust, it reflects immaturity. Maturity comes with identifying ourselves with the cross of Christ, as Bonhoeffer wrote:

“The Cross of Christ destroys all pride…It is nothing else but our fellowship with Jesus Christ that leads us to the ignominious dying that comes in confession, in order that we may in truth share in his Cross…We cannot find the Cross of Jesus if we shrink from going to the place where it is to be found, namely the public death of the sinner. And we refuse to bear the Cross when we are ashamed to take upon ourselves the shameful death of the sinner in confession. In confession we break through to the true fellowship of the Cross of Christ. In confession we affirm and accept our cross. In the deep mental and physical pain of humiliation before a brother—which means before God—we experience the cross of Jesus as our rescue and salvation.”

Effective small groups must be prepared for confession but cannot command it. It should never be forced in any way.

A PLACE OF FORGIVENESS

Small groups aren’t just places of pleasant verbal exchange. They are families where ideas, pains, joys …all things… are shared and where the individuals with reasonable needs have those needs met by the group.

This openness can create misunderstandings that have to be addressed among group members. If the group is superficial, participants will store up frustration, anger, hurt, guilt and pain with one another. If members are able to confess and forgive one another in the group, they will be able to do the same outside the group.

New Updated Edition

The new edition of Insight will be available February 15, 2008. This nine-session small group study:

• Is user friendly - Facilitator and Group Member Guide coordinated page for page.
• Serves as Living Free's entry level group.
• Emphasizes the transformation power of Christ.
• Is an effective evengelism tool.
• Enhances people's understanding of themselves and others.
• Pictures life-controlling problems as a downward spiral, then presents the character qualities found in 2 Peter 1:3-11 as the upward path to developing Christian character.
• Helps prepare people for more meaningful relationships in subsequent small groups, such as home groups, cells, and Sunday School classes.
• Helps break down the segregation of people in churches, turning "those people" and "our kind of people" into just "us."

To order, call 1-800-879-4770 or visit our website bookstore.

Ruth Graham, author, speaker, and daughter of Ruth and Billy Graham, was a keynote presenter at our 2007 International Training Conference. We so appreciate her willingness to share her own story, including all the hurt, the mistakes and the struggles, and how God has led her through it all and brought her to a greater level of strength and maturity in Him.

Ruth’s honest and forthright message prompts listeners to realize they are not alone in their struggles … gives many courage to admit their problems and fears to themselves, to God and to others … and inspires hope for healing.

We are pleased that LF has formed a partnership with Ruth Graham and Friends and believe that God will strengthen both ministries through this collaboration, leading to more transformed lives through Him. Ruth said, “As long as the enemy prowls about, there will always be a need for LF because hearts need healing and captives need to be set free … How grateful I am for the partnership you have given to Ruth Graham and Friends.”

We encourage you to visit Ruth’s website at www.ruthgrahamandfriends.com to learn how you can invite Ruth and her ministry to your church or community.