Freedom Begins Here Blog

Yes...the church is ready...here is an email I sent today to my church leadership to begin a FBH ministry...we will address our body in the first run through and then post on our church website to invite those outside our walls to participate in FBH:

Good Friday Morning Everyone,

I am writing this to you all to propose a new ministry at Desperation Church. Andrea and I met yesterday afternoon to discuss this. Within the body at DC there is a large number of individuals seeking help with their personal sexual addiction.
With the immediate availability of pornography via the internet it is a problem that is expected to pervade even a larger set of the Christian population going forward.
Regardless, sexual addiction is nothing less than a plague in America…including the body of Christ. Many people suffer for years and even a lifetime with sexual addiction…losing jobs, families, friends etc.. as a direct consequence.

I think you all are aware of my personal struggle over the past 4 years in seeking help to overcome my own sexual addiction. I have participated in a number of mainstream support groups structured to help the addict. These support groups are all “12 step” structured after AA (Alcoholics Anonymous). And while these support groups understand the nature of addiction and the fact that we humans are powerless, on our own, to overcome it…they point to a “higher power” for assistance. They choose to take this ambiguous avenue of not identifying our God as the singular power to healing so that no particular religious affiliation is offended, thus opening their programs to a wider audience.

For me, as a Christian, I KNEW who THE higher power was, and is, but because this facet of the “Anonymous” programs are ambiguous, there is no direction on HOW the higher power can help!

This brings me to “Freedom Begins Here”. My wife is fully aware of my struggle with sexual addiction and saw a segment on television this past Fall about a new effort to help Christians overcome sexual addiction – “Freedom Begins Here”.
The program is based on the roadmap developed by Dr. Mark Laaser in conjunction with Dr. Gary Smalley.

I investigated the program on their website and ordered the “Individual Use” packet (devotional/study book and DVD). What I found was the missing piece of the “Anonymous” programs --- GOD!

The FBH (Freedom Begins Here) program is based on the known science of addiction causes and behaviors, but relies SOLELY on the healing that ONLY our God can provide and utilizes the Bible and biblical principles. The program is comprehensive in that it provides an initial assessment (from Patrick Carnes, noted author on sexual addiction) for an individual to determine if they have a sexual addiction (it is common for an addict to internally minimize their behavior and justify their actions), this assessment provides the objective written truth to the participant as to whether or not they have an addiction, they don’t have to guess.

The program lays foundational education to the participants for the first few sessions and then is followed by a 30 day devotional (discussed in sections through subsequent weeks.)

I have done the FBH materials and it has literally changed my life and broken the chains of my addiction. And the most moving and inspiring benefit from partaking in this program is that I have developed a much deeper relationship with my God…I KNOW He desires freedom for everyone of us who struggle with sexual addiction…

SO….ALL of that to introduce you to what Andrea and I have talked about so far.

1. Participation is totally voluntary, it HAS to be to be effective.
2. Each potential participant will be evaluated to ensure there is a sincere seeking of God’s will in their life and they are actively pursuing that relationship.
3. Each offering will be a set of weekly sessions (not solid on number yet, somewhere between 8-12 weeks)
4. Each offering will be “closed” – no new participants can join once the sessions have begun – having people come and go is a distraction and can dilute the effectiveness for those desiring true success.
5. Andrea will be the “professional overseer” of the ministry.
6. Buzz will be the facilitator for men participants, Andrea will be the facilitator for the women participants.
7. Once an offering of sessions is completed, the next offering will begin as there is a known need.
8. There is a “Church Resource Kit” available for $99.99, depending on number of participants, additional devo books may need to be ordered.
9. Each participant will be required to “purchase” their devo book for a nominal fee – each can be purchased for $12.99 from the website, but we wouldn’t probably charge that much, we want it to be affordable, but feel it is important for each participant to invest in the program.

I’m sure I’m forgetting some specifics, and Andrea can add them to a reply, or if you all prefer we could meet as a group and