Launch Date: February 1, 2011

We are happy to announce that after several years of waiting on God’s direction and timing, Rev. Clayton Arp has joined the Living Free team as the National Director of Lifeline Connection, a referral and non-residential recovery support group using the Living Free Curriculum.

Lifeline Connection will be an opportunity for communities to reach people who will not or cannot go into residential treatment for their life-controlling issues. Lifeline Connection brings together the faith community, the local law enforcement, and judicial system to help people make positive changes in their lives.

Taking Living Free to the World

Thirteen participants joined us for a Living Free Faculty Training Workshop on January 11, 2011. Participation in the workshop is a part of the process for one to become a certified trainer of Living Free. Dr. Larry Hess, Church of God International Field Director for Europe, CIS, and the Middle East, brought his team of ministry leaders, who represent 14 language groups and 4,000 churches. We also had the privilege of training two people from the Collegedale Church of the Seventh-Day Adventists which is near Chattanooga.

It was so exciting to see ministry leaders hungry to use Living Free in their spheres of ministry. We have been invited by several of the participants to visit their part of the world to train and help facilitate Living Free ministry. We were also invited to teach the Living Free seminar at their Bible colleges in Germany, the U.K. and the Middle East.

Living Free wisdom from Dr. Jimmy Ray Lee, our Founder and President:

Successful Living Free ministry includes the following ingredients:

Ministries using Living Free in non-traditional ways

So many churches are trying to find ways to make sure new visitors and new converts feel welcome and accepted. This is an admirable venture and there are many ways of approaching this need. Many church statisticians agree that people will decide in the first visit whether they will return to attend that particular church on a regular basis. So much attention is being given to newcomers that churches are missing an opportunity to bring more people into their discipleship fold through outreach ministry.

There is another way to bring new people into the church and disciple them at the same time. A prison ministry in Chattanooga, Tennessee, is helping people and helping churches with outreach and assimilation. Several churches in Chattanooga are providing space where ex-inmates and their families can meet in small groups once a week and also have community church services once a week.