Neil T. AndersonFreedom in Christ Ministries · Pastor

It created a common understanding of our identity

23 Mar 2026 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

1:45

In this monologue, a church leader explains why their congregation instituted strict membership requirements to safeguard against casual affiliation in a non‑conformist context. Elders decided that prospective members must first have a personal “Steps to Freedom” appointment with a trained Freedom Coach, complete the Freedom in Christ Discipleship Course (now called the Freedom in Christ Course), and attend a “Steps to Freedom Day Away.” The leader recounts early, intensive freedom appointments—some lasting 6‑8 hours and one extending to 40 hours over multiple sessions—highlighting a case where a woman, after a prolonged appointment, left the church but later returned still walking in freedom. These structured discipleship steps are presented as essential for resolving personal and spiritual issues, fostering a shared experience, and creating a common understanding of identity in Christ, which underpins the church’s unity.

Chapters

So if that's the case, then, you know, I know a lot of churches that just say, oh, you've been coming 3 weeks, you're a member. And that's fine in some contexts, but it's very dangerous in a nonconformist context, in our context. So we knew that we couldn't just let anybody join. And so as the elders, we took the decision that from that time in order to become a member, people would have to have a personal Steps to Freedom appointment by a trained Freedom Coach, is what we call them. And there's a few other requirements that we had. And eventually we added that they had to go through the Freedom in Christ Discipleship Course, which is now the Freedom in Christ Course. And now we've said you need to go through the Freedom in Christ Course, do the Steps to Freedom Day Away, and then have a personal Steps to Freedom appointment. And the reason why we did that is we started offering these, these freedom appointments early on. And we'd have freedom appointments that would take 6, 8 hours. One of my, one of Karen's early freedom appointments took 40 hours, 4-0. Wasn't done at one time. Right. But it took a lot of time because of what was going on. The woman sadly had to leave our church, but we encountered her about 2 years later and she was still walking in freedom. So, I mean, we praise God for that. So that's where the Freedom in Christ course came in and the Steps to Freedom in Christ. And that was an essential discipleship component for us because it not only helped people resolve their personal and spiritual issues, but it created a common experience and it created a common understanding of our identity in Christ, which was a key part of our unity.