2026
I want to take a moment today to share a testimony that is very close to my heart—my experience with the Freedom in Christ course. I first heard about this course the same way many of you may have: through the passionate stories shared by people who had gone before me. They were ordinary believers—people just like me—who simply wanted to understand more deeply what it means to follow Jesus.
As some of you know, I’m still fairly new in my walk with Christ. I came to faith only four years ago, and from the beginning I felt a deep hunger to grow, to mature, and to understand the fullness of the life God calls us into. So when I heard those testimonies, I knew immediately that I wanted to sign up. What I didn’t know was just how profoundly this 10-week journey would shape me.
Every single week, I left the sessions feeling more alive—more connected to Jesus than I had been the week before. I would come home uplifted, excited, and honestly a little overflowing, eager to call a friend and share everything I had learned. From the very first class, I was hooked.
The course itself is rich and engaging. The videos are meaningful, the handbook is easy to follow, and the group discussions are full of honesty and encouragement. The environment felt warm, safe, and welcoming—like a place where you could truly be yourself, ask questions, and reflect deeply without fear or judgment.
But what impacted me most were the tools I gained—tools I still use every day in my walk with Christ. I learned how to recognize and break strongholds, how to discern the enemy’s attempts to manipulate my thinking, and how to stand firm in the truth of God’s Word. I grew in my understanding of forgiveness—what it means to forgive as God forgives, and to treat others the way He treats us.
And then there was the Steps to Freedom session. That day was powerful. I left feeling completely renewed, as though the grace of God had washed over every part of me. It was like my whole body, mind, and spirit had been refreshed.
I can say with confidence that this course strengthened my foundation as a child of God. It equipped me, encouraged me, and helped me grow in ways I didn’t even know I needed. And I believe it can do the same for many of you.
So if you’re new to Christianity, or if you’ve been walking with Jesus for years but feel a desire to go deeper, I wholeheartedly recommend the Freedom in Christ course. It is biblically grounded, thought-provoking, and beautifully presented. The facilitators are engaging, the discussions are full of laughter and genuine connection, and every week you leave feeling supported and strengthened.
This course didn’t just teach me more about God—it helped me experience Him more fully. And for that, I am truly grateful.
*****
FREEDOM FROM ANXIETY
SEPTEMBER 2023
In 2020, when Covid locked us all in our homes, I felt safe in my home and didn’t leave for about 4 months. I worked from home, watched church services online, and sent my husband to do all the shopping. Then things started to open back up, I went back to my office to work and freely went everywhere, except for the church. I kept watching online for a bit but eventually, I didn’t even do that. For about a year I had no church involvement and I was ok with that. I believed that I could be ok without the fellowship and friendship of other Christians. This, of course, was the lie I started to believe. As time went on though, I was unable to go to church. Anytime we headed towards the church, I would feel anxious and nauseous. When I walked into the church, I would just want to run back outside again. I had an unexplainable, irrational fear of being in the church...I even went to church with my parents when we were in Ottawa. Sadly, I only lasted until they finished the first song before I went running out of the church. I knew then that it wasn’t just Northgate Church that was the problem.
Moving forward to September 2022, I got an email from Charlene about…her small group, and something inside me was saying, you need to take this course. I was very skeptical…I went to the church the first week feeling anxious and after the first class I thought I would get nothing from the course but I kept going because I knew there was a reason I was there. As the weeks went by, I learned how to recognize the lie and that’s when I knew I had to deal with my fear. As I told those in the group about my fear, the weight started to drop off and I was able to at least stay in the church for Sunday service, although it was by the front door and not in the sanctuary. I went through the Steps to freedom and through this process, I realized that I needed to renounce the fear and ask God to fill me with his strength and comfort. Over the next 4-5 Sundays, with lots of people and prayer support, I gradually moved closer to the sanctuary door and eventually, I was able to cross the line that Satan had drawn to keep me out. The day that I walked into the sanctuary and sat with my family was the greatest freedom I will ever feel. I am now able to cross in and out of the sanctuary doors and I don’t feel anxious or nauseous anymore.
*****
DECEMBER 2022
The Freedom in Christ Discipleship Course - An Invaluable Tool for Growing Disciples
On retiring four years ago from a lifetime in a fulfilling church-planting and pastoring ministry in Ontario, my prayer was that my remaining years would count for eternity through a church-based lay ministry. My desire was to make disciples who would become disciple-makers and so began a search to discover the best tool that would enable this.
In the fall of 2019 I had the privilege to attend a discipleship conference in the US which featured a workshop by Neil Anderson. Here I was re-introduced to the Freedom in Christ resources. Many years prior I had used the Freedom in Christ Beta Course in my church and now my interest was re-awakened.
My wife, Dorothy and I attend a large church in the Greater Toronto Area and are blessed with a godly pastor who wholeheartedly endorses the Freedom in Christ teaching and enthusiastically encourages all in the church to take this course. Starting in 2021, at the height of the pandemic, we started with a group online. Together we were challenged by the truths of our identity in Christ, the need for repentance and for the renewing of our minds with God’s word (Truth, Turning, Transformation).
Over the last two years we have facilitated this course both online and in person with 9 different groups to include over a hundred folks from our church. Here is a sampling of some of their testimonies:
“What has impacted my life from this course is about forgiveness. It’s a struggle to forgive those people you trusted so much but the Lord opened my eyes through this course to forgive them… to be merciful to them for God is merciful to me. This freedom I experienced is the best Christmas gift I ever received. I am no longer chained to this spirit of unforgiveness.”
“The course met my expectations and more! The videos and material were very organized and structured. It has been helpful in restoring my fellowship with my Abba and Jesus.”
“I hope you have even a small understanding of how drastically your heart for God is impacting us. This class is fantastic and your hearts for God is a tremendous encouragement.”
“This course has far exceeded my expectation. It takes a practical approach to reaffirm God’s truth backed up by scriptures, using breakout groups to encourage one another and challenging us to reflect and take action.”
How grateful we are for this amazing discipleship tool that teaches us how we can have freedom from habitual sin, negative thoughts, fears and unforgiveness, helping us grasp the amazing truth of our identity in Christ and how to resist the enemy’s deceptions. It gives such practical and tangible ways to help us move forward by “putting the cookies on the bottom shelf”, moving truth from our heads to our hearts and into action.
We are especially delighted that some who have gone through the course and have assimilated these principles are now embarking on taking others through Freedom in Christ either one-on-one or in groups – disciples becoming disciple-makers.
If, today I could turn back the clock on my pastoral ministry and do a make-over, this is the discipleship tool I would absolutely implement in the church.
*****
NOVEMBER 2022
The Northgate Baptist Church in Edmonton is one church of many that is using the Freedom In Christ course as part of its regular curriculum.
The Freedom in Christ Discipleship Course on Thursday evenings has been very fruitful so far. I love this course so much because I get to see people significantly grow in their faith and Christian practice in a relatively short time. And this teaching applies to every Christian, female or male, every culture, whether new or mature in the faith, young or old. In fact, in this particular class, we have a wide age range of participants—from 18 years old to a great, great-grandmother of 85! Even I myself learn and grow every time I run this course, despite having done it dozens of times already. And what a blessing to contribute to the increasing freedom of my brothers and sisters in the Lord!
*****
FORGIVENESS
"One of my earliest childhood memories at four years of age was hearing my mother scream. I looked around the corner into the kitchen. My dad had thrown a knife at her, and it was stuck into the cupboard doors inches from her head. I recall him saying that if he wanted to kill her, she would be dead. Ensuing years involved living with relatives and finally a foster home for me and my four siblings.
At age ten, my dad visited me in the foster home and told me that the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. I had no idea what he was talking about. I found out later that my mother had been living in the same house as my dad and his girlfriend and that my mother had hung herself. I grew up attending seventeen schools and living in seven foster homes and the homes of two uncles.
I married, and we had four children. The oldest, a son, was given up for adoption because we were not yet married, and the youngest one, another son, died from a crib death. Friends introduced me to the Holy Spirit, but I chose the spirit of Johnny Walker instead. A life of adultery, drunkenness, and the trigger of the death of our baby led to divorce. I then married a drunk, and we had two more children. I sobered up, and she kicked me out of the house when I poured her hidden bottle of vodka down the sink.
At the time my business was prospering with some retail stores, and with a partner, we owned an upscale billiard club in the Okanagan. I chose to teach the ladies’ pool lessons. I was attracted to one lady and invited her to spend a weekend with me for fun and frolic in Calgary. She looked me in the eye and told me that my time would be better spent reading the Bible. To her astonishment, I did just that and a few months later submitted my life to Christ. Within forty-eight hours I was broke, unemployed, living alone, and suicidal. God was teaching me about self-sufficiency.
This lady gave me a mimeographed sheet containing the Steps to Freedom, and over weeks I worked through the Steps on my own. When I got to forgiveness, it was easy for me to identify that I needed to forgive my dad. I forced myself to think of the few good times instead of the violence in our home and was able to forgive him. Sondra encouraged me to visit my mother’s grave, and while there, I had a strong impression from the Holy Spirit that I was to pray. I was astonished at the anger towards my mother that came out because she had abandoned me as a child. Through the power of prayer, I came to understand that the hidden hurt had brought much destruction on my life and the lives of those close to me. I came to see that the verbal and emotional abuse I had inflicted on my two wives was an expression of that anger. It had been hidden from me. Recognizing that it was there, I could now forgive her.
The lady that challenged me to read the Bible is now my wife of twenty-seven years. Because I had learned to love Jesus, I learned how to love her. I have a good relationship with all my children. God has restored everything far more than what I could have imagined. God is good."