Our Values
The firstfree family is committed to the following ministry values:
We value Scripture and prayer. We recognize our brokenness and utter dependence upon God to work in and among us. We therefore wholeheartedly commit ourselves to His Word and dependently seek Him in prayer.
We value small groups and ministry teams. Our intent is to care for those in our church within the context of small group life. Our ministry teams, though task-oriented, will also function as caring communities. Further, we will identify and cultivate leaders who can thrive in the context of small groups and ministry teams.
We value spiritual gifts. Since God has given each believer unique gifts and abilities, we will promote the discovery, deployment and development of our spiritual gifts, knowing that this is the context in which we will be able to serve most skillfully, passionately and joyfully.
We value relational outreach. As God revealed himself to the world through Jesus Christ, so we seek to reflect Christ's presence in our community. We will compassionately express God's love through acts of kindness and sensitively sharing a verbal witness to those in our spheres of influence.
We value the arts and creativity. God is our Creator and we seek to live and minister in ways that reflect His creativity. As such, under God's leadership, we promote the use of the arts, seek to minister in creative ways, and celebrate the cultivation of artistic gifts within our congregation.
We value authentic spirituality. We believe that spiritual growth and healing occur as we honestly face our sins and problems without fear of ridicule and shame. We recognize that as the Holy Spirit brings conviction of sin we will be more willing to face our sin and change in an environment characterized by both truth and grace.
We value serving the larger body of Christ by preparing people for ministry. The firstfree family has served as a church home for young people who have lived in Chicago for a short time and then moved on to serve Christ in other parts of the country and the world. We embrace our role in preparing young people to serve Christ and regard it as a gift from the God.
We value those who share a long-term commitment to our church and community. While we value our role as a training ground, we also recognize the importance of building and supporting a stable community of people committed to serving Christ here at firstfree on a long-term basis.
Our Assumptions
Ministry assumptions help define who we are and assist us in defining the way we do ministry. While our ministry assumptions are numerous, we recognize these among our most important assumptions:
We can trust the goodness of God and His ability to lead us. Throughout our 120-year history God has repeatedly demonstrated His faithfulness, love and guidance to firstfree by leading us through many different eras, opportunities and challenges. We believe God loves firstfree and desires to lead us even more than we desire to be led. In His grace and mercy, He will continue to turn our hearts toward Him and His will for us.
We will remain committed to our location and immediate community. God has called us to stay, serve and be responsive to the changing needs of the people of Chicago and the Edgewater community. Though our neighborhood has changed many times over the years, we remain committed to God's dynamic call upon us. In 1961 Pastor Arley Bragg expressed our commitment this way, “We are in this area to stay. We have no intentions of leaving. This is our field. It is a mission field and we must not leave it and we must not fail it.”
Who we are is more important than our style of ministry. While there is a temptation to focus on technique and style, we believe God puts a priority on each of us developing our unique relationship with Him. Therefore, we seek intimacy with Christ and a ministry that reflects our God-given identity.
Healthy congregations cultivate healthy Christians. We intend to grow our ministry by reaching out to non-Christians. Scriptures teach that love and respect for one another within the Christian community is not only powerful evidence of God's presence among us, it is also the best environment for passionate Christ-followers to grow. Our leaders therefore commit themselves to living godly lives and maintaining church health.
Other Churches and ministries exist to meet the diverse needs within our city. We recognize that we cannot be all things to all people and that other ministries are meeting many needs in our city that we cannot meet. We also recognize that during the earthly ministry of Jesus, even he did not meet every need presented to him. Therefore we will seek God's direction to determine which needs He calls us to meet and we will maintain high regard for other Christian ministries who seek to fulfill their own God-given vision.
Every believer is responsible to pursue spiritual growth. Even as we encourage and serve one another, we recognize that each person is responsible for cultivating his or her own spiritual life and relationship with God.
God's people are called to care for the poor. The Bible repeatedly teaches that all Christians are called to follow Jesus in compassionately serving the poor. We will be responsive to those in our congregation and community with economic needs, reflecting God's heart of compassion.
Those who reject the church don't necessarily reject God. We recognize that many people who may be seeking God have had negative church experiences and have therefore turned away from the Church. We will be sensitive to this reality and seek to make firstfree a welcoming and healing place.
Our Distinctives
Just as God creates individuals with unique personalities, so He fashions each church in a unique way. Some of our distinctive traits are our:
Urban Setting and Culture. God has placed us in a world-class city and in a neighborhood of ethnic, racial, and economic diversity. We are committed to embracing and reflecting this diversity.
Young Constituency. We embrace the challenge of equipping and supporting young people, both singles and young families, as they seek to thrive and serve God in our unique urban context.
Relational Nature. God is showing us that caring for and supporting one another happen most effectively in close relationships. Therefore, we will encourage everyone in our church family to be involved in a small group or ministry team so that all can give and receive effective care.
Relationship with Breakthrough Urban Ministries . Ten years ago, through members of firstfree, God established Breakthrough Urban Ministries to serve the homeless. We will respond to this unique God-given opportunity, wholeheartedly embracing, supporting and assisting Breakthrough in serving the homeless in our community.
Use of the arts and creativity. We encourage and nurture artists to follow Christ in the use of their creative gifts for worship, outreach and artistic expression.
Openness to the leading of the Holy Spirit. We have seen that the Spirit of God often leads us in surprising and unexpected ways and we will remain open to new ideas that we believe align with God's Word, the Bible. We will welcome the Holy Spirit in our midst, boldly trying new things, not fearing failure but seeing our successes and failures as part of the learning process.
Our Initiatives for Ministry
In 2003 after a long process of strategic planning, our senior pastor along with a team of twenty leaders from First Free established a list of ten strategic initiatives. Through God’s enablement our congregation and community have seen many positive changes in ministry as a result of pursuing those initiatives. Below are some of those initiatives that we are still pursuing. In addition, some have been amended in light of our different circumstance in ministry and a couple initiatives have been added. As a leadership team we will earnestly seek God, pray and plan toward the following ministry initiatives. As we pursue our vision, we recognize our dependence upon the Lord for providing gifted leaders and devoted disciples.
Communication and Ministry community meetings: As leaders we will continue to cultivate and improve our communication with congregation and especially our leaders by holding regular Ministry Community meetings, no less than five times per year. At these meetings we will share vision, instruct, pray, plan, learn to manage conflict biblically, and celebrate our life together. We will invite and expect all of our ministry and small group leaders to regularly participate in these times together. These are strategic times to have participation of all who consider First Free their home. We will also seek other avenues of communication with the congregation using a variety of printed and electronic media.
Diversity Among our Leadership: We will seek to reflect the diversity of our community by bringing ethnic and racial and diversity to our staff and leadership teams. Our intent is to have men and women equally share in ministry together. Our goal is not diversity as an end itself but as a means to reflect God's love through caring relationships, mutually understanding each other and appreciating our God-given differences.
Small Groups: We will continue to grow into a church of small groups and ministry teams, recognizing that it is in small groups that new people are welcomed, relationships are nurtured, disciples are formed, and pastoral care is given. Since small group leaders and apprentices will be participating in our Ministry Community meetings, each group and team will remain vitally connected to the vision, life and DNA of the church.
Lifelong Learning: As we study and learn together in large and small groups, we will supplement our learning with other opportunities for growth and education. The following are examples of adult education classes that may be offered: ALPHA, discovery classes for new believers; spiritual freedom classes; how to study the Bible; spiritual growth classes that focus on the classic spiritual disciplines; networking classes that teach people to discover, develop and deploy their spiritual gifts; stewardship classes; becoming a contagious Christian which teaches principles of sharing our faith; mentoring classes for singles and married couples; maintaining healthy families and exploring our families of origin; and faith-matters seminars, in which we invite experts to present topics of interest such as women in ministry, sexuality, war, etc.
Children and Teens: We will encourage and equip young families to thrive in the city. We will be proactive and creative in investigating affordable housing opportunities and helping families explore educational options for their children. Our Seedlings Children's Ministry will be marked by excellence in education and innovation, assisting parents and guardians as they nurture faith in their homes. Our learning environments will be fun; creative, small group oriented and designed to encourage children in their faith and commitment to Jesus. We will continue to develop a vibrant Sunday morning program for all ages. Our Seedlings Children's Ministry will utilize volunteers from our congregation who will commit to children for an extended period of time. In addition to our Sunday morning programs, we will demonstrate our love to children in our community through Kidstreet, Kidfest and other creative outreaches through our local public schools. Our teen groups will welcome children within our congregation and community. They will explore faith in ways relevant to the developmental stages of young people and their cultural context.
Compassionate Outreach: We will challenge everyone in our church family to reflect the compassion of Jesus by reaching beyond ourselves to meet physical, emotional and spiritual needs. God has strategically placed us in a community and city with a wide variety of needs. We will help each person at First Free to reflect God’s love in Christ through identifying their personal gifts and passion in a way that will intersect with human needs. We will express God’s love in both word and deed.
Staffing: We will seek to align our staff according to our ministry priorities and vision. We will pursue staffing in the area of missions and compassionate outreach. We will ensure that our ministry staff has adequate office support to maximize their effectiveness. Each professional and support staff person will cultivate teams so that we equip those in our congregation to do the work of the ministry according to Ephesians 4: 12.
Worship and the Arts: We will continue to nurture artists and invite our artists to form small groups to encourage one another and express their art in the church and community. Recognizing that our neighborhood is very artistic, we will encourage and support artistic ministries such as Semeiotic (an art exhibition for First Free artists aimed at reaching out to our community), theatrical productions, movie nights and other creative outreaches.
Prayer and Healing: We will cultivate First Free as a place of spiritual, physical and emotional healing for those in our congregation and in our community. We will offer healing prayer with our elders to those in need accordance to James 5:13-16. We will encourage ministry times after our Sunday morning services so that those gifted in healing and prophetic prayer can effectively minister to those in need. We will teach principles of spiritual freedom in Christ, and encourage the formation of twelve step groups, which deal with chemical and sexual addictions. We will help people understand principles of family systems so they can function more effectively and responsibly.
Facilities: We will develop and maintain a facility that preserve our heritage and at the same time is attractive, clean and well maintained. Our present sanctuary will be preserved and improved. We will install air-conditioning and make our facilities handicap accessible. This year we will begin construction of our family life center and continue to pursue our master plan for the development of our entire campus, providing facilities that aid and enrich ministry. In addition to the new family life center, our master plan incorporates the renovation of our present sanctuary, and also includes a new gymnasium for community use and outreach. During construction we will provide temporary space to accommodate our nursery and renovate one of our existing apartment buildings for new staff offices. In preparation for construction and during construction we will organize and maintain our current facilities to the best of our abilities.
