1.  Why is the School Board organizing a Freeing Freedom campaign?

We have many families who are committed to Freedom’s Christ-centered classical education for their children but are faced with the reality of that commitment every time they open the checkbook to pay tuition. Freeing Freedom will help us meet the tuition aid needs of these families now and for years to come. Over 60% of our students have a reduction in tuition based on their financial need.  Because we do not want finances to determine whether a student stays or leaves Freedom Baptist School, we have organized Freeing Freedom to focus on eliminating debt while providing future tuition needs. 

 2.  How long will Freeing Freedom go on? 

The campaign will last a little over three years.  Freeing Freedom commitments will start in January 2009 and end in June 2011.  We are trusting God to provide the necessary funds to pay off our current debt and meet tuition assistance needs well into the future.

3.  Who is called to participate?

Everyone who is part of the family at Freedom Baptist Schools (teachers, administration, staff, students, parents, grandparents, alumni) as well as those who believe in our purpose to free students for life in Christ through Christian Classical Education.  Pray about becoming involved in this project.  Ask God for wisdom and then step forward with your commitment.  As Paul explained to the Galatians, your freedom in Christ comes with new responsibility to care for the needs of other believers.

4.  How does this campaign relate to regular tuition and tuition aid?

Freeing Freedom is a long-term goal that will include assisting individual students with tuition aid for the next three years as well as putting the mechanism in place to fund tuition assistance well into the future.   We are asking God to increase our ministry by freeing us from debt and allowing us to expand our fine arts program.  We want to look beyond individual needs and focus on our school family for ways to invest in God’s kingdom. 

5.  Why are we launching this campaign instead of our usual Annual Fund? 

Tuition assistance is a long-term need and we are committed to a long-term solution.  Our Annual Fund meets the need each year but does not provide for the future.  In medical terms, it puts a band-aid on a huge wound, while Freeing Freedom stops the bleeding permanently.  It is our goal to reduce ongoing interest expenses by eliminating debt while at the same time implementing a financial system to make tuition aid automatic.  

6.  Why are we launching this campaign now when the economy is so poor in Michigan?

Now, more than ever, families struggle to keep their children at Freedom.  In addition, more and more parents are realizing that a Christian education is vital because of the decline of truth and morality in today’s society.  When times are tough, we are forced to our knees to seek renewed wisdom and strength in the area of stewardship.  In today’s market there are no guarantees.  This is your opportunity to invest in God’s kingdom, which promises eternal rewards. What seems impossible to man is only possible through God.

7.  Will someone recommend how much I should give?

No.  We will never violate your personal responsibility to manage the resources God has given you.  We will, however, ask you to spend the next several weeks and months seeking His wisdom and responding to His leading.  We believe, based on Scripture, that God commands us to seek His guidance in all things.  We realize not everyone has the means to give equal gifts, however, we all have equal privileges to give.  God will enable you to do what He lays on your heart.  The students and families of Freedom Baptist Schools will be enriched in multiple ways because of your gifts.

8.  How will I know how much to give?

“Be still and know that I am God.”  First, set aside the hectic pace of your schedule and take time to be in God’s Word and in prayer.  The psalmist knew the importance of being still long enough to hear God’s voice.  Through the process of prayer and Bible reading, God will bring specific areas of stewardship to mind. Every family and every situation will differ.  Apply the truths of Scripture as you seek God’s wisdom.  Evaluate your needs vs. your wants.  Once you arrive on a figure, make it a matter of prayer for several weeks to ensure that you are following God’s leading.

10.  How will this program affect the needs-based tuition aid provided to more than 60% of the students at Freedom?

Freeing Freedom will not only meet the tuition aid needs in order to free our families for life in Christ, but also provide funding well into the future.   Why?  Because renewed focus on stewardship will compel God’s people to give generously.  Remembering that God owns everything we claim as our own allows us to catch His vision and invest more in His kingdom.

11.  What will happen if we don’t move forward with Freeing Freedom?  (possibly renumber to that this appears on the page toward bottom)

We will continue to face increasing annual tuition aid needs coupled with debt and interest on that debt. By moving forward, we position ourselves to continue our focus on freeing students for life in Christ.  Each year Freedom faces raising student tuition rates and/or working to generate approximately $400,000 to cover operating costs.  Costs will likely increase with every new year possibly putting tuition so far out of reach that we are unable to attract new families.  With no strategy in place to eliminate current debt and meet future needs, we will lose focus on the future, trying to pay the debt of the past.  Without Freeing Freedom new endeavors, such as the expansion of our fine arts program, are also in jeopardy.  

12.  Will commitments be made public? 

No.  Giving is a spiritual matter between you and God.  All donations will be kept confidential and only actual dollars received will be announced.  Ask God for wisdom and allow Him to speak to your heart through prayer, Bible study and interaction with others in the Freedom family.  Your gift can be of any amount and in any form you choose.  While most gifts will be cash, some people may choose to give tangible gifts such as stocks, bonds, real estate, insurance cash value, mutual funds, etc.

13.  Will God help me meet my goal, which right now seems beyond my means?

Realizing that everything we have is a gift from God to use for His glory, Christians are called to balance faith and responsibility.  Much prayer and thought preceded your commitment and God knew every need you would face between then and now.  Your gift reflects God’s grace in providing for your dependent needs.  We can then claim the promise given by God to the believers in Philippi who sacrificed for the cause of Christ, “For my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.”  (Phil. 4:19) 

14.  How does this campaign work?  The School Board and many Freedom families are currently making this campaign a matter of prayer.  In addition, the Freeing Freedom team has made the following activities a priority.  Please add these key dates to your personal calendar, pray for God’s blessing on each one, and plan to join us for:

• Information Session for all families (November 13)
• Home Information Sessions with individual Board Members  
• Commitment Dinner (January 17, 2009)
• Victory Day (February 19, 2009)

 15.  How will I get additional information about the program?

You will receive written information through Nifty Notes, campaign newsletters, special meetings and information displayed throughout the school.  In addition you may attend a home information session or browse this website.  Your Freeing Freedom team members are also available to answer questions at any time.

One Vision for Freeing Freedom

$3.225 million and 100 new students in three years

Two goals for freeing our families for life in Christ

1)     Provide ongoing tuition aid for families who demonstrate financial need

2)     Enhance our fine arts program

Three pillars support our goals

Pillar 1 – $1.2 million to provide tuition aid for 220 students for three years

Pillar 2 – $2.025 million to provide ongoing tuition aid for 98 students via interest expense reductions of $153,000 per year, with additional funds planned for our fine arts program

Pillar 3 – Enroll 100 new full time students in our K-12 program to better utilize our current facilities and meet our annual operating expenses

How, then, do we pursue this call to freedom?  There are many ways to make our freedom practical. Paul exhorts us to “…love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:14- ESV)

Join us as we begin this journey to pick up the mantel from our founders, willingly and bravely working to see our students flourish for the next 30 years. Invest yourself in prayer. Immerse yourself in God’s Word.  Learn all you can about our effort.  Tell others how an investment in Freeing Freedom will reap eternal dividends by helping to free families for life in Christ. 

Galatians 5:1 addresses our freedom for life in Christ. 

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery (ESV)

Christ set us free to experience true freedom. Christian freedom is freedom of conscience as well as freedom from a legal system that could not be kept. It is freedom from the depressing awareness that no one can measure up to God. Christians do measure up in Christ. We have been “accepted in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:6 - ESV).

Christian liberty is being free from the frustration of not being able to keep an external set of rules. In a positive sense, it is the freedom to function by the internal working of the Spirit. Paul simply said that God’s ethical law had become internal since Christ had come to live inside the believer.

Christian freedom is not an opportunity to indulge the flesh.  Galatians 5:13 tells us not to use our “liberty for an opportunity for the flesh.”  In military terms, we are not to make our flesh the “base of our operation”. We are not free to use our liberty as a springboard for self.  Rather, we are commanded to consider the needs of one another.

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. (ESV)

Our liberation is not a license to hurt our Christian brother, but to serve him with a supreme kind of love. Such love requires that one set aside his personal ambitions and be willing to express his freedom in helping his fellow Christians. The word “serve” refers to the service rendered by a bond slave. It means to serve another Christian as his slave. Liberty and slavery in the Christian life form a paradox, but not a contradiction, because such service is always voluntary.

We have many families who want their children to experience Freedom’s Christ-centered classical education and discipleship but do not have the financial resources to pay the full cost of tuition. Freeing Freedom will help us meet the tuition aid needs of these families now and for years to come.

FREEDOM. Nearly thirty years ago our school’s founders emphasized freedom when they established and named our school.  They realized the eternal significance of that concept both as a legacy and as a future inheritance.  By our name we honor the efforts of many who sacrificed to make Freedom Baptist Schools a reality in each of our lives.

Today, God has given us stewardship of this great legacy, and it is our responsibility to continue the work and see Freedom flourish for God’s glory.  Because we are teachers, staff and parents working together to provide a Christ-centered education for our children, we realize that the investment and sacrifice of previous generations must be followed by our own to ensure that Freedom flourishes and future generations learn what it means to have freedom for life in Christ.

Special thanks to the Brenners at Classic Video.