Freedom Group: A 12-Week Walk Through the Curriculum
Suggested intro
Freedom is a 12-week small-group course used by Church of the Highlands and many churches across the country. John 8:32: “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” Over the 12 weeks, you will learn, relearn, or be reminded, as Galatians 5:1 states: it is for freedom that Christ set us free.
The course is built for a semester of weekly meetings, with video sessions on some weeks and a conference at the end.
The twelve weeks are not twelve disconnected topics. They are grouped under three section titles printed in the book itself.
Overview
Our aim is a life as a Christian is a life of freedom with God: knowing the truth about God, about faith, and about yourself. It begins in Genesis 2–3 with the two trees in Eden, then moves through the inner life (heart, surrender, forgiveness, words, Scripture), and ends with usefulness to God and worship.
Section One — The Tree of Life (Weeks 1–4)
The garden story. The first tree and the second. How the book wants people to think about God, sin, shame, and “living in the Tree of Life.” Week 4 adds “spiritual order”: spirit, soul, and body.
Section Two — Overflow of the Heart (Weeks 5–9)
What comes out of the heart: surrender, forgiveness, the tongue, and the living Word.
Section Three — Vessels of Honor (Weeks 10–12)
Purity, spiritual conflict, and worship. The course is designed to run toward a Freedom Conference; the appendix tells participants how to prepare.
That is the path of the semester.
The 12 weeks
Week 1 — Video notes: The Tree of Life
Genesis 2:8–9, 16–17. A video session. The notes set a contrast: coming to Jesus for life (John 5:39–40; Romans 5:8) rather than treating Scripture as a substitute for Him. Four responses are listed: love Him, serve from what He has fulfilled, meet sin without condemnation (Romans 8:1), and guard the heart. Deuteronomy 30:19 closes the notes: choose life.
Week 2 — The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (p. 7)
The first sin in Genesis 3. Separation, the serpent, and the claim that humanity now chooses daily between two trees. The week walks through the fruit of that first tree as knowledge, death, consumption of ideas, and separation. It names shame and blame (“victimization”). The gospel pages at the front of the week are the hinge: sinners reconciled by Christ’s blood on the cross (Colossians 1:20–21; John 14:6; Romans 10:13).
Week 3 — The Tree of Life (p. 25)
Galatians 5:13. Fellowship with God, a clean standing, power from abiding in Christ, and freedom to get up after a fall. Identity as sons and daughters. Renewing the mind (Romans 12:2; Philippians 4:8). This is the week the book calls “how to live in the Tree of Life.”
Week 4 — Spiritual Order (p. 39)
1 Thessalonians 5:23. The book’s framework of spirit, soul, and body, and the call to walk in holiness. Designed as the practical outworking of Weeks 1–3.
Week 5 — Video notes: Overflow of the Heart (p. 59)
Proverbs 4:20–23 and 1 Samuel 16:7. Guard the heart; everything flows from it. The Lord looks at the heart, not the outward appearance. This video opens Section Two.
Week 6 — A Life of Surrender (p. 65)
Proverbs 3:5–6. Surrender is framed not as defeat but as the beginning of freedom. Trust is learned in relationship with God, not handed to a stranger.
Week 7 — Forgiveness (p. 77)
Ephesians 1:7. Hurt in a fallen world, and unforgiveness as poison that stays after the wound. The week works through receiving forgiveness in Christ and extending it to others.
Week 8 — The Power of Words (p. 103)
Proverbs 18:21. The tongue as a gauge of the soul. Renewed minds produce different conversation; unsurrendered habits show up first in speech.
Week 9 — The Living Word (p. 125)
Joshua 1:6–8. The Bible as gift: direction, strength, and a way to stand. Read it, meditate on it, obey it. This week is the course’s longest look at Scripture itself.
Week 10 — Video notes: Vessels of Honor (p. 141)
Acts 10:38. Opens Section Three. Spiritual conflict: the dragon thrown down (Revelation 12:7–9) and the call to be useful in the Master’s hand.
Week 11 — Vessels of Honor (p. 147)
2 Timothy 2:20–21. Gold and clay in the same house. Purity, readiness, and being a utensil the Master can use. The book says no one starts as gold; it is a process.
Week 12 — Worship (p. 167)
Isaiah 38:18–19. Only the living praise God. Love received becomes love returned. Duty is meant to become devotion. The semester ends here, then the conference.
