Freedom missionary baptist church

Michael and Laura Strong formally began the work of planting a church in Near North Minneapolis, Minnesota after being approved and commissioned by the churches of the BMAA in April 2019. God planted a seed in their hearts in 2011. They began to see people who were pushed to the margins of society and in need of solid biblical preaching and discipleship. There wasn’t a place for them in most established churches that had the financial resources and solid biblical teaching. Eventually God moved the Strongs to Minneapolis where Michael attended Bible College and lived in the Near North neighborhood. They fell in love with the people of North Minneapolis and desired to put the gift of Michael’s Bible education to work serving them. 

Michael began serving as a volunteer Bible Study teacher in October of 2020. As time went on, God opened a door to work with a group of missional musicians called the Extreme Tour. Michael recruited men from his Bible Studies and put them in leadership roles to disciple them in discipling others. They worked to promote the event, which FreedomWorks agreed to host at their site, for roughly a month. God did amazing things in the life of the team. The event successfully reached the community and began to plant the seeds of the gospel and ministry collaboration. 

In September of 2021 a group of men from FreedomWorks began to reflect on God's work in their lives over the last few months. They had just wrapped up a large concert block party for the community. In the month leading up to the event, The Extreme Tour, included each of the men being tasked with leading teams and mentoring team members to oversee prayer groups, outreach groups, and several areas of service that would take place on the date of the event. The process was life-changing and the way God moved in each man and in the teams was undeniable. God pressed on the men's hearts to take a step of faith in continuing to serve Him and reach the community together as a team, a brotherhood. A prayer retreat was organized to figure out what that next step would be.

During the prayer retreat, the men studied the word and prayed together. At the end of the retreat it became clear that God was moving in the men to start a new church committed to reaching out to the community, serving each other and North Minneapolis, and committed to discipleship. More planning and prayer happened and the men began meeting on Friday nights to pray, study Scripture, and go out to share the hope of Jesus Christ together.

Today, the group is growing. They began formally meeting for worship weekly in June of 2022. We would love to invite you to join us and pray about whether the Holy Spirit is calling you to commit to joining our faith family to grow in the gospel, gather in grace, and go outside the city gates with us.

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