JARRETT GOODMAN
Staff Writer
Perched beside the quaint, country roadside of East Valley Road lies the community’s newest center of worship.
Freed Ministries is Marion County’s latest addition to the religious scene, a new place of worship where everyone are welcome to attend. Ric Lyons is the church’s leading pastor, serving as a pastor for over 20 years. The church’s roots in the community were first laid in January, filling in the empty space left behind by the East Valley Worship Center, a church Lyons himself served as pastor of 20 years prior under a different denomination.
Lyons’ journey as a pastor began after going through various personal hardships during his year’s residing in Charlotte, North Carolina. There, he met other pastors with similar hardships who turned to the church seeking help and guidance, eventually becoming pastors and turning their lives around for the better. Lyons decided to follow in their footsteps and enter ministry, turning his own life around and striving to do the same for others struggling through their personal challenges.
“There’s a saying that goes, ‘We turn scabs into scars.’ You’ll get a scab and it feels a lot better, but then something hits it and it knocks it off and hurts all over again. But a scar doesn’t hurt. You know you’ve been there but it doesn’t hurt anymore. So we take people from scabs to scars,” said Lyons.
Tonya Miller, Inreach/Outreach Pastor of Freed Ministries, explained an additional goal the church pursues is to help visitors become “the hands and feet” of the church, meaning to help spread the Bible’s teachings to others throughout the community. Miller explained that the ministry is currently looking to acquire a separate facility to use as its main food pantry, as the church helps donate food to those in need within the area. The facility will also serve a thrift/gift store, selling various clothes and other items at low prices. Miller explained the shop would function similarly to Goodwill but on a smaller, more localized scale, all the while embodying the ministry’s core mission of community outreach.
“We’re going to give more away than what we sell,” said Miller.
Currently, Tonya and Ric are in the process of establishing Operation Freed Christmas, the church’s Christmas toy drive & giveaway event scheduled for Sunday, Dec. 7. The church has recently received $1,500 in donated funds to go towards the purchase of toys for children within the community, volunteers serving as the “Freed elves” going out and helping purchase different gifts.
Freed Ministries hosts weekly Sunday classes for children and is in the works of establishing a youth group to be held every week. The church also hosts college-level courses every Wednesday night via the ministries’ School of Ministry, an accredited program dedicated to Christian education. The church also looks ahead to acquire an outdoor venue for future events and masses held, further helping engrain Freed Ministries’ as one of Jasper’s newest religious facilities.