The Freedom Church has officially moved into the building on the corner of North Broadway and West Second Street, which used to be Joe’s Diner, and is beginning to hold services on Sunday mornings.
The church leased the building in December and has remodeled it to house many things similar to their church in Grand Forks.
“On Sunday morning, you can expect to be greeted at the door. We have coffee and donuts set up right away in the morning. We have our Next Steps area, which is just more information about the church for guests and visitors. If you’re new here, you can find out more about what we have going on throughout the week with Connect Groups and midweek services. Then we start with songs and worship. We have a full band that plays live every Sunday morning,” Freedom Church Pastor Joel Schwartz explained. “We then share announcements discussing things that are going on throughout the week, then we get into the message, open up the scripture and read and find out more about what God is talking to us. Sometimes we have live messages, and we live stream the service from Grand Forks with Pastor Nathan Johnson there on a screen, and we cooperate that way.”
To help get any new members involved with activities in the church, Freedom Church has its Next Step area where members can participate in events the church holds within and for volunteering events.
“We have info about different programs that the church has. We haven’t replicated all the ones in the Grand Forks church. They have Food Rescue, Celebrate Recovery, an addiction recovery program, and very valuable programs that we’re to replicate when we can,” said Schwartz. “Right now, we have transportation to those things, and we have Connect Groups here, which is often times connected in people’s homes, sometimes here at the church, which are small groups where people can get together and get to know other people a lot better than during a big service on Sunday morning. Then we have ways to volunteer and help serve, like helping with the coffee, helping with reading in the morning, and teaching kids. Anyway, you want to come from just showing up to a Sunday morning service to being more involved. That’s what Next Steps is all about.”
Along with services, the church is holding Sunday School for the children of families during the church services.
“We have Sunday School concurrent with the service, so when parents come in, we can check them in right away. We have a check-in process, and then the kids go to the classroom. They have their own music and teaching that is tailored to their ages. Right now, we have two rooms for kids, a nursery and preschool together, and then we have elementary, which is for kids from kindergarten to 5th grade,” said Schwartz. “We also have a Quiet Room for parents with babies to take if they want to feed them or change their diapers. It’s an area where they can take them out to relax a little bit. So we have three spaces there, and we have services for the kids every time we have Sunday services for the adults with teachers in both classes, and the Quiet Room is available for parents.”
While the church has not done an official grand opening yet, it held a soft opening on Sunday, February 26, and is planning to hold more services every Sunday, starting at 10:00 a.m., while it continues to make preparations and additions (such as installing some new doors, testing sound systems, etc.) to the church, but plans to officially announce its grand opening on April 2 for Palm Sunday. For their grand opening, they will have a normal service at 10:00 a.m., followed by a Community Dedication Service at 2:00 p.m., where they will invite members of the community, like the other church pastors.
Pictures of the inside of the church can be seen below-
