FreedUp is a stewardship training program for churches. It offers culturally-current resources to help guide and equip believers to manage money in healthier ways, through Biblical wisdom. It’s for people in any financial situation, from in-debt to wealthy. The app addresses all the components of financial stewardship, including Earning, Giving, Saving, Spending, and Debt.

Bible studies on money are out there but often lack a practical aspect. They’re good at teaching Biblical principles but not as good at providing the needed tools to put those principles into practice. Many courses assume that everyone is in debt and focus most of their content on getting out of debt. This is an unbalanced view of stewardship and doesn’t speak to believers who aren’t struggling with debt.

FreedUp can be packaged as a training class at church, a teaching series, virtual individual work, or done in a small group. Activity mainly takes place in an App, with a companion workbook. Couples can participate while only paying for one subscription to the app – unlike many courses where they’d have to pay for each individual. Participants have access to the app for an entire year, so they can revisit what they’ve learned or even take different tracks if their situation changes.

Since it’s flexible and addresses multiple audiences, it could be used as a benevolence tool for those in financial crisis. But it could also be used as part of pre-marital counseling or in a marriage ministry to help couples come together in this key area. It could be offered as a small-group curriculum. And we’ve seen it used as part of an overall teaching series on stewardship for a church-wide initiative.

Yes! In fact, our pilot group was an all-virtual group. The group sync tools provided in the app can be used with groups that meet in person, virtually, or a combination of the two. Larger groups meeting virtually can use breakout rooms to keep group size manageable and give everyone a chance to participate.

FreedUp costs $99 per individual or couple. However, for churches running the FreedUp program, the church license agreement provides for a greatly reduced cost.

FreedUp offers a unique Money Motivation quiz at the beginning. Participants identify their primary money motivation through an assessment and then throughout the course, we refer back to that money motivation to help them understand the decisions they make and avoid some pitfalls. The app adds the participant to a “lane” of education that best fits their current financial situation:

• Lane 1: Barely making ends meet, significant worry about money, maybe missing some payments, lots of debt.
• Lane 2: Doing OK but not making headway. Not living paycheck to paycheck but if they missed a couple of checks, they’d be in trouble. Not saving much, probably have consumer debt.
• Lane 3: Have more than enough resources but don’t feel free financially. Worried about having enough though they have sufficient savings. Minimal consumer debt compared to their net worth. This is not just 7-figure income people!

The App work is accompanied by an individual workbook in a 6-week experience for all three lanes. The participant is walked through the three big ideas and 5 core concepts of FreedUp:

1. We are free when we are faithful stewards
2. A faithful steward is both a diligent earner and prudent spender
3. A prudent spender is a generous giver first, a wise saver, and a cautious debtor

No. It does not offer financial advice and does not sell or promote any financial products or recommend specific advisors. FreedUp is strictly about providing Biblical wisdom and practical tools to manage finances in a God-honoring way.

FreedUp is created by CRGS, a not-for-profit organization formed by Crossroads Church of Cincinnati and Good Sense. Good Sense has been around for over 40 years. Hundreds of thousands of people have used the Good Sense curriculum to transform finances and transform their lives. More info at: https://goodsensemovement.org

To go through the FreedUp program, you need to use the App. A workbook will also be mailed to you that you use alongside the app, but the workbook doesn’t replace the App.

FreedUp is a 6-week course. You could go through it faster, but we recommend that pace so you can complete all of the work easily. Each module takes about an hour to complete, plus you can also participate in the Group content with your friends or small group, which would add another hour weekly.

You can access FreedUp for one year after purchase.

FreedUp is currently available in the US and Canadian app stores. If you are outside of the US or Canada and are interested in stewardship training, contact us for additional offerings from Good Sense.

There is group content at the end of each module of FreedUp. This work is optional, but greatly benefits your FreedUp experience. You can do FreedUp group work with your friends or small group. Anyone can be a facilitator for a group using the facilitator’s guide.

Since the group work follows the modules of FreedUp, it takes 6 weeks. But your group can meet at whatever pace you want, so you may take longer than the 6 weeks to get through it together. Each week’s group work is roughly an hour long.

The app has a function where the group facilitator syncs the group up through a link, so only your group members can see your group entries. This also allows facilitators to limit who is in the group.

And, it’s great for groups to have people in different lanes participating together! No awkward sharing of financial data, but plenty of opportunities to learn from each other.

The church licensing fee includes access to our Resource Kit, which contains resources for marketing the program, outlines for a sermon series, helps for group leaders and much more. See our Resource Kit page for more information.