TFRP Update May 2025
From the Weathered Leather Chair...
Mama Cindy asked a great question at Grace and Grits...
Side Note: Mama Cindy's one of my favorite real-life Flannery O'Connor characters living life in the Low Country of Charleston, SC. She's one of Jeanette's spiritual mamas, a champion of The Free Range Pastor, and a Hoot!
BACK TO THE STORY:
There we were, sitting with Mama Cindy and Daddy Hank over bowls of gouda-laced grits, stacked with crispy fried chicken, generously smothered with heirloom tomatoes, fried brussels, and served with Grace!
STOP DROOLING—we've got a story to finish.
Mama Cindy leaned in and asked, “Is the Free Range Pastor doing anything new and exciting this year?”
Now, if you know anything about a 7 wing 7 on the Enneagram, you know how we thrive on new and exciting. But this time, my answer came with a huge smile and surprising clarity:
“Honestly, we’re just doing the same old-glorious things”!
2025 marks year three of The Free Range Pastor Mission, and our goal remains beautifully simple: to pastor people who need one but can’t name one! To seek, gather, and tend the souls of those outside the Church or lost in the margins.
What’s New?
NOTHING but the People.
Can we quickly unpack that?
Free Range Socials:
Because Jesus came eating and drinking with sinners like us.
We host socials where people encounter authentic hospitality, meet a pastor, and build friendships in a welcoming community.
These connections often lead people into new friendships and deeper community experiences like Wilco AM/PM.
Free Range Pastoring:
Because Jesus came to seek, tend, and gather the lost.
We offer a Pastoral “spiritual diagnostic”, helping individuals assess their spiritual lives and identify God's presence and invitation.
We’re seeing renewal, healing, and deepened relationships with Jesus
Free Range Pastoring:
Because Jesus came to seek, tend, and gather the lost.
We offer a Pastoral “spiritual diagnostic”, helping individuals assess their spiritual lives and identify God's presence and invitation.
We’re seeing renewal, healing, and deepened relationships with Jesus
Free Range Pilgrimage:
Because Jesus walked alongside us on the road, leading us to a fellowship meal.
We create opportunities for people to step out of their routines and into creation for spiritual renewal. Road-trips, fire pits, and round tables offer time for curious conversations.
People often return with refreshed visions for their lives and callings, remembering they’re embodied souls and not machines.
Something about pilgrimage in creation reminds us of our true humanity.
FREE RANGE COMMUNITIES:
Because Jesus gathered the scattered into homes and families.
We foster smaller, personal communities where individuals can be authentically known and loved by followers of Jesus, regardless of profession or faith.
These communities are spaces of genuine friendship rather than structured programs.
We haven’t invented anything radically new, but we've certainly flipped the paradigm.
The typical scenario—inviting individuals into large, impersonal gatherings—often leaves people feeling herded like cattle rather than gently guided like sheep.
(and thank you, AI, for including the bowl of grits in the illustration.)
Through the Free Range Pastor mission, we flip that around. We start with a personal pastoral connection, backed by vibrant, relational communities ready to offer friendship and hospitality. Here, people genuinely feel sought, found, gathered, and tended—experiencing the tangible love of God through meaningful pastoral care and authentic Christian friendships.
Truthfully, this is nothing revolutionary. It’s simply what the Church, at its best, has been doing for centuries: providing spaces for real spiritual friendship and community where together we can explore “the reasons for the hope” we find in Jesus.
So, with all that said—who’s ready for some grits and a conversation about the amazing Grace that makes all this possible?
YOU are the reason we do what we do.
THANK YOU for your support, prayers, and partnership in this beautifully timeless adventure of seeking, gathering, and tending souls together!
Your Feral Pastor, Ken
As Always…A FINANCIAL UPDATE
The work of The Free Range Pastor is 100% funded by family, friends, and supporters who love us and believe in the mission.
It’s all funded by those who love others more than themselves and want to offer a pastor to the world for free!
The mission is 55% funded by monthly supporters with the remaining coming through one-time & annual gifts!
Would you prayerfully consider becoming a monthly supporter — like right now?
Or making up the difference through a one-time gift?
Thank you for your faithful prayers!
