Published on September 30, 2026 by Neal Embry  
Jonathan Goode

After serving as executive director of a nonprofit in Atlanta for a decade, Samford University’s Beeson Divinity School alumnus Jonathan Goode, MATS ’15, felt it was time for a change.

“I kept being drawn to a pastoral spirit of interacting with people,” Goode said. As he navigated the yearlong exit process from the nonprofit, he saw God provide through a friend who offered the family a farmhouse in Dublin, Georgia, the city where Goode grew up.

Goode and his wife, Ashley ’12, felt a desire to do the work of discipleship, going deeper with those seeking spiritual maturity.

“The faith that we’ve been handed has often not been formed in us in such a way that it helps us navigate these really challenging seasons of life,” Goode said.

To remedy that, in 2025, the Goodes began Fall and Be Free, a ministry aimed at discipling people through a curriculum the couple wrote themselves. The goal is deep discipleship with, as Goode puts it, “fewer branches with better fruit.”

The program’s curriculum lasts three years. Year one anchors participants in the idea of spiritual formation, the need to grow alongside others and how to be shaped by God. Year two is “heavy teaching” on the Bible and church history, which Goode said should be a non-negotiable in discipleship. Year three will teach participants how to make disciples of others and take them through the curriculum.

In addition to leading Fall and Be Free, Goode serves as the next steps pastor at Liberty Church in Dublin, having agreed to serve for 18 months and create a discipleship program similar to Fall and Be Free in the context of the local church.

While his work with Fall and Be Free is not centered in a single church, his hope is that those who are served will become more mature and subsequently better leaders in the churches God has placed them.

And while Fall and Be Free is centered in the Atlanta area and is not rooted in one specific church, Goode said it isn’t designed to take away from the local church, but to strengthen those who are part of it.

“We want people participating in Fall and Be Free to remain connected to their local church,” Goode said. “It makes them stronger members while providing a good opportunity to get out of their normal church life and get together with folks going to the deep end of faith.”

While they live in Dublin, Fall and Be Free has taken root in Atlanta, a two-and-a-half hour drive away. While not ideal, Goode said it has been a calling. He does expect to eventually move back to Atlanta to lead Fall and Be Free full time.

Goode said Beeson not only taught him academically but discipled him spiritually.

“Beeson taught me how to be a serious student of the Bible,” Goode said. “It made me see a value of church history I didn’t learn in the local church. It made me ask why I had to come to that context to get discipled. Yes, there was an academic framework to Beeson, but what was more important was the man I became through that, and how that encounter with the truth of God’s Word didn’t just educate me; it changed me.

“Beeson gave me a picture of what could be, and I don’t think I start Fall and Be Free if I don’t go to Beeson,” Goode said.

 
Located in the Homewood suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, Samford is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Samford enrolls 6,522 students from 46 states, Puerto Rico and 12 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Ranked among U.S. News & World Report’s 35 Most Beautiful College Campuses, Samford fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and boasts one of the highest scores in the nation for its 97% Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.