The Life Model: Living from the Heart Jesus Gave You

The Life Model was written by the Shepherd’s House staff over a period of several years. Contributions were made by Dr. James Friesen, Dr. Jim Wilder, Anne Bierling, Rick Koepcke and Maribeth Poole. This strong group of men and women were studying the reasons why some people who came for help would heal and grow while others stayed in trouble. Concepts in the Life Model (like maturity) are based on what people would look like if we did things right instead of an average of how most people turn out at each age. The five factors identified in this book that help people change are: having a place to belong, receiving and giving life, learning to recover from things that go wrong, maturing and getting to know our hearts. These five became known as the “five to thrive.” The staff decided to write as condensed a book as possible on these five factors. It was also decided that the book would be aimed at the communities who were trying to make a difference in people’s lives rather than an academic audience.
Living From The Heart Jesus Gave You is not a book on theology. It is about being fully alive and, for that reason, Christians from many different doctrinal convictions have been able to use our model. The book is now in several languages and being translated into new languages by a wide assortment of groups that do not usually share much in common. It is remarkable achievement to condense so much wisdom into such a short book(133 pgs).
"The Life Model is the best model I have seen fro bringing Christ to the center of counseling and
restoring the disintergrating community fabric within Christian churches." Dr Dallas Willard