Advanced Development Teams

The Life Model explores the intersection of discipleship and brain science to find out how we are designed to mature and grow. We ask, “How do we grow into being a people who love as Jesus loved?” Think of the most difficult and seemingly insolvable problems in our world: Racial healing, crisis pregnancies, police-citizen interaction, the opiate addiction epidemic. These intractable issues are primarily relational and emotional in nature. They require developing character and maturity to bring lasting change, yet we often neglect this side of the problem.

GOING DEEPER WITH ADT’S

Think about areas of Christian ministry where the Life Model brings a new perspective: Discipleship, spiritual direction, Christian counseling, campus ministry, missions, disaster relief. The Life Model speaks into these areas as well with theory and practice that have been largely missing.

Life Model Works is excited to announce we are convening Advanced Development Teams (ADTs). Their purpose is to devote a year to focus on a specific problem area with a team of invested people. We are looking for members who are already attempting to solve these problems and who would like to go deeper with the Life Model and others in their same field.

Dr. Jim Wilder (Ph.D., Clinical Psychology, and M.A. Theology, Fuller Theological Seminary) has been training leaders and counselors for over 27 years on five continents. He is the author of multiple books with a strong focus on maturing and relationship skills for leaders. His coauthored book Living From the Heart Jesus Gave You has sold over 100,000 copies and is printed in eleven languages. Wilder has published numerous articles and developed four sets of video and relational leadership training called THRIVE.

Michel Hendricks is the Director of Life Model Consulting. Michel Hendricks (MDiv, Denver Seminary; BS. University of Colorado, Boulder) has been a pastor, missionary, inventor and author. He has been a teacher and trainer for more than 25 years. He is the former pastor of spiritual formation at Flatirons Community Church near Boulder, CO. He has also served and trained in Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico, Kenya, South Sudan, and Uganda. He is the author of Basic Training for Walking with Jesus and co-author of The Other Half of Church. He works with churches and organizations to help bring maturity and the transformation of character back into the center of Christian practice.

Details

Each ADT will focus on one of the above problems (and others not listed). Here is what an ADT will look like:

  • We will convene a team of 15 people to focus on a specific issue or area of ministry.
  • We will meet for 90 minutes 2x a month for 10 months.


The first meeting of each month will focus on theory.
Jim Wilder will lead us through the latest relevant brain science that directly relates to our focus area.

The second meeting each month will focus on practice. Michel Hendricks or another Life Model Works practitioner will lead the group in relevant practices that flesh out the theory from the first meeting. In this way, we form a healthy balance between theory and practice.

Each ADT member will form their own support team of 5-10 people for the year. Members will meet with their support team monthly to pass on what they are learning. Support teams also support the ADT member in prayer, financial support (if necessary), and providing feedback.

Once the 10 months are over, we will try to meet in person for a day-long intensive to share and plan the next steps. From this time on, Life Model Works will bow out, and the team will continue meeting at a frequency they determine to continue the learning community.

GETTING STARTED

The cost to join an ADT will be $299/month for a year. If finances are a limitation, raising support from your support team is an option. Life Model Works is also raising funds to support ADT members who need financial scholarships. Here are some possible ADT focus areas:

  • Crisis pregnancy workers helping women in crisis
  • Racial reconciliation
  • Discipleship
  • Counseling & therapy
  • Handling addiction in the church
  • Women and attachment in the church
  • EMT/Ambulance personnel/Emergency room staff
  • Campus Ministry
  • Art-Music
  • Missions
  • Spiritual Direction
  • Disaster Relief
  • Police-citizen interaction
  • Education

We believe that these ATD communities will end up being the thought and practice leaders in their focus area and will spread the learning far and wide in the following years. As a result, the team at Life Model Works will refer future questions and development to the ADT team on a topic as the thought leaders in their area.

Let's Connect!

Groups will be started as they reach 15 members, and the first signups are encouraged to recruit people working in their focus area. If you are interested, please fill out the application below: