Remembering Kitty Wilder

Kitty was passionate about living and spreading the Life Model. Several years ago, she described herself like this: “I am a THRIVE trainer, Life Model teacher, prayer minister, recovery leader, retired ordained minister with the Church of the Nazarene, missions consultant (together with my husband Dr. Jim Wilder,) wife and grandmother. I love to see God healing wounds during individual ministry sessions or in groups and through the Immanuel Process. I provide pastoral care for women, couples, and individuals with wounds from their childhood.  My husband and I consult with leaders, missions, and pastors. We train leaders, guide staff retreats, help resolve leadership issues, organizational and congregational crises. Not only have I witnessed great things from God, but His healing continues to transform my own life as well.”

Life Model Works is thankful to announce a Memorial Fund in memory of Kitty Wilder, wife of our founder, Dr. Jim Wilder. This past week, we have had many tearful conversations with Dr. Jim Wilder. He is requesting that in lieu of flowers, gifts be given to a Memorial Fund that will continue Kitty’s legacy.

For fifty years, she served with Jim to spread the Life Model far and wide. During low ebbs in the history of Shepherd’s House (which became Life Model Works), she sacrificially served with her husband Dr. Jim Wilder with no pay to keep the ministry afloat. She was excited about this new season for Life Model Works, building on the fifty-year legacy of Shepherd’s House.

Kitty was involved in receiving, giving, or training others in some form of prayer counseling, healing ministry, or spiritual warfare for over 30 years with Fuller Seminary, Bible Schools, the Church of the Nazarene, Thrive Today, and many Christian missions organizations. Her lifetime was a healing journey, and she found meaning and purpose in sharing with others the comfort and healing she had received. For all her life, in her own words, she loved to “see the world, read, camp. I am learning to enjoy all the relationships that God puts in my life. We give and receive life with one another as part of a growing spiritual family.”  Even at the height of the COVID pandemic and during her recent cancer struggle she faithfully continued to respond to emails sent to our website, providing help and information to those in need.

Kitty Wilder was a champion of the Life Model. She lived the Life Model and passed it on to others by how she lived, loved, and taught. She invested her life in spreading the Life Model.