 LifeShapes…Building
a Generation of Passionate Believers
Everyone hungers to lead a healthy, thriving, passionate life. The question is how to attain it. The obvious answer is "through Jesus Christ," but, regardless how true, general answers only go so far for believers struggling with specific challenges. Many have found approaches and programs that used to work to be ineffective in today's world. The very landscape of the Church and of culture have blurred beyond recognition.
 Pastors Mike Breen and Walt Kallestad
were intimately familiar with these challenges facing the Church and society as a whole. They each
began a search for lasting, satisfying answers. Their
search resulted in LifeShapes—eight biblical
truths that transformed their churches and the lives
of the people in them!
With LifeShapes, every believer who yearns for a faith with the power to transform every aspect of their lives, their relationships, and their communities will live the life Jesus promised—a passionate life. And every pastor can lead as Jesus intended, and their church will be—a passionate church!
How can simple
shapes be used to grow a church?
LifeShapes is not a program. It’s
a discipline—a way to understand ourselves,
our relationships to Christ and to one another.
It encourages church growth because
it focuses on multiplication through disciples making
disciples. This was the only way that Jesus said to
win the lost—not to lure them into a church pew
and add them to the roll. Rather, we’re to make
disciples…true believers who grow and make other
believers.
 LifeShapes is designed to equip the
believer for Kingdom life by linking the discipleship
principles of Jesus to memorable images—eight
shapes. It forms the vocabulary that expresses the
theology and daily life of a disciple of Jesus, painting
a clear picture through which individuals can gain
a greater understanding of what God intends to do in
their personal lives, in the church, and in the world.
In Jesus’ day, teaching was based
on the oral tradition. People learned through storytelling
and verbal teaching rather than reading texts. Today’s
generation is visually oriented. Trying to convey aspects
of discipleship through lists, principles and phrases
does not work in our time. But LifeShapes provides
a simple but powerful way to help people learn and
to remember the principles of the Jesus-driven life.
Eight key concepts will make each disciple
a life-long learner of the faith. Disciples get
a strong framework for truth, enabling them to build
biblical principles into every aspect of their lives
and to grow together in authentic community—this
is the whole aim of LifeShapes.
When LifeShapes works under the empowering
of the Holy Spirit, church leaders will make disciples
who in turn make other disciples, and build communities
of believers that are passionate about their faith!
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