"Hanging with Chris has been one of the most healing and restorative mentoring experiences of my life. As an apostolic leader, it can be difficult to find mentors who not only understand how pioneering leaders are wired, but are uniquely gifted to maximize their potential as leaders. Plus, his focus on relationship over program is so refreshing! I'm so grateful for Chris' wisdom, his friendship, and his empowering role in my life."
"I (often) found myself frustrated and unintentionally rejected in the rooms and conversations I was a part of. My life had become a manifestation of resulting insecurity and self-doubt - not only within ministry, but more importantly within my own home. Being given a space with my brothers to heal, belong, and safely mature into more honest expressions of ourselves has directly impacted and rewired the way I listen to and serve and love my wife and children. My work, within the context of 'ministry', flows directly from the love I give and receive at home. The relationships upon which this pathway is built have been utilized in concert with the loving relationship and Kingship of Jesus to awaken a real-life application of His words and actions in a way that moves in partnership with His Spirit."
"As a person who has planted churches, led large churches, and is now leading a decentralized network of microchurches in our city, I’ve had a 20 year obsession with understanding how it is the Spirit changes people and how it is that we can best partner with the Spirit in that process. My journey with Chris, has helped me to hone in on one of the “missing pieces” that I had intuited in my own journey, but didn’t know how to best activate it in others, let alone scale it out so many could be equipped. Our partnership has brought incredible clarity around how it is that Jesus has integrated spiritual, emotional, and relational maturity into a seamless whole. I truly believe as you walk through this process you will likely say, “This is that missing piece of disciple-making we’ve been looking for."
Making relationships more important than problems, plus knowing how to repair well after rupture takes awareness, modeling, practice and skill. It is a necessary skill that is critical for ALL families, especially extended spiritual families. Without intentional focus to develop systems and structures to repair well after a relational rupture, toxicity will ensue to fill the gap. Over time, many will feel unsafe sharing difficult things that will impede people’s ability to overcome, heal, grow, and thrive!
Children are tasked to master learning how to take care of themselves well growing up. When children are not given the permission, pathway, or tools to do so, this dynamic leads to devastating consequences relationally well into adulthood. This directly impacts Church communities. When family systems do not provide the relational skills training to care for oneself growing up, a generation will become spouses and parents who cannot have mutually satisfying relationships. The result? Today, there is an epidemic of transactional-based relationships, leaving people to experience never-ending cycles of unfulfilling, one-way relationships, which can create significant relational challenges for church-family expressions.
Through Seminary, Pastors and Church leaders are trained in Theology (hermeneutics), effective preaching of God’s word (homiletics), apologetics, spiritual formation, organizational/staff/ ministry teams’ development, fundraising/building campaigns, congregational care, small groups strategy, children’s ministry, etc... What about training in loving one another well or how to develop a culture of heaven saturated in God’s love back to Him and overflowing to loving one another well? Or connected to a group of people who know how to respond well relationally by enduring hardship under pressure? We have discovered intentional relational discipleship pathways can produce gentle protectors. What is a gentle protector? A gentle protector is someone who loves well when it’s difficult, can make relationships bigger than problems, is skilled in removing toxic shame from situations, and is a model of emotional health, stability and maturity to a community.
Providing a very simple process to help others quickly discern the best fit when joining a Church community/ Christian spiritual family without losing years of discovering the contrary.
Everyday believers will come away with tremendous clarity in navigating overwhelming situations and difficult relationships, while also being able to identify the characteristics of a gentle, protective faith community.
Church communities with an integrated culture of healing practitioners and leaders collaborating can create a context together for a powerful healing and transformational culture to emerge. A simple blueprint is provided that addresses how a Church community can effectively remove ongoing and destructive woundedness for individuals and Christian communities.
Bringing tremendous clarity to others on how to create an emotionally safe culture with high joy is critical for the exponential growth of one's faith within this type of community context through relational skill training and development.
Everyday disciples will know how to implement a more straightforward spiritual and emotional growth pathway based on their unique identity in Christ.
Equipping others to identify those Church communities and networks who are intentionally producing and multiplying current and future thriving ministry leaders responsible for creating an emotionally healthy Church/community culture for those they serve.
Find your tribe that recognizes how uniquely gifted and wonderfully designed you are unto intentionally being prepared and sent into your unique destiny and mission.
Lifetime access to Emotionally Healthy Spiritual Family Finder
Ongoing encouragement from the Hesed Discipleship Network team
Additional access to our Digital Network Community to support you on the journey ahead
Bonus lifetime access to Thriving Disciples Catalyst (valued at $3600.00)
Free strategy call with the Hesed Coaching team to help map out the best way forward to become a thriving disciple of Jesus
Chris has dedicated over 25 years of his life to working as a professional therapist, pastor, ministry leader, and church planter. He is passionate about helping everyday people experience emotionally healthy communities and building strong attachments of love and trust amongst leadership teams, leading to healthy extended spiritual family expressions. However, for a long time, there were no clear "Point A to Point B" pathways in place to help those seeking such experiences. Chris aims to provide a simple and effective way for people to access emotionally healthy communities and to pass on their experiences to others.
Chris is one of the cofounders of Hesed Discipleship Network and Thrive Microchurch Network. These organizations are dedicated to helping disciples learn how to live fully from the heart Jesus gave them, within the context of an emotionally healthy community. Finally, he is happily married to his best friend, Rebecca Jo, and loves to inspire, encourage, and equip others to thrive in their walk with Jesus!
We have included these materials to help jumpstart your journey towards living
fully alive from the heart Jesus gave you, without information overwhelm.
Other individuals and ministry leaders we have worked with have paid thousands of dollars to hire our team as consultants and coaches using this content. This same pathway is implemented in our own ministry and training of leaders to help us overcome overwhelm, disconnection and isolation to experiencing a fully alive, thriving walk with Jesus and others in the context of an emotionally healthy Christian community!
As a token of our appreciation, we are offering you direct access to our entire Thriving Disciples Catalyst training curriculum. This training, with practical application, will help accelerate your healing, freedom, and joy. You will also learn how to create your own emotionally healthy community.
"We have been on a long journey searching for deep, joyful relationships in many different church and parachurch contexts. While we had found content that promised more was available and beautifully described what we thought we had been looking for, we were struggling to make those truths a reality. Now, through the Hesed Discipleship Network, we have found the practical tools and amazing coaches we desperately needed to help realize our dreams for loving Kingdom community.”
“By my late forties, I discovered I was steeped in disappointment, anger and shattered dreams. So, I activated survival mode. I allowed my heart to become shackled. Thus, I couldn't foresee the need to be relational anymore. I didn't think I had anything that brought me true joy anymore. However, Hesed Discipleship and the Holy Spirit unlocked the suppressed, believed to be-dying art of relational skills in me! I am truly ALIVE once again. I am enjoying conversation again along with re-discovering what truly brings me joy, others. One breath at a time, HOPE is available.”
"Relational discipleship has played a vital role in my healing and self-discovery journey the last few years. Having a safe place to know and be known and love and be loved, in the midst of all my “stuff” has been life-changing. Jesus came, not only to save the Lost, but also to bring freedom to the captive, heal the broken heart and restore the wounded soul. Through life-giving relationships and community, I am now experiencing the transforming power of God through emotional maturity, wholeness, and a true understanding of who I was created to be. I am excited to walk more fully in my God-given purpose and to love others well as I continue this path of freedom in Christ."
We exist primarily to equip the Church practically on how to experience and multiply ongoing emotionally healthy community. Our organization offers live events, experiential learning communities, courses and FREE ongoing coaching for everyday disciples, ministry leaders and Church networks.
As a nonprofit organization, we partner with Jesus to create solutions to help His Church thrive! How we accomplish this mission is twofold: through fundraising with our ministry partners in conjunction with revenue-generating courses, trainings and coaching services that provides TREMENDOUS VALUE unto ongoing financial sustainability long term. Our flagship training through Hesed Discipleship Network is called Creating Emotionally Healthy Community (in 90 Days or Less). Through the generosity of others, we will continue to provide this training for FREE that includes a four-week, live Hesed Learning Community Experience with ongoing coaching afterwards.
That’s OK, we understand. If you are yet to find what you are searching for by joining a larger Church family expression, God is faithful to connect you in smaller ways as well. His overall desire is for you to have what’s called “koinonia,” which is a Greek word that means a holy, covenantal fellowship among believers that involves deep, close-knit participation in spiritual, communal aspects of life in friendships.
Oh gosh, we absolutely do not believe that! Hesed Discipleship Network (HDN) is committed to honoring everyday disciples, leaders, Church communities, and ministry networks who are following Jesus and doing amazing Kingdom works. What we are saying is that this training is designed to help those who are searching for an emotionally healthy Church expression. We are finding this content can also equip leaders, ministry networks, and Churches to examine current systems and structures to close the gap in some areas that may be having a significant negative impact on the community of believers than realized. We believe emotional health is not the most important thing in the Kingdom of God. However, not having it will have a significant impact on everything else.
That is a question we often get. Unfortunately, we do not at this time have a type of “directory” of communities, groups, and Churches. What we can provide is friendship and a network of folks that are still searching and/or building expressions of Jesus-centered spiritual family within our digital community over at http://hesednetwork.com. It’s free to join as we look forward to seeing you on the inside!
No, this doesn’t have to be the case at all. The goal is to equip people through awareness and clarity regarding expectations and opportunities to bring helpful solutions to all. We never want to see people “weaponize” the information, tools, or training. Our intent is always to heal breaches, identify normal gaps, build bridges, and collaborate on helpful solutions that can be worked out together, if possible. Just like any healthy marital and family relationship, it’s important to be allowed to ask questions that lead to helpful conversations and constructive dialogue for continued growth and development together.
Again, it’s OK if others resist or have an aversion to this material. If you’ve come this far, you are already on the journey of discovery to find answers and solutions to the challenges that come with this subject. The good news is that you will find solutions and an expression of (“koinonia”) spiritual family that is healthy regardless of any type of resistance. KEEP GOING, and don’t stop the journey to finding an emotionally healthy Church community/spiritual family expression!
For more information or questions, please email us at
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