Despite living in an age of constant connection, loneliness is at an all-time high. Alli Patterson explores five key relationships modeled by Jesus—your core, circle, comrades, community, and crowd—offering a blueprint for belonging. Through biblical insight and practical guidance, she helps readers cultivate meaningful, restorative relationships that truly satisfy the soul.

While simple at times, this is an excellent overview of how Jesus structured His relationships and why. I could easily identify times in my life when one of these layers of relationships was missing and how it affected me. Feeling a sense of belonging—whether among those who know you best or even in a crowd of strangers—deeply impacts our soul and our understanding of purpose.

I picked up this book because I want to do a series at my young adults ministry (I’m a YA pastor) on friendships and building relationships. This book offers a solid framework for the types of relationships we need and presents them in a logical order. However, I plan to supplement each of the five categories with practical application from other books, like Jennie Allen’s Find Your People and Mel Robbins’ section on friendship in The Let Them Theory.

Thank you @revellbooks for the eARC 🩷

Perfect for you if you like:
Building intentional relationships
Learning from Jesus’ life model
Exploring how faith shapes connection and belonging

Similar to:
Find Your People by Jennie Allen
Made for People by Justin Whitmel Early (I have not read)f
Friendship—It’s Complicated by Andi Andrew

This was a practical and helpful read! I went in a little skeptical, but was quickly impressed with Patterson's conversational style, the topic's rootedness in Scripture and Christ's relationships with his disciples, and the plethora of helpful tips.

I'm looking forward to revisiting the book post release, when the appendix is available, and making additional notes. I'm about a year into a cross-country move, and now that I'm reasonably confident I'll be here for a while, it helps to have a blueprint (lol) for moving forward.

I received an eARC of the book from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.