It’s About Love And Trust

Lately I’ve been getting the same question.  What’s Thrive really about?

It’s really a great question because pastors and leaders typically want to know if we’re just like everything else they have seen.  Are we simply a Bible study for small groups?  And the answer is no.  We’re actually very different than what people are used to.  Our primary mission is not giving people the right answers as much as it is in helping them discover what it means to follow Jesus so they can discover the right person.  So then what is a Thrive group?  What do you do that makes you different?

And the answer is love and trust.

Central to the story in Scripture is this idea that the footsteps of following Jesus leads to a very different way of being human, of transformation at the very basic level.  And that way of being human is summed up in the two practices of love and trust. Jesus modeled a very missional way of life, of engaging something bigger than ourselves.  He invited people to participate in what God was already doing, the Missio Dei.

As we begin to follow Jesus, He immediately leads us back to the Father, which addresses the fundamental disconnect that happened in the Garden.  And as we embrace this relationship, he empowers us with the Holy Spirit, who then transformed us inwardly to become like Jesus.  This being loved process allows us to love.

But how often do we have a space to work out the tension inherent in the restoration process?  How often do we really have a space to work out our questions, and doubts and wounds that cripple even the best of us.  Where do we go to find healing?

So Thrive groups are about working out love and trust in a Tribe.  It’s about working out the junk that gets in the way of our own restoration, in an authentic community that is willing to be love in the process. And not the sticky sweet kind of love that rescues someone from facing the chaos, but the kind that walks through the chaos together, so we can reach the other side.  It’s engaging God’s mission of restoration together in communitas, or community in mission.  And a long the way we discover that this is how Jesus did it.  Three years together in mission.  It was a natural leadership development process through experience.

And when the three years were over, each tribe was ready to go outward and lead others in their own restoration.  They had practiced love and trust in a very trust setting.  They had practiced engaging mission.  And they went out not because they had to, but because they saw that their own restoration was intimately tied to helping others through their own restoration.

So that’s what makes us different.

If you are looking to create this type of space, we can help.  Contact us today to get a free digital copy of our leadership manual.

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Jonathan Brink is the Managing Director of Thrive Ministries.  He lives in Folsom, Ca with his wife and three kids.  He loves Sharks hockey, Peets coffee and good sushi.

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