Story

It’s funny what happens when God decides to really move within His creation. What started out as a bunch of people wrestling with what it meant to be engaged in the Christian faith, and struggling with traditional approaches to small groups, turned into the journey of a lifetime.  When the dust settled it was clear that within this eclectic group of friends we had discovered something special, the foundation of which ended up becoming what is now Thrive.

This original group was made up of twelve men who were wrestling with the complacencies of a typical consumer oriented faith.  We were tired of waking up every morning with questions aching in our hearts about the divide that existed in our lives.  How could we find the wholeness that our souls were longing for without scaring it away before we started?

We banded together to really explore what it meant to be real and do it in such a way that the soul would have a place to show up. We knew that we were not interested in just a typical “Bible study” that so many of us had participated in. We didn’t need more “info”. Instead, we were looking for a place to really look deeply into the heart of each man and explore what it meant to be a child of God in a broken world. We needed something that would resonate within our heart.

At first we wandered, trying new things that we hoped would work. Some did and some didn’t. But in the discovery process something began to emerge that caught us completely by surprise. We discovered something call “communitas”, even though we wouldn’t know what to call it for several years. Using a few well-defined guidelines, a process called rounds that helped facilitate conversation, and a willingness to take a risk with our hearts, we discovered that “men” could be real with each other.  We could engage God’s mission of restoration.

Within months of starting, people began to talk. Something completely different was happening and people were taking notice. People could see that we were different from the experience. Men in the group were realizing that we had discovered food for the soul and it was good.

With this realization, we wrestled with what it means to take this out to the community around us, people like our wives, our friends, and those in our church.  We chose to stay together to really explore the depths of what we had found, reminding ourselves that Jesus had spent three years with His disciples.  With this in mind, we chose to go deeper into His Kingdom, hoping that we could come back fully prepared to help others discover this same journey.

This deeper journey meant exploring the things we didn’t like to admit, things such as wounds, our fears and things that divided our souls.  What would wholeness and maturity really look like?  But much to our surprise we weren’t the same individuals anymore.  We had discovered a courage that resided in authentic community that allowed us to minister to our brokenness and heal the great divide between what the world sees and what we knew to be the true self. Men were discovering a way to really leave behind the baggage they had held for ages.  Out of this came healing that awakened us to what it meant to actually live in His kingdom.

Along the way, two of our fellow travelers decided it was time to explore if what we had could be replicated in another group.  Could communitas be true for everyone who was really interested?  Not surprisingly the interest was overwhelming and three new groups were started, two of which were for women.  Two of the new leaders had only seen glimpses of what the journey was about but knew they wanted what we had found.  Initial word came back from the groups that they, too, were experiencing something they had never seen before.  The only thing that did surprise us was how quickly they were able to see what we had seen.

Over time we began to really look at what we were doing and discovered that we had simply stumbled onto His mission, or Missio Dei.  We were engaging the restoration of His creation, which we were a part of.  And the more we engaged it the more we began to see love that led us to restore those around us.

So what were we to do with information like this?  What do you do when the Spirit of God moves among your people in such a way that requires action?  We did what anyone would do.  We took notes, we jotted down everything we learned and we created a ministry that could support taking what we had discovered to those who were interested in engaging God’s mission.  We designed a missional discipleship process that carried individuals through a holistic approach to engaging God’s mission.  This included the story of God, which would give them a deeper understanding of the whole story and exercises and support materials and retreats that would minister to the leader and prepare him or her for the journey.

We knew we didn’t have all the answers. But we also knew that God had given us a glimpse into the reality of what waspossible for anyone who was looking for amore holistic approach to following Jesus. We set out with simple joy that would lead us to those who wanted, no needed to engage His mission.

We assume you are one of them?