Thrive: serving congregations

On July 1, a new agency of the Christian Reformed Church in North America officially began.

Thrive is a consolidation of nine former, small ministries of the CRCNA, each of which had its own synodical mandate and budget: Chaplaincy and Care Ministry, Faith Formation Ministries, Disability Concerns, Diversity, Safe Church Ministry, Pastor Church Resources, Race Relations, Social Justice and Worship Ministries.

All of these ministries have reorganized into a single entity, which was endorsed by Synod 2023 and given a new mandate focused on encouraging and equipping congregations.

What does this look like in practice?

Thrive co-directors Lesli van Milligen and Chris Schoon asked synod delegates to spend a few minutes talking about the needs their home congregations are facing. Here is a brief sample of some of the topics that were raised:

How do we minister to people in our neighborhood, especially those who are different from us?

Our ministry leaders are burned out. How do we support them?

We have a growing percentage of seniors in our congregation. How can we tap this resource to provide intergenerational mentoring to younger generations?

One of Thrive’s key priorities is to listen to churches who have needs such as these and discern how to best meet those needs and support those congregations. Thrive aims to be more accessible, more responsive, more integrated and more stewardly than each individual ministry could be in the past, while also serving congregations in their specific needs and helping them to carry out their mission locally.

“We’ll still be active in making churches safe from abuse, including people of different abilities, encouraging faith formation, supporting chaplains, coming alongside pastors and churches in conflict, etc. We’re just now doing it together, under the Thrive name, and with a wider lens looking at the whole needs of a congregation,” said Chris Schoon.

Van Milligen gave an example: “Imagine a congregation reaching out to Thrive as they enter a transitional time of vacancy. Thrive can connect them with a specialized transitional minister (STM), who is vetted and trained to serve in situations like this. The STM also has knowledge of other Thrive resources and is able to connect the congregation to a facilitator who can help them leverage the hospitality they are already good at on Sunday morning. As a result, 20 leaders in the church become motivated to share this hospitality in more ways throughout the week. They address technical challenges, such as the need for increased signage, and adaptive challenges, such as inviting the congregation’s ministries to assess their hospitality opportunities. This is comprehensive congregational support, and this is what Thrive is about.

With Thrive, congregations will have one point of access for assistance. Once they reach Thrive, staff will be able to connect them with a comprehensive network of resources and staff.

“When we start hearing about new needs from churches, we can respond in a more nimble way. It won’t take a synodical overture and study committee to respond to new needs as they arise from our churches,” added Schoon. “Instead of siloed mandates, the broad Thrive mandate will allow us to support churches in a holistic way as new needs arise.”

This page is made possible through a partnership with CRC Ministries within Canada.