Thrive Community Pathway
Weekly Meetings
In the creation story of Genesis 1 and 2, God created all things and the Bible says, “He saw that it was good.” But when God saw that man was alone, the Bible says, “He saw that it was not good.” We are created for relationship and community with God and with each other. It is impossible to build community without participation in regular gatherings in person.
Studies
The Thrive community pathway centers around regular attendance one night per week but it does not end there. Thrive STUDIES will focus on one of the Process Pathway Studies and are recommended for all participants. These studies will be hosted either on campus or at an individual's home periodically throughout the year.
Special Events
Periodically, Thrive will also sponsor special events, host guest speakers, participate in community work days, and other gatherings to promote Thrive and the growth of fellowship in our community.
Mentors / Peers / Coaches
Mentors and Peers are the ministry of Thrive. Each participant in Thrive is encouraged, not only to seek and find a mentor and peer of their own, but to also prepare and be available to mentor and peer others.
Mentorship is a ministry in and of itself. In the traditional recovery model, the qualifications for a sponsor/mentor are generally 1. participation in the program and 2. sobriety from the single issue of focus (alcohol, gambling, etc). It is recommended that a sponsor/mentor first complete the 12 step process (except the process by definition is an on-going one). In most 12 step recovery programs, sponsor/mentors are given very little direction or guidelines on how to be an effective sponsor/mentor and, as a result, millions of participants have had a wide-ranging experience, some are good, unfortunately, some are not so good. Example: “My sponsor made me attend 30 meetings in 30 days.” Even if this approach worked one time, we must question the number of times it failed. A broken clock is right twice daily.
Thrive lays some foundational guidelines for each level of interaction taking into consideration that human relationships are complex and maintaining healthy relationships requires boundaries on both parts. A lot more about mentors can be fournd here.
Thrive Small Groups
Following the large group meeting, Thrive participants will break into small groups separated by gender. These groups will be “mixed issue” meaning that Thrive does not believe in the “birds of a feather” philosophy of most recovery models. Instead, Thrive participants will share their struggles, victories, gratitude and prayer requests with others they feel comfortable with. Since we (thankfully) do not identify with a struggle or a sin, we can not divide into struggle or sin groups. Further, Thrive believes the many benefits to mixed issue groups far out way any reason to separate them.
The small groups should be limited to no more than 10 if possible. Small Group Leaders will keep the share time (depending on the number in the group) and the focus on the group shares to ensure participants don’t get off track or abuse other’s time. Remember, this may be the only time some attendees feel they are actually “heard” all week. Occasionally, Small Group Leaders will need to re-direct during a share to re-establish control.
Boundaries keep people safe. When participating in Thrive Small Group meetings each person chooses to keep the following boundaries. If a person does not honor these boundaries, they are choosing to suspend or end their participation. For more information about Small Groups and Boundaries click here.