The T.H.R.I.V.E. Workshop: Taking the Next Step
Every church has a story. Some are in seasons of growth. Others are navigating transition, asking hard questions about what comes next. Wherever a church finds itself, the NWBC’s T.H.R.I.V.E. Workshop is designed to meet the church right there and help with next steps.
T.H.R.I.V.E. focuses on six characteristics of a healthy church: Biblical Teaching, Healthy Relationships, Reproducible Discipleship, Involvement, Vision and Mission, and Evangelism, Built around this framework, the Workshop is not a lecture or a quick fix. It is a prayerful, relational, and Spirit-led process where the NWBC walks alongside church leaders and members to seek God together. The goal is to help the church discern where God is leading and then help them take practical steps in that direction.
Over the course of a weekend, churches move through four stages: Discover, Dream, Develop, and Do. Friday evening begins with dinner and a time of discovering the heart of God, who the church is, and who lives around them. Based on what they discover, they begin to dream about what God wants to do in and through them. Saturday turns toward strategic planning, developing goals and action steps, with a clear understanding of who is going to do what by when. Sunday closes with encouragement and support.
Churches walk away with a shared understanding of their current reality, a defined mission and vision, four to six clear goals, and action steps with ownership and timelines.
Pastor Matthew Ellis of Grace Baptist Church in Vancouver, Washington, experienced this firsthand. In 2023, Grace Baptist partnered with the NWBC for the T.H.R.I.V.E. Workshop and evangelism training.
“We developed crucial goals that helped us see beyond our past, recognize where God is working, and begin moving that direction. We started to form tangible plans and focused teams that helped take practical next-steps in our journey of faithfulness.” -Pastor Matthew Ellis, Grace Baptist Church, Vancouver, WA
Since that partnership, Grace Baptist has seen transformation in how the church welcomes and connects, cares for its facilities, and expands its discipleship ministries.
“They [NWBC] continually serve as co-laborers in helping us see and pursue God’s direction in our unique context,” Ellis says.
For Pastor Brian Jenkins at New Beginnings Baptist Church in Rathdrum, Idaho, the Workshop delivered something unexpected. In 2023, his leadership team invited the NWBC to lead them through the process, hoping for fresh ideas. They left with a wake-up call. A life cycle evaluation revealed they were in a “preservation” stage, and without real change, could face closing their doors within five years.
“The T.H.R.I.V.E. Workshop didn’t just show us where we were, it helped us believe there was still a future worth working towards,” Jenkins says.
His church restructured its leadership around key ministries, became more active in community events, launched outreach into new housing developments, and began tackling building projects they had put off for years.
“God is not done with our church. We want to faithfully align our hearts, our relationships, and our ministry with what God wants to do through us.”
The NWBC’s commitment is simple: we will walk with you every step of the way. The T.H.R.I.V.E. Workshop is that promise in action.
Every church has a story. Every church has a next step. T.H.R.I.V.E. helps churches prayerfully discover theirs, and the NWBC is committed to walking alongside them as they take that next step.
For more information about our T.H.R.I.V.E. Workshops, please contact tim.walker@nwbaptist.org
