The Thriving Church Podcast

Common beliefs foster cooperation among Baptist churches. That’s been the background of Baptist Associations since 1644. In fact, the first cooperative Baptist action was establishing common beliefs. Explore, with associational Director of Missions Stephen Baum what associations are and how churches can get involved in God’s mission together.

This episode explores practical and simple strategies to help churches be visitor-friendly. Podcast guest Herminio Estrada, pastor of Iglesia Hermosa, Santa Fe, describes how his church intentionally focuses on hospitality, music, and great speakers to connect with and keep visitors. The church constantly reaches new people. Estrada says churches need to use the best tools in our shed to reach lost people with the Gospel.

Podcast guest MicahE joins the podcast for a second episode to discuss his experiences as a young leader growing in evangelism and helping others grow. This episode explores two levels where evangelism tools, church community, and personal discipline help people develop evangelism skills: the level of one’s personal life and the level of ones community role of helping others grow.

Podcast Guest MicahE talks about his journey from no evangelism to natural evangelism. Admitting he is not an expert, but a learner, he traces his way through desire, evangelism adjacent activities, to learning through a mentorship, into a regular lifestyle of finding people willing to listen and engage in spiritual conversations. Along the way, he led people to faith in Jesus and discovered the freeing principles of God’s sovereignty in evangelism and permission in evangelism.

Listen in for some quick, practical tips on being a personable witness to lost people during evangelistic encounters of any kind. Start with relationships. Focus on the person. And, more. Guest Rick Brittain picks up where the last episode ended and helps people growing along the stages of evangelism to relate to people in a natural way.

Believers grow through identifiable stages in their evangelism journey. Everyone is in a different place, but everyone is somewhere among the stages. Three important concepts give the stages significance: spectrum, baseline, and surge. Two critical questions make the stages practical and helpful. Learn the stages, the concepts, and the questions that can help you take your next steps in evangelism as an individual or as a church. Turn up your evangelistic temperature naturally. God is at work. Get ready to grow. Get ready to surge. Lost people are waiting for you.

Guest and pastor Dean Turvaville tells his stories of God reviving small churches, even in very small places. From six members, 20 members, and eight members, Dean has watched God's people join God at work, reaching new people in the process. Through it all, Dean has served as a bi-vocational or volunteer pastor while pursuing a secular vocation to fuel his ministry and livelihood. His stories will encourage pastors of both small and large churches because they display the amazing ways God is still at work in every place all the time. 

People unreached with the Gospel (in places where no witness exists and spiritual darkness keeps them from hearing about Jesus) desperately need a church. Guest host Matt Thackerson joins the podcast again to give an accessible introduction to church planting. He explains the what, how, when, and where of the process. Rather than seeking planters, he unwraps the process for churches and pastors who are curious about or interested in helping plant new churches. With his characteristic, earnest zeal he opens the door for churches to help launch new churches with new Christians in new places.

Any church can participate in reaching “nana, neighbors, and the nations.” The Thriving Church Podcast talks with Matt Thackerson about how. Starting Jesus entrusting His church with His mission at Pentecost, the birthday of the church, Thackerson and the podcasts hosts explore the answer. What is that mission? How does a church participate? What does it mean to send, go, pray, and give? Where is the “shallow end of the pool” where any church can start?

After a weekend when a new church made 500 contacts to share the Gospel, Steve Ballew, Matt Thackerson, Rick Brittain, and Kevin Parker explore the reality, the mandate, the barriers, and the first steps of ensuring that all New Mexico has a chance to hear the Gospel and respond to it. They backstop the convention’s theme: “That All May Hear.” With one salient statement, “I am their opportunity,” they personalize the ideas that people deserve to hear and we are their opportunity. Together, they forge a simple plea, “It’s time to start.”