• Contact
  • Return to IBSA
  • Advertise Through Us
  • Subscribe
  • E-Reader

IBSA News

Illinois Baptist State Newspaper

  • QuickLinks
    • E-Reader
    • Subscribe
    • Baptist Press
    • Resource Magazine
  • News
    • Corona Virus
    • IBSA
    • SBC
    • Culture
    • Religious Liberty
  • Mission
    • Illinois Churches
    • Church Planting
    • Missions
    • Evangelism
  • In Focus
    • Longform Articles
  • Columns
    • Nate Adams
    • Eric Reed
    • Meredith Flynn
  • Leaders
    • Pat’s Playbook
    • Fresh Ideas
    • iLead
    • Devotional
Surviving, reviving, thriving

Surviving, reviving, thriving

October 18, 2021 By Nate Adams

Nate AdamsThis past summer, our weekly chapel times at IBSA were devoted to a series titled “Summer in the Psalms.” This book of songs and poetry, of course, gives expression to a wide range of emotions, from the lows of our woes to the heights of our worship. In doing so, it reassures us that God meets us everywhere in our human experience.

One of our speakers this summer reflected on an observation from one of his seminary professors that has stuck with him for years. That professor noted that every psalm basically describes one of three human experiences: surviving, reviving, or thriving.

When he’s barely surviving, the psalmist openly expresses his desperation. When reviving, he speaks of pain, but also of hope and recovery. And when thriving, words can barely contain his joy and exuberance and his celebration of victory.

Of course, our lives are multi-faceted, and it’s possible to experience all three of these at once. We may be thriving at work while reviving in our personal health and barely surviving spiritually. Or we may be thriving in our relationships and simply surviving at our jobs. In fact, a great self-diagnostic exercise could be to sit with some trusted friends, identify the main arenas of your life, and then share openly with one another whether you are thriving, reviving, or surviving in each area, and why.

That same type of assessment can be valuable in the life of a church. Would you or the members of your church say, “My church is thriving,” or that it is in the process of reviving, or frankly, that it’s just surviving?

Wherever your church finds itself today, God’s desire is that each church be on a journey toward thriving. Your church is the body of Jesus Christ in your community! He wants it to be healthy and vibrant, regardless of surrounding circumstances.

That’s why “Thrive” is the theme of both the IBSA Pastors Conference and the IBSA Annual Meeting this year, hosted in Springfield November 2-4. It’s a theme anchored in Acts 16:5, which describes thriving churches with these simple words: “So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.”

In the exhibit hall at this year’s meeting, there will be a conversation area where you can discuss with an IBSA consultant the question, “What is our church’s next step toward thriving?” That question is central to our network’s new mission statement, which is to “Deliver network value that inspires each church to thrive in health, growth, and mission.” I hope you and others from your church can come and begin that conversation. Whether you can come or not, it’s a conversation we at IBSA would love to have with each church.

One thing I love about the book of Psalms is that it acknowledges and empathizes with all three of these life experiences. In the Psalms, God has given us his own inspired words to talk back to him even when we are reviving, or just surviving. In every case, the posture of the psalmist toward God is the same. He turns to God, expresses his emotions freely, then declares his dependence and trust in his Creator, his King, his Savior.

God wants us to come to him in faith and obedience at all times. But it’s clear that it delights him when we and our churches are not just surviving or reviving, but moving toward thriving. So wherever you find yourself or your church, ask yourself what the next step toward thriving might be. And then if we can, let us help you take that next step.

Nate Adams is executive director of the Illinois Baptist State Association. Respond at IllinoisBaptist@IBSA.org.

Share This Story

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Coronavirus

  • News
  • Church Helps

Sexual Abuse Prevention & Ministry

Resources

  • Protect your children, protect your church
  • Caring Well
  • Related Stories

Featured Columns

Melody Westbrook

Is being a pastor’s wife a blessing or a curse?

Melody Westbrook

Hi! I’m Melody Westbrook and I am a recovering Pastor’s Wife. My husband and I recently resigned after 35 years of pastoring two churches. We moved from Oklahoma to Illinois in 1991 to plant a church in Edwardsville. As we departed, my identity as pastor’s wife quickly faded. I was warned about the loss of […]

Meredith Flynn

The whole story

Meredith Flynn

“So, Samson died too?” The question hung in the air as we read a chapter in our new Bible storybook. “Well, yes,” I said, glad for the author’s intro that explained even heroes aren’t perfect. Flawed, foolish Samson died alongside his enemies. Earlier in the collection of stories told by Kevin DeYoung, the children of […]

Why we’re here

Nate Adams

A consultant assisting IBSA with strategic planning recently challenged us with this question: “Why does Illinois need a Southern Baptist brand of disciple?” He wasn’t downplaying the Great Commission nor disparaging Southern Baptists. He was making the point that there are many other Christian groups in Illinois, in fact many other evangelical groups. Especially in […]

More Columns

Mixed expectations in federal probe of SBC

Illinois Baptist Staff

Some Illinois Baptist leaders expressed surprise but are hoping for a godly outcome in a federal investigation of the Southern Baptist Convention’s handling of sexual abuse claims. “It caught me by surprise,” said Adron Robinson, an Illinois representative on the SBC Executive Committee (EC), while also urging prayer for justice. IBSA Executive Director Nate Adams […]

News

VBS 2023

2023 VBS theme revealed

Illinois Baptist Staff

The VBS for next year is based on a fictional game, “Twists and Turns.” The theme was announced just ahead of the SBC meeting in Anaheim. “Spin the spinner, beat the clock, skip ahead, level up, and play to win!” Lifeway advertised in the big reveal.  The game theme is used to teach five key […]

Lifeway targets frontier states

Former editor dies at 61

More News Stories

Mission

Annie Armstrong

How SBC missions have been influenced by Annie Armstrong

Sandy Wisdom-Martin

A few years ago, I read the SBC president at the time was considering different gavels for presiding at the SBC Annual Meeting. One of the options under consideration was the Armstrong gavel. I sent him an email with this message: This weekend I did a bit of reading on Annie Armstrong and was inspired […]

On mission again

New partnership targets biblical literacy

More Mission Stories

  • Blog
  • News
  • Mission
  • In Focus
  • Columns
  • Leaders

Copyright © 2022 · Website by Megaphone Designs