Our conviction
Formation first. Everything else flows from that.
Thrive exists because too many churches are one personality away from losing their leadership bench, and no curriculum fixes that.
The problem is not a shortage of leadership content.
There has never been more available. Conferences, podcasts, books, courses. And still, pastors tell us the same three things: the same few people carry everything, the emerging leaders plateau and drift, and when a key person leaves there is no one formed enough to step in.
That is not an information problem. Information is abundant and formation is scarce. Formation takes a mentor who knows your name, a practice you actually do, and enough time for it to cost you something. It cannot be downloaded, and it cannot be outsourced to us.
So we build with churches rather than for them. The pathway lives in your building, led by your people, in your language. We are not trying to become indispensable to you. We are trying to make ourselves unnecessary.
What we are, and what we are not
We are
A formation ecosystem for local churches
Built around mentored relationship, not solo learning
Designed to be owned and sustained by your church
Early, honest, and building in the open
We are not
A leadership training program
A certification pathway
A consulting firm that assesses your church
A content platform
Meet our Founder
Christina Lowery
Founder, Thrive Churches
Christina believes leaders take shape slowly, in community, and she has spent more than twenty years building the places where that happens.
She planted Crossroads Church in Fredericksburg, Virginia, and pastored it for seventeen years, building the discipleship and volunteer systems that turned church members into leaders. She also served four years as the Associate National Director of Church Health and Development for Vineyard USA, where she designed and launched Vineyard Leadership Essentials, a national training pathway that reached more than 100 churches in its first year.
That work led to the Thriving Leader Pathway, a five-stage formation curriculum that helps churches grow leaders from within instead of importing a program. It rests on the conviction Christina keeps coming back to: who a leader is becoming matters more than what a leader is doing. She founded Thrive to put that pathway in the hands of pastors and church leaders who want to form and multiply leaders in their own congregations.
Christina preaches and teaches nationally and internationally. Her voice is honest and grounded, bringing both depth and authenticity to the conversations that shape our faith and leadership, creating space for meaningful growth that ministry requires. To invite her to speak, use the form below.
At home, she is a mom of three. Her two oldest are grown, her youngest is thirteen, and the whole family loves to travel. Ask any of them where they’d go tomorrow, and the answer is probably Maui.
Speaking