In a desire to manage spiritual journeys with greater care, North New South Wales Conference in February became the first Conference to soft launch the new Thrive app.. Working with its pastors, chaplains and Bible workers, President Cristian Copaceanu and his team have been working with Adventist Technology to embed Thrive, establishing a new level of diligence when it comes to contact follow up.
The Thrive app is designed to scaffold the discipleship journey, solving a number of historical challenges that the church has faced in seeking to nurture every person who desires to grow in their relationship with Jesus, toward baptism and beyond.
Starting with contacts coming through from Summer camps over the year end, the NNSW Conference Youth Department was able to import all decisions for Bible study directly into Thrive, instantly assigning them to the correct Pastors and their churches for followup. A similar process is in place with the Arise Bible school, and in time, it is envisaged that this opportunity will be available to all entities, churches, schools, camps and Big Camps where decisions are made for Christ - around the Conferences, Union and Division.
In cases where contacts were also attending Adventist schools, Thrive facilitates the sharing of contacts, enabling Pastors and Chaplains to combine their efforts to work together seamlessly.
Further supporting the discipleship journey, Thrive also reminds leaders and church members responsible for follow up to continue with regular contact with each person at regular intervals, escalating a contact if no activity is logged within a reasonable timeframe.
In the words of Pr Matt Atcheson of Adventist Technology, who is also the technical lead on Thrive, “We hope that in time, Pastors, Conferences, Unions and the Division will be able to see the discipleship movement at each level of the church in real time, leading to better planning, resourcing and decisions.”
