Thrive's Roots
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From Thrive Founders, JD and Brittany Inman.
Thrive began in 2023 as an existing Celebrate Recovery (CR) group in Franklin, TN. So, Thrive is grounded in 12-step recovery. I (JD) had been involved in CR as a ministry leader for our church for several years. I even co-authored Hope Dealer with then–CR National Team Member Jeff Stultz. Celebrate Recovery founder John Baker not only wrote the foreword, he also insisted that we put the Celebrate Recovery logo on its cover.
Over the next few years, as Brittany and I dug into our own recovery journey, we devoured as many different sources as we could. Along that journey, we were introduced to many incredible books, teachings, and resources that were barely addressed (or not at all) in the Celebrate Recovery or 12-step model. Teachings like Boundaries by Townsend and Cloud, Freedom in Christ Ministries and the teachings of Dr. Neil T. Anderson, The Bait of Satan by John Bevere, and many others were not only omitted from CR resource tables, they were not allowed.
How could this be? We spoke to many CR leaders, including former Celebrate Recovery National Director John Ecklund, who assured us that he had for some time shared our concerns (John is now the founder of Recovery Alive!, a dynamic and growing recovery ministry as well). It was explained, and we understood, that Celebrate Recovery exists in over 35,000 churches worldwide. They simply do not have the time and resources to vet materials or speakers or endorse other teaching outside of their purview.
Celebrate Recovery’s own policy is basically this: anyone can use our material, but you cannot use our name unless you only use our material. This is in the DNA of Celebrate Recovery, and it meant that anything outside of their handouts, books, teaching guides, and testimonials was simply off limits if we continued to call our recovery group “Celebrate Recovery.” To be clear, we 100% understand and even agree with their reasoning.
However, we believed the spiritual resources available outside of 12 step far exceeded what we were allowed to present under this arrangement. And since exiting the CR format did not preclude us from using their material where desired, the idea of Thrive was born.
We believed in recovery, including—and especially—12-step recovery. But 12-step recovery is not the only avenue that has directed people toward healing. It is, however, the most available and affordable. To deny that it could be improved however, is frankly nothing more than legalism, tribalism, and idol worship of your program. We also couldn't help but face the fact that 12 step recovery is, in large part, rejected by most people until it becomes the only viable or remaining option. The stigma associated with “recovery groups” is huge. In recovery, not admitting we have a problem is called denial, and not admitting there is a negative connotation associated with the word “recovery” is no different.
If we believe that everyone struggles with something (and they do), and we agree that most people would greatly benefit from a community that addresses these struggles, then, for us not to address the stigma as the greatest barrier to entry was not just institutional inertia (doing it the way we do it because that’s the way we do it); to us, it was tantamount to bureaucratic malfeasance, because sticking with what we knew is broken may have even been causing harm—and if we were honest, we had to admit that we knew better.
The numbers don’t lie. Statistics show that millions of people over the years have benefited from—and even owe their lives to—12-step recovery programs like AA, CR, Al-Anon, and NA. But our years of experience as a ministry leaders exposed us to another number that is not as easy to attain: the number that quit—and what happened to them. And there's also the number that never came at all because the social stigma of recovery was greater than their struggle—we believe the number that quit or never came at all may be higher by a factor that is unimaginable.
For every person in our Celebrate Recovery program who came consistently for a year, we saw between 10 and 20 more who came only a few times and never returned. It could be argued that we were just not very good at what we were doing as CR leaders. But after speaking to other leaders and hearing feedback from our regular attendees, we don’t believe the problem was our poor leadership. We believe the problem was baked into the cake we were serving.
Several scientific studies point to the obvious contradiction in the statistics. Although 12 step models tout "millions healed" the definition of healed for the most part is vague at best and drop out statistics are seldom even mentioned. Some studies show that the true effectiveness of most 12-step recovery programs is somewhere between 5 and 10%. So, the belief that there is only one way for people to find healing was failing as many as 90% of those who sought it.
What were we to do? Was this the best we could hope for? Were we just going to accept the status quo? That’s not really in our nature. Our home church was supportive and encouraged us to try something new. They had after all, seen very meager success after hosting a CR weekly for more than a decade. So, Brittany and I got to work, and for more than a year we quietly planned out a strategy and what a complete, fully resourced model that addressed healing in body, mind, and spirit—one without all the stigma and language of “recovery”—might look like. On January 2, 2023, Thrive was born.
Along the way we curated and created thousands of pages of resources. We not only looked at it from the lens of 12 steps, we explored the sciences of human psychology and physiology and applied those to biblical truths that have lead us to unlock areas that recovery rarely or never mentions. We realized that we were no longer going through the motions of recovery. We are truly digging deeper and actually plowing new ground. We needed a new word and that word is, discovery.
Three years later. Thrive Discovery is the result of an ongoing work. It offers every Christian a "yes and" philosophy toward whole person health, into the fullness of their purpose and calling. Thrive says, "yes" to what we learned from our 12 step roots. "Yes" to the idea of learning our identity in Christ. "Yes" to the science of neuroplasticity. "Yes" to digging into our traumas and trauma responses. "Yes" to exploring nutrition and physical activity and practices like breath work and grounding that leads to better mental health, and a whole lot more.
We are no longer a recovery program... We truly are a discovery journey. We're not saying 12 step recovery is wrong. If it works for you, keep working it. In fact, you may want to do both. We won't make you give up your recovery card to join one of our life groups. Thrive Discovery isn't going to be right for everyone either. But we might just be right for you.
It is our mission now to continue to grow Thrive Discovery, to continue to adopt and adapt more resources, more tools, and more ways to point people to the One who heals completely—and that is Jesus Christ.