The Thriving Church Podcast

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 f...

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...

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 wil...

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 wh...

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...

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,”...

The Thriving Church Podcast talks with the pastor of a thriving church to find out what makes it thrive. Guest Reed Redus, pastor of First Baptist Church, Santa Fe, New Mexico, talks in a heartfelt way about his church’s people, his family’s role, and his work as a church leader. Even more, he talks about what church members are doing to reach people, go on mission, serve, care for one another, an...

Podcast Host Kevin Parker, and guest Matt Thackerson consider from Scripture how Jesus can do big things when His people don't expect it. And, when He does, they have to call on their partners for help. God is still working that way today. And, His people still need partners to finish the job.

Need some steps to thriving student ministry? This episode covers the who, what, and how of great student ministry to middle and highschoolers. Ensure that they grow and become part of God’s Kingdom ministry through your church. Whether you have one student, or many of them, this episode tackles your situation and stirs your passion for students. Listen, learn, and then change lives. The Baptist C...

Podcast host Kevin Parker talks with NextGen Strategist Katy Parker (no relation!) and kid-friendly pastor Larry Evans about reaching children. This wide-ranging conversation answers lots of questions. Why is reaching kids so important? Do you need to reach kids? Where do we start? What do we do? Who can help us? Discover it all with us on The Thriving Church Podcast.

Participants at the 2026 New Mexico Evangelism Conference answered the question “How is your church thriving?” Podcast hosts Kevin Parker and Rick Brittain explore the conference answers in this first listener generated episode. Listen and find out how New Mexico churches see themselves thriving - or not. Fresh, frank, honest, and exciting answers all come from ordinary New Mexico Baptists willing...

Thriving Church Podcast hosts Kevin Parker and Rick Brittain welcome guests Steve Ballew and Matt Thackerson, BCNM leaders, to the podcast to talk about implementing and practicing the 12 characteristics of a biblically healthy church. They explore how the characteristics look in actual churches, not just in theory. How can churches do them? Offering possibilities to both large and small churches,...

Thriving Church Podcast hosts Kevin Parker and Rick Brittain and guest Bryan Wooten, a Church Engagement Strategist for the International Mission Board's West Region, explore the background of the 12 characteristics of biblically healthy churches. Wooten explains how the characteristics are rooted in biblical principles and essential for church health and missiology. The 12 characteristics also gu...

Podcast hosts Kevin Parker and Rick Brittain finish out the list of the 12 characteristics of a biblically healthy church with a conversation on “mission.” It is why the Church exists and why local churches do missions. Southern Baptists began by rallying around “mission,” saying in 1846, “We exist to bring the Gospel to the nations.” Today, the heart of the Church is still to go on mission. Activ...

Continuing the exploration of the 12 characteristics of a biblically healthy church, podcast hosts Rick Brittian and Kevin Parker dive into the topic of biblical giving from a positive and possible perspective. Relying on a multitude of biblical passages on giving and stewardship, they talk about moving beyond a minimalist approach to an opportunity approach in giving to God’s work. It is a core p...

Fellowship, accountability, and discipline appear among the 12 essential characteristics of a biblically healthy church. Beyond meeting together and eating, fellowship reflects a deep bond based on shared experiences. It lays a foundation for healthy accountability and discipline. Accountability and discipline begin with encouragement, prompting each other into good works, and bearing burdens. Dis...

Practical, relational prayer is essential to biblically healthy churches. Such prayer extends beyond lists. It is part of an intimate relationship with God and often blurs into worship (another characteristic). A great way to understand prayer is a three-sentence description: be with God, agree with God, obey God.

Ordinances and worship are characteristics of a biblically healthy church. Baptist churches practice believers’ baptism by immersion. The event is a wonderful, monumental day in a Christian’s life and in the church. Likewise, the Lord’s Supper has become more creative, but retains its distinct weightiness. Churches want people to engage in both. They also want people involve in biblical worship, b...

Believers are joiners. That looks different in every church. Church membership is more than formal joining; it is belonging, connectedness, purpose, and much more. Leadership also looks different in every church. But, having leaders means building leaders. Preaching and teaching, too, differs in every Baptist church. However, all the content comes from the same Bible. Biblically healthy churches n...

From the beginning of Southern Baptist life, evangelism has been at the core of what SB churches do. If a church wants a future, it has to do evangelism. In a similar way, the next step is helping people to have a life that looks like the life Jesus lived. Ultimately, the church is both reproductive and action oriented, something that has no end. Even Paul never stopped growing spiritually.

Churches try to do church well and get things right. Healthy churches connect with Jesus’ mission to reach as many people as possible and to reproduce the church. How can they do that? They build a culture based on markers of biblical church health. This episode introduces the Baptist Convention of New Mexico’s Church Health Team and the twelve habits of a biblically healthy church.

Thriving Church Podcast hosts Kevin Parker and Rick Brittan introduce the podcast, its recipients,  its purpose, and its resources. They talks about things churches do inside walls, out in their community, and around the world. Using the Bible’s analogy of the vine and the branches, they talk about Jesus’ central role in church fruitfulness.