A Place of Encounter.
Cultivating lives increasingly aligned with God and God’s design.
An Intentional Space for
Integrated Living
The Thriving Community is an intentional environment for Christians who are seeking greater coherence between their faith and how they live, work, and relate in the realities of everyday life.
Through teaching, shared learning, and guided experiences, we create opportunities for individuals to sustain ongoing encounters with God, shaping how they view life, how they show up in life, and how they exist in the world—cultivating a life lived with God for the world.
How Integrated Living
is Cultivated Here
The two primary ways to engage in this space are through our teachings and guided experiences. Rather than functioning separately, they are intentionally interwoven—allowing understanding to be formed, carried forward, and deepened as the person’s whole being is engaged over time.
Teaching
Our teaching is designed to help you understand God’s design for human life and to reflect carefully on how that design meets the realities of daily living.
Rather than offering quick answers or abstract ideas, these teachings invite sustained attention—engaging Scripture, theology, and lived experience in ways that inform how you make decisions, approach your work, relate to others, and order your life over time.
The aim is not the accumulation of knowledge, but understanding that deepens meaning—leading to more intentional participation in God’s ongoing work in your life.
Teaching here is not a discrete phase to be completed, but an ongoing orientation—one that unfolds gradually as understanding is revisited, tested, and carried forward into lived practice.
Guided Experience
Our guided experiences are designed to create space for understanding to move beyond explanation and into lived engagement. Here, what is taught is not left at the level of insight alone, but is carried forward through practice, presence, and participation.
These experiences take a variety of forms. Some are virtual; others require in-person presence. Some center on shared dialogue and reflection, allowing understanding to be deepened through communal learning. Others invite attentiveness through spiritual practices, embodied rhythms, or extended time set apart—engaging mind, body, and spirit.
Through our guided experiences, meaning is deepened through practice, insight is shaped through participation, and faith is encountered through engagement with God’s Word and God’s world.
Encounter our Teaching
Formed Toward Wholeness is the teaching platform of The Thriving Community.
Our teachings are hosted on Substack, where longer-form reflection and sustained engagement can unfold without distraction—through written and audio formats.
Current Teaching Series
Wholeness by Design
Wholeness by Design explores God’s vision for human life and what it means to live in alignment with that design amid the realities of the modern world.
This series examines how wholeness is understood from a biblical and theological perspective.
Through exploration of this vision, we then consider God’s design for human life, how sin distorts that design and its outworking in the world today, and how God is actively restoring what has been corrupted—inviting our intentional and willing participation along the way.
The Story Behind the Vision
Meet Joy Akwarandu
Joy is the founder of The Thriving Community. Having grown up in a deeply participatory Christian environment, she learned early that faith is meant to be lived—not merely professed.
Through seasons of vocational success and spiritual fragmentation, her journey led her into theological study and doctoral work that reshaped her understanding of how God forms a person toward Christlikeness and wholeness.
The Thriving Community was born out of this vision: to create spaces where people can encounter God in ways that shape how they live, work, and relate—over time.
Your Questions Answered
We bring together Christian spiritual formation, holistic growth practices, and authentic community in a way that is both biblically rooted and research-informed. This combination creates space for genuine belonging and sustainable transformation that goes beyond surface-level change. Click here to learn more about our distinctives
No. While our framework is rooted in Christ-centered principles, we welcome professionals from any background who are open to our holistic approach. The only exception is Thrive Journey, where participants must be professing Christians in order to share the foundation needed for the depth of spiritual formation and community trust the program requires.
Membership gives you a steady rhythm of whole-person practices that support an integrated life. It also creates space for meaningful conversations and authentic, life-giving relationships. In addition, members receive discounts on programs and events, with options to choose the level of engagement that best fits your season.
From Possibility to Practice
Begin Your Journey Toward Wholeness & Flourishing
Take the next step through experiences that weave growth, belonging, and purpose into everyday life.