Thrive Worship describes itself as a worship family comprised of worship pastors from the multi-campus Bayside Church in Sacramento, California. The collective released their first album, A Thousand More, in 2019 with the music label Integrity Music. This collection captured and carried the sound of their house to their local community and beyond.
Thrive Worship continues to craft songs for their local church and for the broader body of Christ that reflect the cultural diversity of their church, ministering to both believers and unbelievers alike. No doubt, they are marked by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. I had the chance to talk with artist Charmaine Wells about the group's latest release, the Let's Have Church EP, Thrive Worship's creative process, and their heart for reaching the lost with their music.
Tell us a bit about who Thrive Worship is and how you all came together as a worship band.
Thrive Worship is birthed out of Bayside Church, a nearly 20,000-member multi-campus house of God in Bayside, California. The church is kind of young in being a multi-campus; it's probably been in the last 10 years that it has exploded from the main campus.
Some core members of Thrive Worship started writing songs about six years ago. We've always written songs, but we became more intentional about doing it for our church at that time. We're under the leadership and mentorship of contemporary artist Lincoln Brewster. Our songs started to form from him.
We were all pulled in from different areas, some of them are homegrown--specifically, worship pastor Corbin Phillips. Most of us, including Chloe Gall, Taylor Gall, as well as Peter Burton, was raised in the church, which I think is beautiful. It speaks volumes to the church itself that the kids raised there wanted to continue to do ministry and serve the church.
They were the worship band and then started writing music. I joined about five years ago. Pastor Melinda Watts also joined about five years ago. She was the worship pastor from our previous sister campus, the very multicultural Midtown.
I remember being pulled in from Nashville, not knowing where the Lord was leading me. But when He did, it was the next chapter of my life. That's when we wrote our first album, two years ago. And then, obviously, we're releasing our latest EP. And, hopefully, a full-fledged album in spring of next year.
I know diversity is important to Thrive Worship. Where does the value for incorporating different styles and music genres into your sound come from? Also, how do you intentionally bring that into your creative process?
I think, like any artist or band, the music always evolves if you're creative. The first album was us asking what is the sound of our church. But the result is always a mixture of what's the sound of our church and where do we want our music to go.
What I love about our new EP is that it feels like we're settling into what we've been hearing at church, into what we naturally gravitate towards. The music feels forward and a little throwback at the same time, especially lyrically, not just sonically. It's a constant journey. I don't know if I could put a specific genre label on the EP. Is it pop or rock? Does it have a bit of Gospel? I would say yes to all these questions.
The beauty of Thrive Worship is that we all come from different walks of life. Melinda comes from a straight-up Gospel church, complete with a choir. It's beautiful to watch her worship. So, we ask how can we incorporate what she does into our music? How can we incorporate what I, Corbin, Taylor, or Chloe do into our music?
How do you capture song concepts from what God is doing in your church and then craft them into finished pieces?
This is where I admire our team. I think they always have their ears to the ground. They have relational equity with their teams and the congregation. We're constantly hearing what our church is going through. To be honest, since the pandemic began two years ago, it's not been hard to figure out how everyone's been feeling and what they've been dealing with and what they need.
When we came together to write our latest EP, we all had different ideas of where we thought it might go. We attended a songwriting retreat in Nashville together where we wrote music with other artists--sometimes together, sometimes coupled with other writers.
When we came back to listen to what we wrote, we all had the desire to come back to basics, to come back to Jesus, and to the fullness of His character. To trust solely in that. It was just so clear, and it was so the Holy Spirit. We could not have planned that. So that's why you'll have songs that say, "I'm So Glad I Met Jesus," "There Is A Hope," and "Pour Your Spirit Out."
Tell me about Thrive Worship's heart for reaching the unreached with the Gospel, especially through music.
We're very aware that the church's mission is to find the lost and the broken, to bring in the ones that truly need to hear the gospel, not just preach to the choir. Although, there's merit to that, too. What I think is unique is that we're worship pastors and evangelists. This means that who we are is coming through in our music.
Half the songs on our EP are talking to people that haven't met Jesus. The songs say, "Don't you know that He loves you. He's knocking at your door, what are you waiting for?" That's a part of one of our bridges.
Do you have a testimony of how God has used a Thrive Worship song to impact someone who wasn't yet a believer in Jesus?
Recently, we attended a huge production company conference, an event that brings in production people from everywhere to walk them through what it means to do the production. The event also gives production people a glimpse of what it's like to work with a worship band. And they chose Thrive Worship to be that worship band. We go through rehearsal and then do a full set as if we're doing church (actually, we are doing church).
At the conference, you have people from all walks of life. You have people who aren't believers. You people who are believers. At the end of our last song "Pour Your Spirit Out", Corbin sings his testimony. And, at the end of the song, he says, "I'm just going to pray for you if you need healing, whatever it is. This is available to you. God is real and He loves you." He prayed and one guy messaged Cornin that he'd been struggling with this ailment. But after Corbin prayed for healing, he hadn't had an issue since. He went to the doctor and everything was fine.
There's just something about it, I think, because it's so unabashedly "here's the gospel of Jesus." Here's what He does. When the early church came together, right after Pentecost, Jesus' disciple Peter stood up and shared the gospel. There wasn't any fancy preaching, there wasn't a catchphrase or anything. The Spirit was present. And Peter was a vessel for the gospel. More than 3,000 people came to the Lord that day. So, I think God is waiting to do the same thing. He's always waiting.
What can we look out for next from Thrive Worship and how can we be praying for you?
Thank you for that. Pray that the Holy Spirit continues to move, that God continues the work He's doing: healing people, as well as having people come to know Jesus through our songs. Pray that whatever God is doing, that He continues to do it through us on a personal level, because that's where it begins, but also as a worship team, and as a church. As for future stuff, we plan on going on the road, and possibly releasing a full-length album in the spring.
Let's Have Church is available now. Buy it on Apple Music or listen on Spotify.
NRT contributor Jasmin Patterson is a lifelong fan of Christian music who is passionate about helping others connect with Christ. She lives in Kansas City where she serves in college ministry and runs a blog to help seekers and believers discover and live biblical Christianity.
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