Thrive Worship, which started as the worship team for Bayside Church in Sacramento, CA, has quickly bloomed into a sprawling, eight-campus worship family whose songs and weekly Sunday night worship services are transforming their Northern California community. An ever-growing, ever-evolving group of diverse singers and musicians, Thrive Worship is writing new songs for the church that sing of a hope for the future and love for the Savior.
In partnership with Integrity Music, Thrive Worship and its founding leaders - Peter Burton, Charmaine Wells and Corbin Phillips - is eager to share its first recorded project, A Thousand More, an album packed with original worship songs born from the vibrant ministry happening at Bayside Church.
“Every song on this album is telling a piece of a story from our church,” Corbin says. “It’s something we’ve been building for a while now. This album encapsulates a sonic picture of us being the most creative and God-honoring worshippers we can be.”
With songs like “Greater Things,” “I Still Believe,” and “Breakthrough Is Coming,” A Thousand More points to goodness on the horizon, even when that goodness is out of sight. “Our church is a very hope driven church,” shares Peter. “We put a massive emphasis on the future and the potential people have for their lives. We have a saying that your best days are ahead. We really tried to capture that with this record. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, what you’ve been through, God has a bigger plan for your life.”
Thrive Worship’s songs are an accessible burst of energetic, joy-laced hopefulness that are as infectious as they are truth-filled. “We’re one of the most diverse churches in Northern California,” Corbin says. “When you have a lot of people from different backgrounds, you get a lot of different influences in the music, everything from Gospel to pop to congregational. It gives us a lot of space within the boundary lines to create outside of the typical church worship band.”
“We want to spread a message of hope,” Peter explains. “We want our music to inspire those within the church, as well as reach those outside of the church. We want people to feel like they can come and be comfortable, no matter what state of life they’re in. I think the album we’ve created speaks directly to that. Our hope is that these songs would be able to reach someone who’s really far from Christ or someone who’s been walking with Him for a long time.”
Expanding their reach beyond weekend services, Thrive Worship also runs a school of worship from their main church campus. “We launched the school because we realized we were already doing so much leadership development, it made sense to expand it into something official,” Peter states. “Students come from all over the world to hone their talents and learn to lead a group of people in worship. Our goal is to take them from talent to impact.”
Leading worship every week, running Thrive Worship School, developing new leaders and recording and releasing an album can take a physical, emotional and spiritual toll, but the group remains focused on their primary commitment. Charmaine states, “Balance is key. We are campus worship pastors, that is our main ministry and what steers us; everything else is an overflow from that.”
The group’s focus on leadership has organically spread into their own community with many area worship pastors attending their Sunday night services. “Our founding pastor has always been a pastor to pastors,” she continues. “Because of that, we really love to minister to fellow leaders and build them up. They come here on Sunday nights to fill up their own well so they can go back out to their churches and minister to their people.”
The Sunday night service has also been integral in developing new songs for the church, songs that eventually made their way onto A Thousand More. “Our song ‘I Still Believe’ was the first one we saw really catch fire,” Corbin says, “as well as ‘Greater Things’ and ‘Ruins.’ They’re about when you’ve seen God make a promise but you’re not quite to it, you’re still in the middle, in the valley, and not on the other side. We’ve seen these songs impact the Sunday night service and our entire congregation. It’s exciting to be able to share them with a wider audience.”
More than a church worship team, Thrive Worship is a collection of people from diverse backgrounds all pointing in the same hope-filled direction. With a singular goal of instilling a passionate pursuit of a future hope, Thrive Worship’s songs are a timely reminder that in the midst of the struggle, Jesus is there, leading the way out. The best days really are ahead.
