About / Our Story
Our Story
TNN isn’t launching from scratch. The 2027–2028 season is the next chapter of something already underway.
How TNN got here
A network already underway
In our first year, 15 organizations came together around a shared conviction: a thriving congregation is one invested in the thriving of its neighborhood. Together we began sharing practical experience, offering encouragement through challenges, and discovering where our work sits in the broader landscape, at different scales and at different points on a congregation’s journey.
What year one taught us
Meaningful collaboration takes
- a focused purpose
- consistent leadership
- realistic commitments
- time to build trust
Those lessons are shaping the next season.
- November 2024The network begins informally
Organizations that accompany congregations in their neighborhoods begin connecting informally.
- November 14, 2025The TNN Charter is finalized
It names why the network exists, how we aspire to work together, and three priorities: shared learning and storytelling, coalition building, and movement building.
- November 2025 – October 2026A one-year pilot
TNN enters a more formal pilot phase, including participation as a Thriving Congregations affinity cohort in 2026.
- 2026Listening across the network
Members complete surveys at the start of the year, before the June retreat, and near the end. In all, 15 organizations and almost 30 individuals take part in the first year.
- June 2026Retreat: what makes a neighborhood thrive?
Participants work through a shared sequence of inquiry that becomes the starting point for the draft frameworks.
- Later in 2026Frameworks, maps, and a Network Library vision
Draft frameworks and maps are synthesized from retreat conversations and member surveys, alongside reflections on a future Network Library.
- November 2026An invitation to the next chapter
TNN invites members and new participants into the 2027–2028 Learning Season.