Friends,
I’m looking forward to connecting with you in four weeks! You’re just four weeks out from our ’25 RENEW.org Gathering (April 28-29). This week’s sale (ending April 3) is your last chance to get reduced ticket prices.
Why make time for the Gathering? Here are 10 reasons you do not want to miss the ’25 RENEW.org Gathering…
1. It is part of a renewal movement within the Restoration Movement.
At RENEW.org, we are seeking to renew and articulate the best of the theology of our heritage, and we are focusing on the mission of Jesus-style disciple making. Doctrine matters, but so do loving, discipling relationships. For us, renewing is something we’re constantly pursuing within relationship, not a state of having arrived. It’s a verb, not a noun.
2. It helps unite previously disconnected streams within the Restoration Movement.
We now have over 400+ senior ministers/pastors in our Learning Communities that meet every second month. Christian Church leaders represent our largest group (55%), but they are closely followed by leaders from A Cappella Churches of Christ (40%), and then there are leaders from International Churches of Christ and Community Churches (5%).
Our main stage presentations feature speakers like Matt Reagan, Bob Russell, and Ajai Lall from Christian Churches as well as Jonathan Storment, Orpheus Heyward, and Mike Williams from the A Cappella Churches of Christ.
It is an inclusive gathering, with a lot of diversity—yet everyone unites around clear-but-gracious doctrine and Jesus’ disciple making mission.
3. It is multi-ethnic.
We have been praying and laboring, from the beginning, that RENEW.org Network would represent the ethnic diversity of North America. To that end, our Monday night breakouts feature the Latino Christian Movement and the Black Christian Church Movement. Leaders of these movements have asked for these gatherings so that they can build their movements and ethnic representation within RENEW.org Network.
“We have been praying and laboring, from the beginning, that RENEW.org Network would represent the ethnic diversity of North America.”
4. It is multi-generational.
Our main stage sessions on Tuesday punctuate this point. Some examples: Reagan Grace Gibbs, in her 20s, will be hosting with Jason Ishmael in his 40s, and Shodankeh Johnson (in his 50s) will be leading our prayer times. Then Ajai Lall in his mid-60s will be joined by his daughter Lashi Howard. Bob Russell will be joined by his grandson Tommy. Matt Reagan will be joined on the main stage by his sons, Sam and Noah, who will share their disciple making stories.
5. It features the best in disciple making strategies.
RENEW.org champions not only good theology but also the best in disciple making. Our Gathering starts Monday afternoon with fourteen trainings to choose from, by some of the best practitioners in North American disciple making, from the Leadership Alignment Training for Disciple Making (for church leaders), to Men and Women’s Disciple Making, to Campus Ministry Disciple Making, and more. Two leaders of international Disciple Making Movements will be leading sessions: Josh Howard from East Asia and Shodankeh Johnson from West Africa.
Click HERE for more.
“RENEW.org champions not only good theology but also the best in disciple making.”
6. It features intensive trainings, collaborative conversations, main stage talks/breakouts, and a documentary film premiere.
The Gathering starts with the disciple making intensive trainings Monday afternoon. Then on Monday night there are collaborative conversations and breakouts. For example, Women in Ministry, the International Conference on Missions (ICOM), Renew Movement (church planting), Theological Thunderdome, etc. Monday night will end with the release of a documentary film: Following Jesus in an LGBTQ World. Then Tuesday will feature our main stage presentations starting at 8:30 a.m.
Click HERE for more.
7. It is a resource-rich Gathering.
We are providing all attendees with one of three books RENEW.org has just published: 1) Guy Hammond’s Following Jesus in an LGBTQ World or 2) David Upchurch and Daniel McCoy’s The Disciple Making Grandparent or 3) Josh Branham’s What are Your Waiting For?
Additionally, we will be introducing Renew University and its Certificate in Theology, an online cohort learning experience. We want to help church leaders raise serious laypeople for eldership, leadership roles, and for church ministry in the U.S. and Canada and around the world. David Young, RENEW.org’s scholar-in-residence is leading this exciting venture and he will introduce it at the Gathering.
8. It is a connecting place.
For many people, the North American Christian Convention (NACC) was a place and time to connect with other Christians from around North America. Now that the NACC no longer exists, the RENEW.org Gathering is helping to fill that gap. Later this year, our RENEW.org Gathering will be coupled in the fall with our new partnership with the International Conference on Missions (ICOM) to help fill that gap. We are also collaborating with Spire by providing a pre-conference at the Spire Conference this year. If you are longing for a connecting place, to catch up with believers from other areas and encourage each other, we hope RENEW.org can help fulfill that role.
“If you are longing for a connecting place, to catch up with believers from other areas and encourage each other, we hope RENEW.org can help fulfill that role.”
9. It addresses the biggest strategic issue facing our churches.
The biggest strategic leadership challenge in the future is clear: the pipeline of ministers/pastors is drying up. Our Gathering is specifically focused on overcoming that challenge. Our main stage sessions on Tuesday will offer specific and inspiring ways of overcoming this challenge. We are facing the future full of hope and optimism.
10. It ends in a mission-sending moment.
Josh Branham and Orpheus Heyward will bring the Gathering to a close with a mission-sending challenge. We are going to invite you to make a decision, as you leave, that you will personally commit to raise up leaders and faithful disciples of King Jesus. Our challenge is focused on a bright future. If we rise up and embrace the challenge, we will be a blessing for our children, grandchildren, friends, neighbors, and millions of future disciples of Jesus.
For King Jesus,
Bobby Harrington
