January 29, 2024
Dear Friends,
As you’re staying faithful to Jesus and making disciples in your context, we are so glad to come alongside and help. We know you face challenges, and we want to help you find resources, relationships, and renewal for the journey.
As we enter 2024, we want to update you on where we are with the “six channels” through which we seek to “renew the teachings of Jesus to fuel disciple making.” God is using you in effective ways as you participate in the RENEW.org Network. Here is a summary of what God is doing through your participation with RENEW.org:
1. Daily Digital Communication
Thanks to our wise and courageous content writers, we have seen our readership grow to 40,000 unique visits to our website in a 7-day span (equal to over 2 million annual views). Check out our website for a constant stream of trusted resources in confusing times. Just a few months ago, we started publishing all new blogs in audio form, so that you can listen to them as well as read them.
Additionally, we will soon have 25,000 people receiving our newsletters each week, three weekly podcasts, and a developing YouTube channel.
2. Print Books
As of January 2024, RENEW.org has published over thirty print books, totaling over 78,000 books in distribution (over 100,000 are in distribution when we include downloads of our 23+ free eBooks and audiobooks). We are grateful to be able to bring together experts in theology and experts in disciple making to help create solid resources for disciple making relationships. We have books on relevant topics, including contemporary culture, spiritual disciplines, baptism, and family discipleship.
“We have books on relevant topics, including contemporary culture, spiritual disciplines, baptism, and family discipleship.”
3. Learning Communities for Senior Ministers/Pastors
No senior minister/pastor should go it alone. These leaders are the key to the direction of the local church, so we are working to provide them with support. We are thankful for our team of Learning Community leaders (1 director, 6 associate directors, over 20 regional directors) who bring together nearly 300 senior ministers/pastors across the U.S. and Canada for community and training. We are also grateful for the student ministry Learning Communities that were added in 2024. If you are a senior minister/pastor or student minister and would like more information on how to join a Learning Community, contact [email protected].
Additionally, our job board, where churches and ministers seek each other out, continues to grow each week with more churches and ministers seeking a match and finding connections.
4. Gatherings
On April 29-30, we invite you to join us in Indianapolis for our RENEW.org National Gathering: “Courageous Renewal.” Some of this year’s speakers include Kyle Idleman, Anthony Walker, Renee Sproles, Josh Howard, Orpheus J. Heyward, Jonathan Storment, Jeff Faull, and Dave and Sydney Clayton. We will have an additional 40 breakout sessions, with speakers like Clayton Hentzel, Guy Hammond, Tina Wilson, and many others.
5. Mentoring and Training Certificates
We are exploring ways to help more churches in 2024 with specialized leadership alignment training. Additionally, as part of a long-term strategy to help fill the struggling church ministry pipeline, RENEW.org is exploring putting together certificates of theology and apologetics. Through these certificates, local churches and international training centers would be able to theologically train future church leaders from within their own church. Stay tuned for more details.
“Through these certificates, local churches will be able to theologically train future church leaders from within their own church.”
6. Renew Movement Church Planting
Renew Movement is in the process of planting our first five churches, with a view to planting many hundreds of churches in North America in the next few years. Each church will be committed to solid biblical theology (check out our faith statement) and disciple making methodology, with many more churches on the horizon.
We appreciate your continued participation in these endeavors, as well as your financial support. If you have felt RENEW.org’s impact in your life, would you consider joining us in person at the 2024 RENEW.org National Gathering in Indianapolis (April 29-30)? We would love to connect with you in person!
