Many of you know that I write, speak, and work closely with the leadership of the Renew Network—a fellowship of roughly 450 disciple-making churches across North America. Renew.org hosts learning communities, daily essays and editorials, national gatherings, an online Bible college taught by respected scholars and theologians, and a publishing arm that works in partnership with College Press.
The majority of Renew-affiliated churches and ministers stand within the legacy of the American Restoration Movement, including churches of Christ and independent Christian Churches. Renew seeks to avoid two equal and opposite dangers: toxic legalism on the one hand, and reckless progressivism on the other—while holding fast to Scripture alone as the sole rule of faith.
Late Wednesday night, I returned from a Renew and Lipscomb University conference hosted at Harpeth Hills Church of Christ in Brentwood, Tennessee. We heard from leaders representing churches in Jonesboro, Arkansas; Mooresville, Indiana; Louisville, Kentucky; and Phoenix, Arizona—congregations that together baptized more than 16,000 souls into Christ in 2025!
I left encouraged and deeply grateful. God’s kingdom is advancing. The gates of hell are not prevailing. Church, let us commit ourselves in 2026 to intentional prayer and fasting, asking God to bring renewal and revival to the North American church. The fields are white unto harvest.
Look up.
Maranatha,
Jordy
