Learning from Disciple Making Leaders: Renew Network

Our goal is to help you find the best guides out there so you can become a more effective disciple maker. That’s why we’re going to be introducing our disciple-making partners to you, our Discipleship-First Tribe.

This week we want you to meet Jason Henderson, Chief Operations Officer at Renew.

We interviewed Jason about his ministry, and here’s what he said:

Tell us about the name of your ministry.

Renew does what you might imagine: we renew the teachings of Jesus to fuel disciple making. We champion all of Jesus’ teachings leading to obedience-based discipleship.

What is your unique disciple-making emphasis?

We take to heart Dallas Willard and Bill Hull’s maxim: The Jesus you preach and the gospel you uphold will determine the disciple you get. We came out of the Restoration Movement (Independent Christian Churches and Churches of Christ) and seek to champion the best biblical theology of that heritage as a foundation for a disciple-making movement.

We help people see that true discipleship is based first upon the power of the Holy Spirit, second on a robust understanding of the gospel of the kingdom, and third on an understanding that saving faith is a faithful faith, an allegiance—it is both trusting and following Jesus.

Our seven values spell out our broader values:

Responding to God’s Spirit
Following God’s Reliable Word
Surrendering to Jesus as King
Championing Disciple Making
Loving Like Jesus
Living in Holiness
Leading Courageously

Picking up from the email link . . .

How do you help Everyday Disciples who aspire to be Disciple Makers?

We are a brand new network, still in the early phase. The next twelve months, we are focusing on helping everyday disciples in four key ways.

We have a new website – renew.org – where we champion all aspects of Jesus’ teachings. We focus on helping disciples articulate and gain clarity on biblical teachings. This includes advocacy for biblical truth on hot cultural topics – LGBTQ, environment, gender, etc. – and the substantive issues like apologetics, world religions, the inspiration and authority of the Bible, etc. Mixed in with these substantive issues are practical posts about how to make disciples and how to love your neighbor.
We have created specific models and specific material for disciple makers. Our Quick Start Guide: Starting a Discipleship Group is a good example – it gives you a specific model and material that you can use to start a group tomorrow (ask for your copy at [email protected]).
We provide individual six-month coaching for church leaders based upon promoting our theology and one of our methods.
We have an annual pre-conference the day before the National Disciple Making Forum.

Who are the Key Leaders in your Network?

We are blessed with some effective leaders. They are drawn from and continue to help lead their own tribes, but they are also aligned with our theology and focus, so they help us also. Bobby Harrington is one of our leaders, along with men like Jim Putman, Dave Clayton, Shodankeh Johnson, and David Young.

How can people Connect with You?

Check out our website renew.org. If you are interested in individual six month coaching for a fee (we do not coach churches) contact [email protected]. Join us at the forum and we would love you to join our pre-conference the day before the Forum click here for more information.

For King Jesus,