Church Renewal Ministries

What Church Renewal Ministries does

Church Renewal Ministries, operating as Church Renewal International, is a donation-funded ministry founded in 2012 by Ray Duerksen to combat pastoral burnout and attrition. The organization provides free coaching, peer groups, mentoring, and resource content to pastors globally; its stated reach is approximately 3,000 active pastors across 71 countries served in 12 languages. Operations are run by a team of 11 employees, with the corporate footprint listed in McKinney, Texas, while the operational headquarters sits in Steinbach, Manitoba, Canada.

The service stack combines structured programs and digital products. The Church Renewal Mentoring Pathway is a formalized coaching curriculum that walks pastors through staged mentoring and peer cohorts. Digital platforms named TheWay.app and renewal.app extend these pathways into asynchronous, scalable channels, supporting devotional content, peer interaction, and access to volunteer coaches. The annual Church Renewal Weekend, most recently held October 23-26, anchors in-person community building, training, and networking for pastors in the network.

The business model is donation-funded and intentionally free at the point of use for pastors. There is no paid product tier, no subscription, and no disclosed institutional customer base; all operating support is sourced from charitable contributions. This model aligns the ministry's incentives with pastor reach and engagement rather than monetization, while concentrating the financial base in donor willingness rather than diversified customer revenue.

Name

Church Renewal Ministries

Legal name

Church Renewal International

Website

https://churchrenewalministry.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Donation-funded ministry founded in 2012 that provides free mentoring, peer groups, and digital resources to roughly 3,000 pastors across 71 countries and 12 languages, anchored by TheWay.app, renewal.app, and an annual Church Renewal Weekend gathering.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Religious / Pastoral Mentoring Services

NAICS

Religious Organizations (8131), Religious Organizations (81311)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600)

akta.pro primary industry

Faith-Based Missions & Evangelism Organizations (Domestic & International) (BPAGAJAE)

akta.pro secondary industry

Faith-Based Education & Formation (Seminaries, Religious Schools, Catechesis) (BPAGAJAD)

Keywords

• Pastoral mentoring services
• Church leadership training
• Christian discipleship resources
• Pastor peer groups
• Church renewal programs

Headquarters

HQ city

Steinbach

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Donor Contributions: Church Renewal International is funded entirely through generous donations from supporters. The organization offers its mentoring services and resources at no cost to participating pastors in exchange for active engagement in mentoring groups.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Church Renewal Ministries operates a free, donor-funded mentoring and resource program for pastors worldwide. Its core offering is a structured 4-step Church Renewal Mentoring Pathway that pairs pastors with experienced volunteer coaches for weekly online group mentoring, combined with implementation manuals, seminars, retreats, small group materials, and sermon notes.

Product overview

Church Renewal International offers a comprehensive church renewal ecosystem consisting of TheWay.app (a mobile application), the renewal.app platform for mentoring program management, and the Church Renewal Mentoring Pathway—a structured 4-step program providing biblical principles and practices for church renewal. The mentoring pathway combines weekly online group sessions with volunteer coaches, comprehensive resources including implementation manuals, seminars, retreats, small group materials, and sermon notes. All services are provided free of charge to participating pastors in exchange for active mentoring group participation.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• TheWay.app: A platform/app referenced on the website
• CRM (Church Renewal Ministries)

Products and services

• Church Renewal Mentoring Pathway A structured 4-step pastoral mentoring program providing pastors with an established biblical roadmap, weekly online group mentoring with experienced volunteer coaches, and implementation resources including manuals, seminars, retreats, small group materials, and sermon notes. Offered free of charge to pastors through donor generosity in exchange for active participation.
• renewal.app The primary digital platform powering Church Renewal International's mentoring program, providing online sign-up forms, time slot selection, mentoring group enrollment, and participant login for pastors.
• TheWay.app A mobile application associated with Church Renewal International, serving as part of the ministry's digital ecosystem for church renewal and discipleship content delivery.

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Direct peers

• Pastors.com (pastor training network): Pastors.com is an online training and resource hub for pastors offering courses and coaching, targeting the same clergy persona with peer learning and content-driven engagement.
• Church Answers: Church Answers (by Rainer Ministries/Thom Rainer) sells resources, online training, and pastoral coaching content to church leaders, directly competing for the same pastor customer with leadership and church-renewal content.
• Exponential (church planting conference/network): Exponential runs national conferences, peer networks, and resourcing content aimed at church-planting pastors, an overlapping segment of the same pastor-leader persona seeking renewal and growth resources.
• The Gospel Coalition: TGC is a broad international fellowship of churches that provides pastoral training, conferences, and curated content resources to pastors globally, closely paralleling Church Renewal's mission of equipping pastors through peer-driven content.
• Church Multiplication Network (CMN): CMN is a church planting and renewal network offering peer learning cohorts, assessment, and coaching for pastors, serving a near-identical pastor mentoring and resourcing function globally.
• Acts 29 Network: Acts 29 is a global church-planting and pastor-support network that recruits, assesses, and coaches pastors through peer communities and conferences, serving a comparable pastor audience with a similar mentor-network model across multiple countries.
• PastorServe: PastorServe provides confidential pastoral coaching, peer groups, and crisis care to pastors and their spouses, mirroring Church Renewal's mentor-coach and peer-support delivery model for the same audience.

Broad incumbents

• Lifeway Christian Resources: Lifeway is a large established provider of Bible study, curriculum, and pastoral/discipleship resources, addressing the same pastor and church-leader customer with overlapping content, studies, and training materials, though as part of a much broader denominational portfolio.

Emerging players

• Gloo: Gloo is a technology platform serving churches and ministry leaders with tools, content, and AI resources, overlapping with the digital platform and church-leadership resource category that Church Renewal serves via TheWay.app and renewal.app.

Regional players

• Crossworld / SEND International: Crossworld (and analogous mission agencies) provides mentoring, training, and peer support to church leaders, particularly cross-cultural and missionary contexts, sharing a mission-driven, donor-funded mentor-coach model across multiple countries.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/church-renewal-ministries

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Church Renewal Ministries