our history

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3/1994 - Racial reconciliation trip
While in college, Chad Brennan went on a spring break trip to Canton, Mississippi to serve the poor and learn about racial reconciliation.  Laurie (then Stanek) went on the same trip the following year.  It was a powerful experience for them both which helped to open their eyes to the realities of racism and ethnic divisions (even in the church).
6/1995 - Life in the Middle East
Chad went on an 8 week summer missions trip to work with young adults in the Middle East.  Laurie went on the same trip the following year.  Then, Chad returned for a one year Stint from 1996-1997.  These experiences helped to open their eyes to the beautiful diversity in the Christian church and the challenges of living in a society where your faith and ethnicity is in the minority.
10/1997 - Surrounded by diversty
Chad and Laurie worked with college students as staff members with Campus Crusade for Christ in New York City from 1997 to 2003.  Living and ministering in Queens (one of the most ethnically diverse areas in the U.S.), taught them about the unique joys and challenges that come with multi-ethnic ministry and community.
4/22/2001 - "A Taste of Heaven"
After  several years in Queens, the Brennans worked with local ministry leaders and students to organize an event called "A Taste of Heaven".  Young adults from different neighborhoods and ministries came together for a fun, worshipful, prayerful night that was a taste of heaven!
9/22/2001 - First ReNew event
Just days after the terrorists attacks on the World Trade Center (the smoke could still be seen in the distance), young adults from around the city joined together for our first "ReNew event".  During such a sad and unsettling time, it was refreshing and encouraging to worship Christ as a unified, multi-ethnic community of Believers. To learn more about our first event please read the 7 Principles Introduction.
10/2001 - Long-term impact in Queens
Young adults and ministry leaders in Queens, worked together to facilitate "ReNew monthly meetings" which (over the next several years) helped to foster a diverse community of young Christians who encouraged one another and worked together to minister to their community.  Directly and indirectly, ReNew helped hundreds of young adults to come to Christ, grow in their faith, go on missions trips, and enter full-time ministry.
5/2003 - Open doors in Columbus
The Brennans moved to Columbus and continued to work with Campus Crusade for Christ on the campuses in central Ohio.  They continued to feel called to work toward building cross-cultural unity in the Christian church.  The Lord opened doors for them to connect with a diverse group of ministry leaders and young adults in the Columbus area and a Columbus ReNew was formed soon after.
11/2004 - ReNew activities start in Columbus
ReNew leaders in Columbus began to work together to facilitate monthly meetings and other activities designed to help unite Christians in the area across ethnic and denominational lines.  Over the next several years the Columbus ReNew leaders facilitated a wide variety of activities including prayer retreats/meetings, leaders gatherings, large events, and training sessions.   Young adults attended these activities from schools, campuses, and ministries throughout central Ohio.  A common comment by those who attended, "We need more of this type of thing!"
6/2005 - "ReNew Partnerships" is launched
After many hours of prayer, fasting, and consulting with respected Christian leaders, the Brennans felt God was leading them to invest all of their time on ReNew-related activities — up to that time, they had facilitated ReNew along with their "normal" campus ministry activities with CCC.  After nine great years with CCC, they left staff and began the journey of forming "ReNew Partnerships" as a non-profit organization.
9/2005 - ReNew’s efforts expand to other cities
The Lord opens doors for ReNew to serve ministries in other cities including Dayton and Indianapolis.   Our efforts in these locations include teaching, workshops, coaching leadership, training, etc.
1/7/2006 - ONE event in Columbus
With the help of over 20 ministries, the Columbus ReNew facilitated a large event called "ONE: Mind, Body, Spirit" which featured a beautiful assortment of worship, spoken word, music, and teaching in a variety of ethnic styles.  Approximately 350 young adults attended the event from 40+ different organizations and campuses.  Click here to get a taste of what the event was like — all the scenes in the video were from just that one night!  Over the next several years ReNew facilitated four more of these events.
6/7/2006 - We are "official"
ReNew Partnerships becomes officially incorporated as a non-profit organization.  We receive our approval as a 501(c)3 tax exempt organization soon after.
9/2006 - Michaela Gregory joins our team
After two years of faithfully serving as a volunteer, Michaela Gregory becomes the first staff member (besides the Brennans) to join ReNew. 
10/30/2006 - Thousands impacted through the Main Event
By this time ReNew is playing a strategic role in a variety of activities facilitated by other organizations — especially those activities involving Christians coming together from different ethnicities and denominational backgrounds.  For example, in Columbus, ReNew played a central role with an evangelistic event called the Main Event which drew over 14,000 people.  ReNew leaders and volunteers organized the 400+ event volunteers and the follow-up of the 2100 people who indicated decisions for Christ.
2/23/2007 - First training workshop
As we sought to help Christians of different ethnicities to share life and ministry together it became obvious that one of the most helpful things we could do would be to provide Biblical training on interracial issues.  We had been doing this informally for years, but we began to sense a need for a more formal, structured training curriculum.  On Feb 23 we held our first training workshop on the OSU campus.
7/2007 - Stephanie Gregory joins our team
After three years of faithfully serving as a volunteer, Stephanie Gregory (who married Michaela Gregory’s brother) becomes a very welcome addition to our efforts.
9/2007 - Our new (old) focus: TRAINING
After six years of working toward greater interracial unity in the Christian church, the ReNew leaders spent many hours in prayer, fasting, and discussion regarding, "Where should we go from here?"  Our conclusion: BIBLE-BASED TRAINING.  We had been doing training in the past but it was secondary to our other efforts (facilitating multi-ethnic events, partnering, etc).  We decided to limit our other activities in order to focus on training as our primary emphasis.  We began to restructure our efforts and prepare resources around our new (old) focus.
7/2008 - TheNewCulture.org is launched
After over six months of development, we launched TheNewCulture.org — an innovative new website with one primary emphasis: "Helping Christians of different ethnicities to share life and ministry together". We received immediate positive feedback from leaders around the country. Click here for the press release. The number of visitors to the website rapidly increased to over 150 per day. We also began to send out our free monthly New Culture Newsletter which rapidly grew to over 1400 subscribers.
11/2008 - New Culture E-learning Program Began
We began to talk with top multi-ethnic leaders around the country about developing the New Culture E-learning Program — an effort to develop interactive e-learning sessions addressing the most critical topics for building and sustaining biblical, multi-ethnic community. We hope to launch the program in September of 2009.