Why Renew?

A letter to CCB introducing Renew Northwest & Renew Book Company

“We are not writing for the whole world but for our mission here in the Pacific Northwest.”

Dear CCB family,

I’m writing to introduce you to two new ministries at CCB, and to share with you some of the heart behind starting them. They are called Renew Northwest (an online magazine) and Renew Book Company (a book imprint out of CCB). I believe deeply in these ministries, so I want to share with you the history of how they came about.

Just a few months before COVID hit, Pastor Jonathan, Pastor Matt, Brannon Ellis, and I had started a writing group. I had always thought that pastors basically wrote so they could become famous, and that didn't seem like a good reason to write. But this writing group had given me a vision for the importance of writing in pastoral ministry. They specifically gave me a vision for writing for our local church. I remember Pastor Matt making the comment that our people are consuming massive amounts of content online and through the media and movies. They are being discipled through all this content, and the church needs to counter that discipleship with teaching. And this is an important way to do it.

Well, then COVID hit, and a couple things happened. 

The first was, we were all at home, sheltering in place, and it created an opportunity for me to write. I had had an idea for a book that came from some conversations I’d had with a guy I play basketball with. He was interested in learning about Christianity, so I gave him John Stott’s Basic Christianity (written in England in the ’70s). And he said, this book assumes I know too much. So I really wanted to write a book that I could give him. Out of those months of shelter-in-place came this book, The Deep Deep Love of Jesus. 

There are two reasons I think this book could really serve our church. I think it will teach you about how incredible the cross of Christ is. Especially in our day, we need to see how incredibly wide the implications of the gospel are.  The God of the Bible is so much better than we ever dreamed, and his love touches every human problem. These are truths we need to deeply internalize as Christians. But it is also a book you could give to someone who is not a Christian, and I believe it would be a compelling introduction to Christianity. If someone who was interested asked you about the Christian faith, what book would you give them? My hope is that this book might be it.

Brannon Ellis developed an imprint to publish this book called Renew Book Company. Amazon makes it easy to have books printed individually as people buy them, so our hope is that this ministry might be just big enough to fund itself. We are not writing for the world—we are writing for our community. But if the world benefits from it, all the better.

The other thing that came out of this writing group was an online magazine called Renew Northwest. Again, the burden for this ministry was: I want to write for our church. During COVID I was reading all this historic theology about the relationship between the church and the state, and I had many thoughts about how it related to our church. I desperately wanted to share it with you, but I didn’t want to use sermons to address these things every week. So I didn’t have an outlet to share this teaching with you.

And so we created Renew Northwest. You can tell by the name that we are not writing for the whole world but for our mission here in the Pacific Northwest. And even though I hope this is an avenue for me to write to you, our church, about how the gospel applies to culture and to all of life, I know some dear other pastors in our presbytery who also write to their churches, so I thought we could put their pastoral writings on this site so we could benefit from them as well. So Renew Northwest is a ministry for CCB and also (hopefully) for our presbytery.

“One of the only things we know about pastors in the first century is they wrote to their people.”

I have a long list of things I’d love to write about. We want these articles to be short-form and practical—a steady diet of practical, theological discipleship. You look at the New Testament and one of the only things we know about pastors in the first century is they wrote to their people. That is what the New Testament is: pastors writing to their churches. 

So my hope is that Renew Northwest and Renew Books would stimulate spiritual conversation in our church and would disciple our people for following Christ in every area of life. If you have any questions, I would love to talk to you and share my heart for this. 

Now, before I sign off let me just briefly address some FAQs that you might have been thinking about:

1. How much of Pastor Nate’s time is going toward writing? 

This was a major question the Session (elders) of CCB asked before approving this ministry. Every time I have logged my work hours in a given week, it usually ends up being around 53 hours per week. I (ideally) spend three hours per week writing, and so the session has determined that this is basically done in my personal time because it is above and beyond the full-time expectation. My writing time is very limited (I’m just chipping away bit by bit), but I would love to write a short book once per year and two articles per month. I have completed a second book called Gospel Education: How Jesus Shapes the Classical School, that would be used to describe the vision of TCS to teachers, staff, and new families. After that I’ve just begun a book on gospel parenting. We have many young families in our church, and I am passionate that they have biblical, gospel truths guiding them in their vision as young parents.

2. I thought we were trying to have fewer new ideas and were focusing instead on our existing ministries. Why start this now?

This is true. Our session said in our strategic planning retreat last fall that our church (specifically the pastor!) lacks focus; we have too many ideas. We need to make sure to do the basics well before we move on to new things. I strongly believe this is something God has been teaching me this past year. But for whatever reason, in God’s providence, the Session had decided to start this ministry about four months before we had that insight. Since Renew Northwest and the imprint have already been built, we are going to continue with them. I believe it won’t require many resources, but it has the potential to be valuable to our community and mission.

3. Who is leading this ministry?

The Renew Northwest team is made up of several gifted individuals who I am excited to work alongside: Théa Rosenburg, Alex Brouwer, Matt Boffey, and Cari Duffy. This group has experience and expertise in editing, communications, and design.

4. Is Pastor Nate making money from the sales of his books?

All money made by the books goes back into the ministry, unless by some chance book revenues for a title far exceed the cost of making the book. Once the cost of making the book has been recovered by CCB (approx. 1500 books), then the author receives small royalties that are commensurate with market value (around 16% of profits). The other 84% goes back to the ministry. As for Shannon (my wife) and I, we have prayerfully decided that if a book ever did sell beyond that threshold, we would give all the income away for the work of God’s kingdom.

Please pray for this ministry, and I hope it is a blessing to you and used for good for God’s people.

Blessings in Christ,

Pastor Nate