History of Renew Life
AN INHERITANCE IN MIDLAND (2010-2013)
In 2010, Braden and Leann Conner began to hear God speaking to them about moving back to Midland, TX—the place where Leann’s parents had planted a church five years before they tragically died in a plane crash in 2003. Because of this, Midland had represented a place of great pain. But this pain had been replaced with promise—a prophetic word that there was a spiritual inheritance to recover, and promise that the enemy was about to repay with interest everything that had been stolen from them. On this word, and by faith, they moved back to Midland, and eventually planted Renew Life Church in August of 2013.
MIRACULOUS GROWTH (2013-2018)
It didn't take long for the “inheritance” to start showing up—from supernatural resources for the launch, to people who had formerly gone to Leann’s parents’ church showing up to help—God began to put the pieces back together! The church quickly began to flourish. Then in 2017, Braden’s parents who had faithfully pastored Leann’s family’s church after they died, merged with Renew Life bringing even more inheritance with them. They had stewarded their resources in such a way that they were debt free, so the merger provided the finances needed to complete construction on a building for Renew Life Church in Midland. With this inheritance continuing to create momentum, Renew Life Church began to experience explosive growth, weekly salvations, and miraculous healings. A sovereign move of God had begun, and it was exceeding everyone’s wildest expectations.
WHAT’S NEXT? (2019-2020)
Then, in 2019, something unexpected happened. The Lord began to speak to Braden and Leann again about what was next for Renew LifeChurch ... and it was bigger—and would require more faith—than they could have ever imagined. God began to give them a vision for planting churches—a vision that would require them to move to Lubbock, TX, to plant a second campus in 2020. This campus would become a geographical hub for 7 cities and 7 churches across West Texas and Eastern New Mexico. During this time, they were also forced to deal with the frustrations of finishing the new building at the Midland campus as well as moving their family to Lubbock during the global pandemic. However, the COVID era proved to be a blessing in disguise, allowing them to not only successfully launch the Lubbock campus, but to also invest time in developing and strengthening a plan that would allow Renew Life to accomplish the things that the Lord had spoken to them about.
7-CITY VISION & BEYOND: SEEING IT & LAUNCHING IT (2020-PRESENT)
Over the last five years, strategic moves have been made to create the infrastructure necessary for the vision. Cody and Stacey Sikes assumed the role of Midland Campus Pastors, other key leaders were relocated to create a central leadership team in Lubbock, and various organizational changes were made to ensure the health of the current campuses, while creating space for new things to be born. During this time the Lord has also clarified and even increased the vision. Renew Life Family of Churches was born, overseas missions initiatives were inherited in places like India and the Philippines, and space for more churches beyond the 7 Cities—international cities like Dublin, Ireland—was created. It was becoming clearer and clearer that God had big plans for the Renew Life Church family.
