The Story Behind Tend
Inspired by our global partners
Why Caring for the Earth Matters
From the beginning, we were created to live in harmony with God, one another, and all the earth. Sin fractured that harmony. But through Jesus, God began restoring it, promising a new creation where heaven and earth meet again.
Caring for the earth is part of how we follow Jesus now, participate in God’s work of healing relationships, and point toward the promised future: a world made whole.
Rooted in Global Experience
Tend is an initiative of Plant With Purpose, a Christian 501(c)(3) nonprofit creating a world where people and planet thrive by restoring ecosystems, reducing poverty, and strengthening communities of faith.
Tend was designed in partnership with international program partners, who have successfully brought creation care to their own local faith communities. These partners serve as our guides, shaping Tend’s design and helping cast the vision for how it could equip and impact churches across the U.S.
The Values That Guide Us
What We Believe
You can read the Plant With Purpose Statement of Faith by visiting plantwithpurpose.org/statement-of-faith.
The Tend Team
Making discipleship and outreach simpler for your church by equipping your people to join God’s work of renewal
Partnering with church leaders to integrate creation care into discipleship
Brendan McClenahan
Engagement
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Brendan McClenahan
Engagement
Brendan partners with church leaders in order to revitalize relationships with God, neighbors, and creation.
Before his role as the Church Engagement Manager at Plant With Purpose, Brendan worked with Fuller Church Planting Initiative at Fuller Theological Seminary, as well as Cyclical INC to publish books, podcasts, and courses to support church starters globally. He has helped establish over a dozen house churches, one of which he currently pastors. An ordained pastor, Brendan holds a Master of Divinity from Western Theological Seminary and a Master of Music from California State University Northridge.
Originally from California, Brendan now lives with his wife and three daughters on the shore of Lake Michigan.
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Passionate about telling the stories of faith and global impact
Lynne Takahashi Marian
Marketing
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Lynne Takahashi Marian
Marketing
For more than 30 years, Lynne has worked at the intersection of ministry and marketing, amplifying the mission of many leading organizations, including World Vision, Zondervan, World Concern, Our Daily Bread, and Outreach, Inc., where she founded Outreach Magazine with its top 100 list of America’s largest and fastest growing churches. Lynne leads marketing and communications at Plant With Purpose, a leading Christian environmental organization that’s planted almost 90 million trees in nine countries worldwide all while helping vulnerable communities cut poverty in half.
She loves sharing stories of the resilient and remarkable people in our partner countries, and helping churches positively impact the global issues of poverty and the environment. Today, she is helping to lead Tend, our new church discipleship and outreach program, rooted in Creation care. Lynne lives in Southern California and is also a life and executive coach.
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Inspiring generosity and deeper connection with U.S. partners
Katherine Padgett
Integration
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Katherine Padgett
Integration
As the marketing manager, Katherine enjoys executing marketing campaigns that connect with new and existing U.S. donor partners. She is excited about tracking and interpreting marketing analytics to ensure the team is effective in reaching our goals and supporting our mission. Additionally, she manages the marketing tech platforms and is always looking for ways to improve and optimize our processes.
Katherine has a Bachelors of Arts in Business and English from Hollins University. She and her husband currently split their time between Fort Collins, CO and San Diego, CA, where they plan to settle. When she’s not working, Katherine enjoys board games, gardening, and Star Wars.
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Bringing strategy and heart to outreach and engagement
Nicole Sjogren
Content
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Nicole Sjogren
Content
As our Marketing Administrator, Nicole is focused on mastering our marketing tech while supporting church engagement and streamlining systems. With over a decade of combined education and experience in communications, Nicole has a passion for using marketing to enhance the way we understand and heal cultural division.
She holds a BA in Communication and Culture from Indiana University and two MAs in Christian Studies and Communication and Culture from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Nicole also has experience in early childhood development from homeschooling her three young boys, who continue to inspire her daily.
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The Tend Advisory Board
Guiding Tend with wisdom, insight, and a shared vision for discipleship and outreach through creation care
Elsa Barron
Tend Advisor
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Elsa Barron
Tend Advisor
Elsa Barron (she/her) is an environmental peacebuilding and climate justice researcher, writer, poet, and activist. She is currently completing a PhD in Peace Studies and Political Science at the University of Notre Dame where her research explores the impact of climate justice movements on international climate diplomacy within the UNFCCC. She is also a co-director of the Christian Climate Observers Program and has been involved in faith-based advocacy with Faith in Place (formerly Hoosier Interfaith Power and Light) and Young Evangelicals for Climate Action.
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Rashad Burden
Tend Advisor
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Rashad Burden
Tend Advisor
Rashad Burden is the senior pastor of the historic 31st Street Church in San Diego, California. In the church’s 100-year history, Rashad is the youngest senior pastor to lead the congregation. He is a graduate of Pine Forge Academy in Pine Forge, PA, one of the few remaining historically black boarding academies in the US. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Oakwood University in Huntsville, Alabama. He has also received his PhD in organizational leadership from Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida. He tells everyone he “married up” to the love of his life Stephany Burden. They have two beautiful and intelligent children, Keidan and Kumani. He truly believes that with great power come great responsibility. He strives to help others to become the healthiest version of themselves: spiritually, emotionally, and physically.
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Richard Dahlstrom
Tend Advisor
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Richard Dahlstrom
Tend Advisor
Richard Dahlstrom is a pastor, author, and spiritual director who has spent more than 40 years helping people attend to God through Scripture, prayer, and creation. He is the founder of Ancient Paths, a ministry of spiritual formation rooted in wilderness rhythms, silence, and embodied practice.
Richard is deeply passionate about stewarding creation, which he often describes as God’s first and oldest book—a place where attentiveness can awaken faith, humility, and wonder. Through writing, teaching, and leading wilderness experiences, he invites leaders and communities to slow down, listen deeply, and rediscover the formative power of God’s presence in the natural world.
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Jason Fileta
Tend Advisor
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Jason Fileta
Tend Advisor
After working for 18 years in the international development, advocacy, and justice community, Jason Fileta now serves on the administration of small private Christian university in the Pacific Northwest. He teaches classes on faith and justice, diversity, and public policy. He is also part of a beautiful church community called Union Chapel in Vancouver WA, where he lives with his two children.
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Anthony Lane
Tend Advisor
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Anthony Lane
Tend Advisor
Anthony Lane serves as a City Youth and Missions Director and is passionate about forming the next generation in the way of Jesus. Originally from New Orleans and a proud LSU graduate, he carries a deep love for his home state while also embracing life and community in Houston.
Anthony is drawn to Tend because he believes the Church is called to bring beauty into a broken world through faithful presence and shared practice. With over seven years of youth ministry experience, he is committed to helping Gen Z and Gen Alpha develop a resilient faith and discover why Jesus is worthy of their trust. He considers it a joy to walk alongside students, families, and mission partners as they participate in God’s restoring work.
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Corey Nelson
Tend Advisor
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Corey Nelson
Tend Advisor
Corey Nelson currently serves as Pastor for First Presbyterian Church in Fort Collins, Colorado, a congregation which has a commitment to Earth Care and has been certified as a PCUSA Earth Care Congregation for many years. In addition to partnering with Plant With Purpose, FPCFC also has relationships with Au Sable Institute and A Rocha as well as local partnerships. Corey previously served for nine years as Associate Pastor for Mission at FPC in Lake Forest, Illiinois. His early ministry included two years of international volunteer service in Northern Ireland and Ghana respectively. Corey's wife, Miriam, also works at the church as an educator and is a long distance runner. They enjoy traveling and the outdoors.
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Scott Nelson
Tend Advisor
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Scott Nelson
Tend Advisor
Scott is the Associate Superintendent of the Northwest Conference for the Covenant Church, overseeing church planting and leadership development. He served for 14 years as the founding and Lead Pastor of Covenant Grove Church in Modesto, California, where he also helped plant a new church in 2021.
Scott has spent years supporting pastors and planters through coaching, assessment, and training, and he brings a steady, practiced commitment to helping leaders flourish for the long haul. He attended seminary at North Park and Bethel, received his doctorate at Fuller Seminary, and is the author of Supply Lines, a book focused on the support systems pastors and church planters need to sustain faithful ministry. Scott and his wife, Hannah, have been married for 24 years and are raising five children together.
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Juan Rosas
Tend Advisor
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Juan Rosas
Tend Advisor
Juan Rosas serves as the Por la Creación Network Manager at Hispanic Access Foundation and is a longtime advocate for faith-rooted justice, conservation, and human dignity. With more than 17 years of experience founding and leading nonprofits in Southern California, Juan is driven by a conviction that every person should have access to essentials like food, housing, healthcare, education, and healthy places to gather and thrive.
Juan’s work bridges creation care, public advocacy, and spiritual formation, helping communities connect faith with action. He regularly speaks at conferences, churches, and universities, and currently serves on the Partnership Coordinating Committee for the California Natural Resource Agency. Based in San Jacinto, California, Juan is deeply grounded in his faith and family and is passionate about inviting people—especially those historically excluded—into meaningful experiences of God’s creation.
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Deb Walkemeyer
Tend Advisor
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Deb Walkemeyer
Tend Advisor
Dr. Deb Walkemeyer serves as Strategic Catalyst for Multiplication and on the National Leadership Team of the Free Methodist Church USA. She also serves as Global Pastor of the nationally recognized, Light & Life Christian Fellowship—a missional, multi-ethnic, multiplying church which Deb and her husband Larry led for 31 years. Deb started and led the first Compton Community Garden for her Fuller Seminary doctoral work to address food desert issues in that local community. Deb is a speaker, author, Los Angeles County Master Gardener, community leader, Marriage/Family therapist, and business owner.
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