By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Monday, April 27, 2026

Pushpay, a leading payments and engagement solutions provider for the faith-based and nonprofit sectors, has acquired Nurture.io, a pastoral care and engagement platform founded by former Gateway Church Executive Pastor Luke Denton, which aims to help churches identify and better engage with lapsed members, including those disengaging from attendance, giving or volunteering.

The acquisition was announced in a press release on April 22, along with additional statements from Denton and Pushpay CEO Kenny Wyatt.

While Pushpay did not disclose the financial terms or purchase price of the acquisition, the company said Nurture’s pastoral care and engagement intelligence will be integrated into its platform.

"The Nurture team created something the Church has needed for a long time," Wyatt said. "Today, ministry leaders collect data to better know and serve their people, but it’s often scattered across multiple digital silos.

"Nurture's platform breaks down those silos, connects the dots between data points, and presents a holistic picture of an individual's engagement to identify those who need ministering the most,” he continued. "I believe this will be the next frontier of what technology can do for the Church — where ministry leaders don't just have data about their congregation, they have the insight and the tools to act before someone disconnects from the Church.”

Denton, who worked as the executive pastor of Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, from November 2017 to March 2023, founded Nurture in 2024. He explained in a Facebook post in February how, during the COVID-19 pandemic, church staff divided up their more than 200,000 contacts and “began calling each person to check in and ask how we could be praying for them.”

“After about 3 weeks, we came together and celebrated that we had called every adult on the list! The reports were amazing … ‘Wow, I can’t believe you called me’ was the number one response. Also, we heard things like, ‘I haven’t been to church in 3 years, but I’m grateful someone actually called me!’” he wrote.

He said it was during that outreach exercise that he realized how he was failing at “the relational element of discipleship.”

“Why did it take a pandemic for me to see that what used to be normal and expected by people was now an absolute SHOCK to them? The church had grown so large that I couldn’t possibly keep relationship with everyone… not without some different systems in place, and acknowledging my personal burnout from juggling so much,” he explained.

“That’s why we built Nurture. While the world goes with the flow of automating communication and outsourcing critical thinking to AI, we are helping build systems that scale human, relational capacity. Simply put, we make sure good pastors don’t have to choose between their calling to be a shepherd and church growth.”

Nurture aggregates data from more than 17 industry integrations, including church management systems, giving platforms and communication tools, according to Pushpay. This data is then used by churches and pastors to catch disengagement early and act on it.

"The question was never 'Can we see the data?' It was always 'Does our team know exactly what to do about it?' That's what Nurture solves. Many tools can help you do metrics, but Nurture helps you do ministry,” Denton explained. “Partnering with Pushpay means we can bring proven strategies and deep accountability to every church that's tired of losing people they never knew were leaving."

While 91% of church leaders say technology helps them better care for their community, only 9% say it helps them with discipleship.

Nurture claims churches that use its platform see nearly 2.8 times more of their lapsed attendees return to church, are nearly three times more likely to re-engage lapsed volunteers and see a 145% increase on average in the number of lapsed donors who begin giving again, according to the press statement.

Despite the acquisition by Pushpay, Denton is expected to stay in leadership at the company.

“This is a meaningful moment for our company and the amazing churches we serve. Together, Pushpay and Nurture technology will work to close the shepherding gap, equipping ministry leaders with the tools, insights and action to know every person by name, understand where they are on their spiritual journey, and confidently see that every person in their church is being cared for,” Wyatt stated. “All without making changes to your existing tech stack.”

News Source : https://www.christianpost.com/news/nurture-promises-to-help-churches-care-for-engage-members.html