A discipleship library for your whole church. And a pastor for the ones who need more.
Fifty-six guided series your entire congregation can start today, a framework that equips your volunteers to walk alongside people, and ordained pastors ready for the moments a devotional cannot carry. As far as we can tell, nobody else sells a church both.
Built by pastors. Rooted in Scripture. An extension of your ministry, not a replacement for it.
More need than hours
Every pastor runs the same math. The people who need care outnumber the hours available to give it, and the gap only widens as the church grows.
Care that starts too late
For most people, care begins whenever an appointment opens up. Until then they are carrying it alone, often for weeks, at the moment it is heaviest.
Volunteers who feel unqualified
Your people want to help and do not feel equipped. Without a framework to follow, most of them stay on the sidelines of care entirely.
You can buy content. You can hire staff. There has never been anything in between.
Discipleship content
- Video libraries and curriculum you license by attendance
- Typically $3,000 to $9,000 a year for a mid-size church
- Excellent for groups, classes, and personal study
- But it cannot sit with someone whose marriage is ending
A counselor on staff
- A part-time care role runs $39,000 to $58,000 fully loaded
- Full time is $78,000 to $117,000
- Serves one person at a time, on one calendar
- Out of reach for most churches under 500
Tend
- The discipleship library, congregation-wide
- Plus ordained pastoral care, included
- Plus a framework that activates your volunteers
- Starting at $397 a month
Churches have been able to license discipleship material for years. Congregational pastoral care has never been something you could simply subscribe to. That is the gap we built Tend to fill.
A pathway for every person, a pastor when it is needed
Care stops being an appointment and becomes a path someone starts the same day they ask for help.
Someone comes to you
A marriage in trouble. A death. An addiction. A season of doubt. It reaches your office the way it always has, through a conversation in a hallway or an email on a Monday morning.
You hand them a pathway that day
Our Care Pathway map matches what someone is carrying to one of fifty-six Devo10 series written for that exact situation. Eighty-four days, ten minutes each, with Scripture, prayer, and reflection questions already written. It is theirs immediately and it costs them nothing.
Your care team walks with them
A volunteer checks in each week, prays, and asks the reflection questions that are already printed on the page. This is presence, not counseling. We onboard your team on how it works, what to listen for, and exactly when to stop and escalate, including how to respond if someone mentions harming themselves.
Tend is there when they need a person
Whenever they are ready, they book directly with an ordained pastor. No coordination from your staff. And because they have already spent weeks praying and journaling through it, that first conversation starts far deeper than a first conversation usually does.
You see the impact, not the details
Each month you receive a summary of how your congregation is being served, in counts and trends only. What someone reads, writes, or discusses stays between them, God, and their pastor, with the one exception the law requires of all of us: if a child or vulnerable adult is being harmed, or someone is in danger, we act.
God first. Then a pastor.
Most care models make a counselor the first responder. We think that is backwards. Before anyone sits across from a pastor, they should be given real time in Scripture and prayer over the thing they are carrying, with someone from their own church walking beside them.
Not because counsel does not matter. It matters enormously. But a person who has spent three weeks bringing their situation honestly to God arrives at that conversation already changed, and they leave it able to keep walking on their own.
The goal was never to make your people dependent on a counselor. It was to help them learn to walk with God through the hardest thing they have ever carried.
Discipleship and care in one place
Every plan includes the entire library, the full framework, and real pastoral care. What changes between plans is how much pastoral conversation comes with it.
Fifty-six Devo10 series
Grief, marriage, addiction, anxiety, doubt, parenting, financial pressure, church hurt, purpose, prayer, and more. Each one is eighty-four days across four volumes. Your whole congregation gets all of it, free to them, for as long as you partner with us.
The Care Pathway map
A simple lookup for your care team. Someone brings you what they are facing, you find it on the map, and you know exactly which pathway to hand them and what to expect over the coming weeks.
Lay care onboarding
We train your volunteers to walk beside someone in a pathway. It is not counseling and it does not require credentials. It is presence, prayer, and a set of questions already written for them.
Booklets for your lobby
Print-ready booklets for every series, designed for a rack by the door. Each one carries a code that opens the full pathway, so someone can pick up help on a Sunday without ever having to ask for it.
Ordained pastoral care
When someone needs a person, they meet with an ordained minister with theological training and real pastoral experience. Video or phone, scheduled directly, at no cost to the person receiving care.
Male and female pastors
Every member chooses whether to speak with a man or a woman. For many churches this is not a preference but a policy, and it is built into how we work rather than added on request.
Ordained ministers with real pastoral experience
Pastor Ryan Ransom
- Ordained pastor with full-time ministry experience
- MA in Ministerial Leadership, Southeastern University
- Currently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry
- Specialized in family ministry and spiritual formation
- Author of the Devo10 library
Pastor Carey Ransom
- Ordained pastor with extensive ministry experience
- Master's degree in ministry leadership
- Full-time pastoral ministry alongside Pastor Ryan
- Passionate about women's ministry and family care
- Available to every partner church
A credentialed network
- Ordained, theologically trained, and members of the AACC
- Trained in the Tend approach before taking conversations
- So your congregation is not waiting on a single calendar
- Same standards, same theology, same care
Important: Tend provides pastoral counseling and spiritual guidance, not licensed mental health therapy. We are ordained ministers, not licensed therapists. The American Association of Christian Counselors is a professional membership association, not a state licensing body.
Care that knows what it is, and what it is not
Tend is pastoral care rooted in Scripture and prayer. We are ordained ministers, not licensed therapists, and we are clear about that on purpose. When someone needs clinical treatment, we say so and help you find it. When something is a crisis, it goes straight to emergency help, never into a devotional. Your people are cared for, and no one is ever handed more than we are meant to carry.
When you partner with us, your care team gets a simple guide for who is a good fit, who to point toward a licensed clinician, and how to handle an emergency, so the boundary is clear before anyone ever needs it.
Priced by congregation, not by the hour
Every plan gives your entire congregation the full library, the full framework, and real pastoral care. Compare it to what you already pay for discipleship content, then to what a part-time care hire would cost. Pay yearly and two months are free.
Starter
The whole system for smaller churches, with a pastor there when a pathway is not enough.
- All 56 Devo10 series, congregation-wide
- The Care Pathway map and lay care onboarding
- Print-ready booklets for your lobby
- Up to 5 pastoral conversations each month
- Members book directly, no staff coordination
- Choose a male or female pastor
- Monthly impact summary for church leadership
- Unused conversations roll forward one month
Growth
For churches with steady care needs and a team ready to walk with people.
- Everything in Starter
- Up to 15 pastoral conversations each month
- Priority scheduling for pressing needs
- A care team onboarding session each year
Extended Care
For growing churches whose care load has outrun a single staff calendar.
- Everything in Growth
- Up to 30 pastoral conversations each month
- Priority scheduling for pressing needs
- Detailed monthly impact reporting
- A named point of contact on our team
Full Care
Comprehensive support for large churches carrying a heavy, steady care load.
- Everything in Extended Care
- Up to 50 pastoral conversations each month
- Same-day priority scheduling available
- Detailed monthly impact reporting
- A direct line to your care team
Network
For very large churches, multi-site families, and district or denominational groups. A personalized plan built around your sites, your structure, and how your people actually need care.
A pastoral conversation is one scheduled 30 to 60 minute meeting with one person or household. Unused conversations roll forward one month. These are ceilings, not targets. Most churches will use well under them, because the library is doing the work first, and that is the design rather than a shortfall.
What church leaders ask us
What if a month goes by and nobody needs a pastoral conversation?
Then the system is working exactly as designed. The library served your congregation all month, people walked through real things with God and with your team, and nothing more was needed. Your library access never depends on how much pastoral conversation you use, and unused conversations roll forward a month so a quiet season is never wasted.
What is the difference between this and licensed therapy?
Pastoral counseling offers spiritual guidance and biblical wisdom for life's challenges. We are ordained ministers, not licensed therapists, and we do not diagnose or treat mental health conditions. For clinical needs we help connect people with licensed professionals, and someone can absolutely receive clinical care while walking a pathway.
Can our church staff see what someone is reading or writing?
No. Someone working through addiction, doubt, or pornography will not touch a resource they believe their church office can see, so you receive counts and trends only, never names, topics, journal entries, or the content of a pastoral conversation. The one limit, which applies to us and to your staff alike, is that we are mandated reporters: if we learn a child or vulnerable adult is being harmed, or that someone is in danger, we are required by law to act, and we will tell the person that up front.
Do our volunteers need counseling training?
No, and that is much of the point. Walking beside someone in a pathway means checking in, praying, and asking questions that are already written on the page. We onboard your team on how it works, what to listen for, and when to stop and hand something to a pastor, to a licensed clinician, or to 988. We also cover mandated reporting, because your volunteers carry that obligation too. We recommend the same background screening you use for any volunteer in a care role.
How do members access their pathway?
You give them a link or a booklet with a code. They start the same day, on a phone, a tablet, or paper. There is nothing for your staff to coordinate and nothing for the member to pay.
Is this theologically aligned with our church?
Everything we write is biblically grounded, ESV based, and aligned with evangelical theology. During our conversation we are glad to walk through your distinctives, and you are welcome to read any series in full before you decide.
Can we change or cancel our plan?
Yes. Partnerships are month to month with no long-term commitment. Move up, move down, or cancel with thirty days notice. If you pay yearly and need to stop, we will prorate the remainder.
Why is there a limit on conversations at all?
So we can staff honestly. Every conversation is with a real ordained pastor who has to be available, and a number lets us guarantee that rather than overpromise. In practice we expect most churches to use well under their ceiling, because people are working through their situation with God and with your team before anyone books anything. If your church consistently uses only a fraction, that is the system working, and your library access never depends on it.
Is this a discipleship program or a counseling service?
Both, and that is the point. The fifty-six series are a genuine discipleship library your whole congregation can use for groups, classes, personal study, or a specific hard season. The pastoral care is what happens when someone needs more than reading. Churches have been able to license discipleship content for a long time. Being able to subscribe to pastoral care for a congregation is new, and as far as we can tell we are the only ones offering it.
What does this replace?
Nothing. It extends what your pastors are already doing. You remain the church, the shepherd, and the first relationship. We are the depth behind you when the need outruns the hours.
Tell us about your church
Send this over and we will be in touch within one business day. No pressure and no pitch, just a conversation about what your people need.
Nobody in your church should have to wait to be cared for.
Let's talk about what it would look like for every person who comes to you to leave with something real in their hands that same day.
Schedule a conversation