LifeWay Christian Resources, the largest Christian retail chain in America, plans to close all 170 stores this year and shift its offerings entirely online.“The decision to close our local stores is a difficult one,” said acting president and CEO Brad Waggoner, who is succeeding longtime LifeWay president Thom Rainer.“LifeWay has developed close connections with the communities where our stores are located, and we have been honored to serve those communities. We will continue serving local congregations as they meet the spiritual needs of their neighbors.”The Southern Baptist affiliate in January initial plans to reduce its locations this year due to declining sales and financial pressures, but ended up deciding it wasn’t viable to keep any stores open past 2019. Rainer they did all they could to save the stores, which span across 30 states.“Our retail strategy for the future will be a greater focus on digital channels, which are experiencing strong growth,” Waggoner said in an announcement on Wednesday. The chain will continue online sales through.LifeWay’s store closures come two years after its competitor, Family Christian Resources, in the midst of mounting debt and bankruptcy. The ministry just opened a stylish downtown Nashville location a year and a half ago at its. In an ironic twist, LifeWay’s former location will now house incoming Amazon offices.A few years ago, Rainer suggested LifeWay would focus on local church partnerships and shift toward becoming a community gathering place to offer an experience beyond the products themselves.“Anybody in any church can go to Amazon and have this incredible breadth and incredible service,” he in 2017. “But here’s what we’re finding: Church leaders—whether staff or lay persons—are asking questions like, ‘How do I know this resource is best?’ We have a contextualized answer because we know the church, and we know the resources.”But the trend away from brick-and-mortar shopping only grew worse.
LifeWay hadn’t had sales exceed its operating expenses in more than a decade, Baptist Press, and the margin between the two grew from $2.3 million in 2010 to $35.5 million in 2017.At last year’s SBC annual meeting, LifeWay reported serving “millions of individuals and tens of thousands of churches” with its offerings.The chain is run by the denomination, whose doctrinal guidelines set content standards (no prosperity gospel books, accounts of, and in recent years, titles by authors such as, and ). But LifeWay draws in a broader Christian customer base, especially as its competition has shuttered over the years. Many Southern Baptists, Christian authors, and loyal shoppers offered tribute to the chain in the wake of the news.“Given industry trends this shouldn’t be as shocking as it is, but this also means I can’t wait till the day before our new bible study starts to pick up the book anymore,” Kathryn Freeman, director at Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission. “The women at my local LifeWay have been a great resource over the last few years. I’m sad to lose them!”“Since I began in the publishing industry in 2002, some 2,000 bookstores in America have closed their doors forever, including the 400 stores of the WaldenBooks chain.
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And now this. I’m very grateful for the team and will miss their stores,” author Joel Rosenberg, who has five books sold by LifeWay.Books remain the top item purchased at Christian stores, making up over a third of sales.
Number of employees4,000Five; see articleWebsiteLifeWay Christian Resources, based in, is the publishing division of the and provider of church business services. Until the end of their physical retail presence in 2019 it was best known for its LifeWay Christian Stores, one of the two major American retailers of Christian books and products (the other being ). LifeWay funded and published the through their imprint Holman Bible Publishers, now the H in B&H Publishing Group, through which LifeWay currently publishes the major revision of the HCSB—the —along with individual authors' work. B&H Publishing Group is part of LifeWay Resources, the biggest of LifeWay Christian Resources' five divisions.
The other four are: LifeWay Insights —includes LifeWay Research (surveys, church assessments); Information Technology (development and distribution of digital resources, ); Finance and Business Services (accounting, investments); and Organizational Development (people strategies, culture development)—includes team. Contents.History In 1891, a 43-year-old pastor, founded “The Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention' after that year's annual meeting in Birmingham, Alabama.
In 1925, the Board began operating retail bookstores under the name 'Baptist Book Store'. According to, the Sunday School Board was 'one of the principal sources of literacy across.' Around 1971 the Board began using the 'LifeWay' imprint on some of its materials and as the name for retail stores in certain markets, reflecting an expansion of items sold which included items produced by others (some of whom were not Southern Baptist). Over a two-year period from 1996-1998 the Board re-branded its stores under the LifeWay banner and officially changed its name.In 2017 LifeWay staff moved out of the and the into new headquarters in the area.In January 2019 LifeWay announced it would cut staff and close some of its 170 stores, however two months later it announced that it would be closing all of them and shift its focus to the side of the business. Sales policy Although LifeWay sells products created by non-SBC persons and entities, generally speaking its products feature Christian teachings from a conservative perspective (consistent with the 2000 ).
It will not sell, and will if needed discontinue selling, works by authors who disagree with its policies. As an example, in October 2016 it pulled all works by author after she endorsed.LifeWay's ministry on the subject of sexuality and gender expression categorizes non-normative identities as sinful lifestyles, the threat of which requires church members be 'ready when homosexuality devastates.' This is generally consistent with Article XVIII of the (the doctrinal statement of the, LifeWay's parent ), though it does not specifically address topics such as transgender or non-binary genders. Leadership.In February 2006, Thom Rainer became the president and CEO of LifeWay after having served as dean of the Billy Graham School of Evangelism of the.
He succeeded, of the metro area, who had headed LifeWay from 1991 to 2006.On August 29, 2018, Rainer announced his retirement from LifeWay effective within one year or once his replacement had been identified—whichever occurred first. Rainer resigned earlier than anticipated on February 28, 2019, and Brad Waggoner was named acting president.As of July 2019 the CEO is the recently hired Ben Mandrell. References. Retrieved September 28, 2019. Vance, Laurence M. Dial-the-Truth Ministries.
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