Lifeway President Ben Mandrell told messengers at the Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting on June 12 that he was “more excited than ever for the future of Lifeway.”
“Our finances look great,” he said of the SBC entity, which provides resources to the local church.
After experiencing a $55 million revenue drop during the COVID-19 pandemic, Lifeway has experienced God’s favor “as we’ve had three consecutive years of growth and positive bottom-line growth,” Mandrell said. “We’re grateful for your support and continued partnership and for allowing us to continue to serve your churches with resources.
During his report, he addressed four questions.
- Where does Lifeway want to be in five to 10 years?
“Our vision statement is this — to empower 300,000 church leaders with research and resources to reach the nations,” he said.
Lifeway’s aim is to make churches stronger and to build relationships with the leaders who make content decisions at each church so they can know how to better serve them, Mandrell said.
- What is Lifeway doing to minister to families with special needs?
At the 2023 SBC Annual Meeting, Wayne Yeager, a messenger from Ohio, asked how Lifeway could support his church’s ministry to families with special needs.
“The question became a big topic for us at Lifeway to tackle,” Mandrell said.
Because of Yeager’s question, Lifeway formed an advisory committee of disability ministry specialists and advocates from across the country.
They also curated special needs resources on the webpage lifeway.com/specialneeds. There, church leaders will find resources for special needs Sunday School and Vacation Bible School as well as articles and training resources, Mandrell said.
Lifeway’s Bible team is also designing the first-ever kids’ Bible for readers with dyslexia, he said. “The Bible uses academically tested typeface and design principles created by Cambridge University’s research department.”
Those design principles include space between the letters, words, lines and paragraphs as well as special cover page overlays to enhance visual processing, he said. “We want to equip every church no matter what size to serve families in their communities who have children with special needs.”
In July 2023, Lifeway announced it was planning to discontinue the Lifeway Worship website, which provides music resources for churches. After much backlash and many conversations with music ministers, Lifeway announced in September they would continue providing the website for another year.
During his report, Mandrell announced Lifeway Worship was here to stay and was greeted with cheers from the crowd.
“Lifeway has decided to continue offering this essential resource,” he said. “Since last fall, we’ve held listening sessions with over 200 church leaders from 10 states. Worship leaders told us this is their curriculum for discipling the people who lead in their ministries.”
These leaders rely on Lifeway Worship for “music that has been vetted theologically and encourages congregational singing,” Mandrell said. “We underestimated the value that this tool was bringing to a meaningful portion of churches.”
- What is something that Lifeway is celebrating in 2024?
Though VBS itself started in 1898, this year is the 100th anniversary of when Lifeway (at that time named the Sunday School Board) created the VBS department.
“We are celebrating today the number of lives that have been impacted lives for Christ, calls to ministry, so many good things that have happened through VBS,” Mandrell said.
More than 25,000 churches reach 2.5 million children each summer through Lifeway’s VBS resources.
It “continues to be the largest evangelistic tool of the SBC, accounting for 25% of our baptisms each year,” Mandrell said. “It is a time-tested and proven strategy. Look back at what God has done, and let’s be thankful.”
To view more photos from the Lifeway report, click here.
