BRENTWOOD, Tenn. — In their first meeting in 2025, Lifeway Christian Resources trustees heard a financial update and learned how the organization is partnering with state conventions and meeting some of the most pressing needs of local churches.
Speaking to trustees during the Jan. 27-28 meeting, Lifeway President and CEO Ben Mandrell shared some of the encouraging historical trends and early wins so far in the first quarter of the financial year. “When I arrived at Lifeway,” Mandrell said, “there was a lot of concern about the organization’s future.” He credited God’s blessing and employees’ hard work for the change in direction and forward momentum.
Organizational wins
Mandrell noted the strong launch of the “Magnified” Vacation Bible School theme and how VBS resources serve churches in one of their biggest evangelistic events. Additionally, summer camps for kids and students continue to rebound well from the pandemic. After serving almost 115,000 campers last year, Lifeway expects more than 125,000 this summer. FUGE Camps are projected to have their largest summer since 2018, while CentriKid is expected to have its largest summer ever.
Mandrell also called out the “overwhelming response” to the Grace Bible for readers with dyslexia. The kids’ edition released last fall has sold more than 5,000 copies. “Within a matter of days of the release, we ran out of inventory and have been working hard to meet the demand,” he said. The adult version released a few weeks later and has already sold nearly 3,000 copies.
Joe Walker, executive vice president and chief financial officer, recapped the financial status of the organization’s previous fiscal year and gave trustees some early indications of the current year. The 2024 fiscal year saw another year of growth, the fourth consecutive since 2020. Walker noted numerous ministry areas have fueled the recovery and expansion, including ongoing curriculum, which is now larger than it was pre-COVID, and Bibles. “Last year, Bible sales grew by 20 percent nationwide,” he said. “We grew by more than 30 percent.”
Mandrell also introduced trustees to Andrea Lennon, new director of Lifeway Women. Other leaders at Lifeway shared news on recent organizational changes designed to better and more efficiently serve local churches and other customers, as well as recent and upcoming resource releases.
Lifeway as a partner
Mandrell noted that his new Bible Study, “Together: Community That Marked the Acts 2 Church,” came from conversations at a trustee meeting with pastors serving on the board. Bringing people together for small group discipleship remains the most effective way for the local church to make disciples, but many congregations struggle in that area, he said.
To help trustees see how Lifeway is helping and encouraging churches to improve their groups ministry, Mandrell spoke with Ken Braddy, Lifeway’s director of Sunday School. The two discussed Lifeway Research’s recent State of Groups study and what churches can do to maximize their small groups for the good of the entire congregation.
Mandrell and Braddy said churches have previously offered a “menu for discipleship,” a list of offerings individuals can choose from, but many are realizing they instead need a pathway for discipleship, a clearly communicated progression for churchgoers. “This has been the biggest conversation shift since COVID ended,” Braddy said. “Most of our churches are doing a lot of great things in discipleship, preaching, small groups, missions and Bible studies. But not many churches have been able to say, ‘Here’s our path to help you grow.’”
Summarizing his recent book “Breakthrough: Creating a New Scorecard for Group Ministry Success,” Braddy said healthy small groups do four things: learn and obey God’s Word, invite others to become disciples, form deeper relationships and engage in acts of service. This matters for the whole church, Mandrell said. “The health of a church is dependent on the health of their small groups,” he told trustees.
Concluding their discussion, Mandrell made trustees aware of the tools and resources Lifeway offers that are designed for groups ministry compiled at Lifeway.com/SmallGroupLeaders.
Other organizational leaders shared how Lifeway is partnering with state conventions and the Southern Baptist Convention. Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research, discussed the Annual Church Profile, the census of Southern Baptist churches assigned to Lifeway by the Convention in 1918.
The ACP is a marker for the partnership between churches, associations, state conventions and the national convention. Congregations that don’t respond to the annual survey “aren’t in the family picture we take each year,” McConnell said. He also noted that Southern Baptist Disaster Relief work often uses ACP data to reach out to churches in impacted areas. “Our hope is that this partnership is not just in emergencies,” McConnell said, “but we would be doing ministry arm-in-arm every day.”
Other business
The board approved responses to motions forwarded to Lifeway at the 2024 Southern Baptist Convention Annual Meeting. The responses regarding the request for Lifeway to publish textbooks for homeschoolers and to four other motions referred to all SBC entities will be reported to the 2025 SBC annual meeting, June 10-11, 2025, in Dallas, Texas.
Trustees elected James Caroll, pastor of Parkway Baptist Church in Bardstown, Kentucky, to serve as the new board chairman. The board also elected Brad Graber of Fishers, Indiana, to continue as vice chair and Lana Gragert of Choctaw, Oklahoma, to continue as recording secretary.
The board also recognized two trustees who are ending their service in June, both of whom served as chair during their tenure: Greg Kannady of Kingfisher, Oklahoma, and Missie Branch of Wake Forest, North Carolina.
The next Lifeway trustee meeting is scheduled for Aug. 25-26, 2025, in Brentwood, Tennessee.
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