Christian Retailing

LifeWay announces three strategic changes Print Email
Written by Jeremy Burns   
Thursday, 25 June 2015 02:01 PM America/New_York

LifeWay-logoLifeWay Christian Resources President and CEO Thom Rainer recently laid out three strategic changes LifeWay Christian Stores is making to prepare for the future, according to a report by Baptist Press. Rainer gave his presentation during the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), held June 16-17 in Columbus, Ohio.

The first change for the retail chain is the relocation of LifeWay's headquarters from its sprawling campus in downtown Nashville to a smaller site in the city more suited to the company's needs. At present, employees are spread across a number of buildings that were not designed with LifeWay's needs in mind, with the majority of the property currently unused. Plans are underway to sell the property, purchase a different lot and build a new headquarters, which Rainer estimates will see a late 2017 move-in date.

"We cannot waste time, money and other resources on inefficient facilities," Rainer said. "We must be the best stewards of the resources Southern Baptists have entrusted to our care."

The second change Rainer noted is the merging of LifeWay's Church Resources and B&H Publishing Group divisions. This will allow the retailer to increase its focus on LifeWay product offerings, as well as positioning the company to better serve churches.

"The stores will become more and more a local expression of LifeWay," he said.

The third change is the company's renewed focus on serving churches in a more dynamic way. One key component of this shift will be the DevoHub smartphone app, which was unveiled at the SBC event.

"Devotionals will be sent to users' phones from your church," said LifeWay Christian Resources Vice President Eric Geiger. "It's a tool to allow them to study the Scripture every single day in their personal devotions."

LifeWay has already seen successful results from its The Gospel Project curriculum line, which is used by approximately 750,000 individuals each week, a number the company projects to reach 1 million this fall. The Gospel Project is one of four curriculum lines LifeWay offers.