It was recently announced that Lifeway Christian Resources is feeling the financial squeeze due to the coronavirus. Sales across key channels are down 25%, further downward trends are expected, and as a result they are cutting their budget some $30 million, or approximately 10%. This announcement follows in the wake of an earlier one where they announced they were exploring options to sell the multi-million dollar Ridgecrest Conference Center, in a bid to put themselves in a more financially secure position.
All the expense reductions and cost-cutting rates are set to come into effect today, May 1, 2020.
LifeWay CEO Ben Mandrell offered a comment on the cuts, relaying that they were necessary in light of the economic crisis crushing their bottom line and needing to stop the bleeding so that they can continue operating long after this is done.
“We hope these proactive steps will allow LifeWay to continue ministering to churches throughout the crisis, however long it lasts, and long into the future…We know the COVID-19 crisis has created a unique challenge for churches as they find new ways to gather, and many are also facing severe financial strains. We want to make sure LifeWay is in a position to continue serving churches and church leaders to help them fuel their ministries. These are challenging times, but I am confident the Lord will use this for His glory and will push LifeWay into the future in a fresh way.”
Rather than pushing them into the future, we’re praying the Lord pushes Lifeway into the sea.
We’re not happy Lifeway staff members are losing their job of course – that’s unfortunate and hard on families. But we consider any cut to Lifeway’s bloated corpse to be one worth celebrating. We’re thankful for every hardship they endure, every calamity they suffer through, and every misery they abide. Harsh? Hardly. How else should we feel about the largest retailer of heresy in the world?
We have one prayer for Lifeway: that they utterly and completely implode into a smouldering crater for all the gangrenous blasphemy they’ve been peddling for decades. Our feelings run to the point where if the Lord tarries a thousand years, old Southern Baptist men and women will look back with solemn eyes, wistful words, and speak with deep regret and shame that they ever allowed the theological abortion known as Lifeway to be even passingly associated with their denomination.
Alternately, we pray that Lifeway steps back from the black mass they’re currently engulfed in, rend their proverbial garments, repent for the great sins they’ve engaged in by giving Southern Baptists the knife to slit their own throats on account of all the poisonous content they’ve been providing over the years. Then they can burn 80% of their books and turn the whole affair over to men and women who understand the content they sell should be what pastors, elders, and church leaders recommend as being the most thoughtful, engaging, edifying, provoking, and biblically faithful resources they can give SBC churches in order to build their sanctification, and help them understand the purposes and character of God. Lifeway will then ensure that the books, movies, and music they sell will be thoroughly vetted to determine if the authors are being faithful to the scriptures in their exegesis, interpretation, extrapolation, and application so that churches and members can feel confident that the “new and improved” Lifeway has done their due diligence in actually caring for their souls and spiritual well being.
One of the two.
Until then, let it burn.
