an employee publication of LifeWay Christian...

a n e m p l o y e e p u b l i c a t i o n o f L i f e W a y C h r i s t i a n R e s o u r c e s

MARCH 2018

LifeLines

SPIRITUAL CORNERSTONESNew Q&A resource helps families talk theology

REBOOTING THE WORKOUTHow to break back into a fitness routine

PASTOR DATE NIGHTSLifeWay lets ministry couples recharge and romance

LifeWay to help churches ‘unleash generosity’

Printing provided by

G rowing up, I’d often spend weekends at my grandparents’ house. Saturday mornings usually consisted of eating breakfast with my grandfather while he read the paper.

Afterward, he’d pull out of his shirt pocket a small notebook where he manually kept up with the monthly budget. I’d watch my grandfather, pencil in hand, pore over this notebook to make sure household expenditures were lining up correctly.

Sitting just a few feet away, I’d often study his notebook. I noticed he wrote the same two words at the top of every budget: “church tithe.” Before my grandfather paid a single bill, he’d allocate the first part of his paycheck to the local church. The lesson stuck with me. When I later started one of my first jobs as a LifeWay store associate, I knew what to do when my initial paycheck arrived.

In this issue of LifeLines, we look at a new department of Life-Way designed to help churches do what my grandfather did for me—develop a spirit of generosity. Generosity by LifeWay is a new giving platform for churches with a coaching system aimed at helping Christians have joyful conversations about what the Bible says about giving.

We also examine Pastor Date Nights where LifeWay gives pastors and spouses the opportunity to strengthen their mar-riages through an evening out with other ministry couples. We visit with a jack-of-all-trades at Ridgecrest Conference Center and reveal two new resources from B&H designed for church and family growth. Oh, and don’t forget to check out the “Ways to Pray” feature that’s now included in every issue of LifeLines where you’ll find a suggested company prayer for each week of the month.

Thank you for being generous with your time in praying for our organization and using LifeLines to stay informed about company news. While Generosity by LifeWay may be a new venture launching soon, a spirit of generosity has long been in the DNA of LifeWay employees.

— Aaron Wilson, associate editor of LifeLines

March 2018 • Vo lume 22 ; I s sue 2

LifeLines

StaffLisa Cannon Green, manager, Editorial ServicesJoy Allmond, managing editorAaron Wilson, associate editor Bob Smietana, senior writerKatie Shull, graphic designerAaron Earls, online editorCarol Pipes, director, Corporate Communications

3 Slices

4 LifeWay to help churches ‘unleash generosity’

8 Opportunities for the welcoming church

9 New Q&A resource helps families talk theology

10 Employee spotlight: Jack-of-all-trades says his greatest role was shaped by Ridgecrest

12 LifeWay gives pastors and spouses a date night

14 Now is the best time to commit to getting healthy

15 4 ways to pray for LifeWay in March

15 Employee milestones

16 Devotional: Our refuge and strength

LifeLines is published monthly for employees of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. One LifeWay Plaza, Nashville, TN 37234.

© 2018 LifeWay Christian Resources. All rights reserved. For employee distribution only.

Inside

From the editor

Upcoming ChapelsMARCH 7: BOB RUSSELL Author and leader of Bob Russell Ministries

MARCH 21: BRAD WAGGONER Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer

2 LifeLines | March 2018

From James Marconi, manager of the LifeWay Christian Store in Jonesboro, Arkansas:

S erving customers at our store, I asked if I could help a young mother and her son looking at Bi-ble studies. The mother, whose name is Jessica,

told me she was returning to church and was searching for a study to help her connect to God.

As we discussed studies, I asked about her story. She shared she was depressed and was considering a recov-ery program. Her fiancé had recently left her. She also said she wanted to see her 8-year-old son in church.

Jessica said she came to our store because she needed God in her life and in her son’s life. She said she believed, so I asked what she meant by that. As we talked, I explained the biblical definition of belief. I shared the gospel with Jessica and she prayed right there in the Bible study aisle and received Jesus as her Lord and Savior! I know the angels in heaven rejoiced as this lost child entered the kingdom.

I arranged for Jessica to meet my wife and me at our local church on Sunday so she wouldn’t have to walk in alone as she takes initial steps of faith.

Then another surprise! As I prayed with Jessica, one of our part-time associates, Rachel Poole, was minis-tering to another lady in the store. Rachel shared the truth with this customer that she can pray directly to God for the forgiveness of her sins without having to go through a human priest. It was a blessed day filled with ministry opportunities in our store. It felt like a church service.

I praise God our store is in this community!

When reading Scripture, many employees prefer a study Bible

Customers’ lives changed by LifeWay store experiences

What type of Bible do you use most often?

Study Bible 44%

Reference/Text Bible (no extra features) 26%

Bible app/Online Bible 25%Chronological Bible 3%

Devotional/One-year Bible 1% Audio Bible 1%

Source: IntraLife employee poll

SlicesMonthly dose of useful tidbits

Standout year for Ridgecrest

M ore than 73,000 guests visited Ridgecrest last year, according to Art Snead, executive director of Ridgecrest Conference Center and camps. This was

the highest attendance the conference center and camps have experienced in 30 years.

A s of mid-February, 42,671 people have signed up for

LifeWay’s online Bible study Discerning the Voice of God by Priscilla Shirer, according to Faith Whatley, director of adult ministry.

42,671

March 2018 | LifeLines 3

As God works through us...

CSB Study Bible now available on the go

A new CSB Study App is now available to download for iOS and Android devices. It

contains an offline copy of the CSB text and access to the CSB Study Bible and Apologetics Study Bible for Students.

LifeWay to help churches ‘unleash generosity’by Aaron Wilson

A new department of LifeWay will prepare churches to produce a wave of cheerful givers.

Generosity by LifeWay, which launches in April, presents a coaching system to help churches grow disciples in a biblical understand-ing of what the Bible says about giving. It also provides a new donation platform for churches and nonprofits to take advantage of cutting-edge technologies and new giving preferences.

“Learning to be generous is about more than learning how to get out of debt or how to manage one’s money,” says Todd McMichen, director of LifeWay Generosity and Digital Giving. “It’s about learning how to live for the benefit of others. That’s a much bigger conversation.”

It’s a discussion McMichen is ready to reignite in the church, which he says is facing a 40-year generosity crisis.

The disappearing offering plate“In the 1970s, pretty much every local church had an offertory prayer followed by a song from the best soloist,” McMichen says. “The offering plate was passed just prior to the message. It was the most celebrated moment in the first half of the worship service.”

But according to McMichen, financial scandals of religious TV personalities in the 1980s radi-cally changed the way churches approached the subject of generosity.

“These scandals stripped many pastors of their confidence of how to bless their people with conversations about money,” McMichen says. “Offering times started to move toward the end

of services with announcements put over top of them. Instead of treating offerings as the climax of the first half of service, churches were almost trying to cover them up.

“And today it’s not unusual for no offer-ing plate to be passed at all,” McMichen says. “Maybe there’s a box on the door somewhere to drop an envelope in. So the offering plate has begun to disappear over time.”

Secular giving on the riseMeanwhile, mainstream culture has gone in the

opposite direction—incorpo-rating generosity as a theme

in entertainment.“This really began

after 9/11 and events like the 2008 financial crisis and Hurricane Katrina,” McMichen says. “We saw the rise of mainstream giving shows like Extreme Home Makeover, Oprah’s Big Give, and Idol Gives Back.”

Generosity also found a new acceptance in the

marketplace, he says.“Go into any place of business now and at the

point of sale, you’ll be asked to give to some cause,” he says. “Or go to any restaurant and you’ll likely see an ad for a nonprofit on the wall. Every corporation now has a relationship with nonprofits because it’s good for business.

“Over the last 20 years, generosity has been pushed to the forefront of culture. Meanwhile, the church is still living in the 1980s as if we are committing financial scandals at every turn.”

Statistics show the result of these trends. In 1973, 51 percent of all philanthropic dollars in the United States went to the local church, according to Giving USA’s annual report. Yet in 2016, the share of charitable dollars going to the church



dropped to 32 percent. At the same time, overall charitable giving set records in 2015 and 2016.

“So we see that people aren’t giving less,” McMichen says. “People are actually giving more total dollars; churches are just seeing less and less of it.”

A new giving platformIn response to this generosity crisis, Gener-osity by LifeWay provides dual resources, says Katie Clinebell, platform coordinator. “It’s a digital giving platform coupled with generosity coaching.”

Generosity’s giving platform is designed for ease of use so churches can focus less

on technology and more on the disciple’s heart.

“The giving platform is really cool,” Clinebell says. “It does text giving, app giv-ing, embeddable online giving, and immedi-ate response.

“If a church member develops an awful illness, the church can immediately set up a campaign to start raising money for that specific need,” she says.

Additionally, church events and ticket sales can be run through the application.

“It’s super easy content,” McMichen says. “If a church is so small it doesn’t have a website, we have template websites avail-

Todd McMichen discusses Generosity by LifeWay at a recent Pastors Essentials Conference.

“So we see that people aren’t giving

less. People are actually giving more

total dollars; churches are just

seeing less and less of it.”

— Todd McMichen


able for them. And the giving app, also named Generosity by LifeWay, is ready to roll immedi-ately after signing up. It will take a church into the 21st century quickly.”

One unique feature of the Generosity by LifeWay app is the ability to give non-cash gifts to a local church. Members can liquidate used vehicles, jewelry, sports memorabilia, electronics, and a variety of other non-cash items by simply entering information about the item to the app or online. Generosity by LifeWay then works with a nationwide liquidation service to collect the item and credit its monetary value to the church.

Even gift cards with remaining balances can be liquidated.

“Say you receive a $25 gift card to a restaurant where you don’t eat often,” Clinebell says. “You can donate the gift card through the app and your church may get $20 in cash for it.”

From transaction to transformation“As amazing as this technology is, we know it’s not enough to give churches new tools without helping them foster the overall discipline and heart of generosity among members,” Clinebell says. “That’s where our coaching comes into play.”

Generosity offers pastors a 12-month coaching system to help facilitate discipleship conversa-tions. The system includes such topics as generos-ity in relationships and soul generosity related to prayer and fasting.

“We’re expecting churches to see not only an increase in cash revenue but also increases in vol-unteerism and attendance,” Clinebell says. “It’s

all about creating a spirit of generosity. The gift-giving is just an overflow of discipleship instilled in the heart.”

Most of this coaching will exist in the form of video teaching segments from national experts. Ron Blue Institute and Generous Church are two official partners already signed on to help develop content.

In addition to aggregating LifeWay’s existing library of resources, Generosity by LifeWay will also produce new downloadable curriculum. The first set will be free to churches that sign up for Generosity at launch.

The coaching content and digital giving plat-form will be available to churches through a monthly subscription model based on church size. A number of free resources will also be available to churches, including a biweekly blog, newsletter, and podcast.

“We’re practicing generosity ourselves by giv-ing Generosity by LifeWay free to church plant-ers for six months,” McMichen says. “We’re com-ing alongside church planters before they launch and giving them a way to collect resources before they’re able to have their first offering.”

Looking to the future with joyAs Generosity by LifeWay reshapes the larger conversation about giving, Clinebell hopes it will also help pastors approach the topic with hopeful expectation.

“I believe Generosity will help pastors because it encourages them to address the topic with pas-sion, joy, and promise rather than obligation and guilt,” she says.

McMichen also believes Generosity will help carry churches into the future.

“We’re launching cutting-edge technology and marrying it with our transformational and biblically trustworthy content,” he says. “We’re leveraging the best of LifeWay serving the church in her mission to make disciples.” rAaron Wilson is associate editor of LifeLines.


I t hasn’t been that long ago when the culture of churches and Christianity was the culture of our communities.

At least on the surface, many of our values were the values of the rest of the communities around us.

No so much today. Church leaders and church members

become increasingly frustrated with the world around us. We don’t under-stand why so many members of our communities see things so differently than we do.

So we often withdraw. We see the church as a fortress to keep us away from the pagan culture around us. We do things the way we’ve always done them because we find our comfort and security in them.

But we also stopped reaching people. We are so concerned about our comfort, our fortress, and our desires that we no longer are a church. Our retreat from impacting culture has turned us into a social club for religious observation.

And our churches decline. Some die. That’s what happens when we retreat. That’s what happens when we are no longer a welcoming church. But to wel-come means to go as well.

Welcoming means goingLet’s be clear on a major issue. The welcoming church is not merely a church that waits for the world to arrive at the physical address of the congregation. I do not want to leave with you the impression that the Great Commission is about waiting for people to come to us.

The welcoming church is more of an attitude or disposition. It represents the mindset of an outward focus rather

than an inward focus. It is about serving rather than being served.

People in a welcoming church have two major dispositions. First, they look beyond themselves. They are the antith-esis of those members who want every-thing their way: the music, the facilities, the times of services, and on and on and on. Those are the self-serving members. They see church as more like a country club where they pay their dues and get their perks and privileges.

But the second disposition is made up of church members who are other-focused. They are so busy looking to the needs of others that they don’t have time to obsess over things that may not go their way.

A welcoming church is a going church. The members realize that church is not a place confined to walls, but a people determined to go. They

demonstrate caring and the love of Christ in their workplaces, in their neighborhoods, in the places they shop, and in all the places where they encoun-ter people in their communities.

Those people in the community see Christ in the welcoming church mem-bers. They decide to visit the church. And when they come to the church, they are welcomed, truly welcomed.

That’s what the Great Commission is all about.

That’s what welcoming churches are all about.

Is your church truly a welcoming church?

The answer to that question has eter-nal implications. rExcerpt provided from Becoming a Welcoming Church by Thom S. Rainer. Available through B&H Publishing Group March 1.

Opportunities for the welcoming churchBy Thom S. Rainer

LifeWay President and CEO Thom S. Rainer encourages all Christians to bring a fresh sense of intentional hospitality to church gatherings in his new book, Becoming a Welcoming Church, which releases this month. Allow this excerpt to encourage you to purposely extend the warmth of Christ to those visiting your church.

A father of three, Brian Dembow-czyk is used to getting peppered with questions.

“Kids ask questions—tons of them,” Dembowczyk says. “I think that gives us a glimpse into their minds and hearts.”

To help parents steward their kids’ curiosity, Dembowczyk compiled 200 Q&As about Christianity in a pair of resources designed to give families a starting point for discussing theology at home. Cornerstones: 200 Questions and Answers to Learn Truth releases this Easter from B&H Publishing Group along with a companion parent guide.

“I think a lot of parents desperately want to have discipleship with their kids and to regularly talk to them about faith,” Dembowczyk says. “But many parents don’t feel equipped or know where to begin. Cornerstones gives par-ents strategic conversation pegs to use around the home.”

The idea for this resource came to Dembowczyk almost a decade ago when he was a new father. When he couldn’t find a kid-friendly Q&A resource specific to theological topics, he decided to write his own.

“I think I started with 140 questions,” Dembowczyk recalls. “At the time, I wasn’t concerned about the number because it was just for my family to use. It wasn’t for publishing.”

The Dembowczyks used the home-made resource with all three of their kids—and still do. However, when Dembowczyk came to LifeWay to be part of The Gospel Project team, he wondered if his Q&A tool might reso-nate with other parents. He pitched the idea to B&H Publishing Group, which decided to expand the content and

release a kids’ book and parent guide.“The kids’ version is the kind of

book I want my children reading at night. That’s why we made it so visu-ally engaging,” Dembowczyk says. “The parent guide is designed to be on a parent’s nightstand where they can read the Q&As in advance to gain further knowledge and explanation.

“This keeps parents from feeling intimidated in engaging their kids at the dinner table or during a car ride later in the week,” he says. “It’s about equipping parents and making them feel confident to lead kids in theological conversations.”

Questions and answers in Corner-stones are arranged topically in catego-ries including God, creation, sin, Jesus, salvation, the Bible, discipleship, and

the church and last things.“It’s like a systematic theology for

parents and kids but presented in a dif-ferent way,” Dembowczyk says.

Although Cornerstones is a new resource, the Q&A format of teach-ing has been successfully used by the church for centuries.

“From the time of the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s when Martin Luther developed a resource of struc-tured questions and answers to teach children, theology has been taught in this manner,” Dembowczyk writes in his introduction. “The famed and beloved Baptist pastor Charles H. Spur-geon even wrote a resource of questions and answers in the 1800s.”

Dembowczyk believes this time-tested teaching method can be extremely helpful in today’s culture where kids are regularly presented with complex issues and competing worldviews.

“Our kids regularly rub shoulders with evil and pain,” he says. “They’re dealing with issues where they need God’s truth and a robust understand-ing of what it means to be made in the image of God.”

In a world of confusion, Dembowczyk hopes these biblical truths will serve as spiritual cornerstones to help parents raise their children in the knowledge of the Lord.

“We want kids to immerse themselves in these truths so biblical principles bounce around in their minds and hearts,” he says. “Hopefully, Corner-stones will provide families a platform to keep these kinds of conversations going in the home.” rAaron Wilson is associate editor of LifeLines.

by Aaron Wilson

New Q&A resource helps families talk theology

“It’s about equipping

parents and making them

feel confident to lead kids in

theological conversations.”

— Brian Dembowczyk



Firefighter. Beekeeper.

Potter. Deacon.

Brian Myers lifts up a frame from one of his beehives. PHOTO PROVIDED.


Employee Spotlight

What do you like best about your job?

I like helping people. I love seeing a child praying on a balcony with their parent because they’ve just decided they want to be saved. It’s stuff like that I enjoy being a part of.

What’s your busiest time of year?In the summer, we have about 2,200 kids come through every four days. That makes for a lot of preparation and maintenance needs.

B rian Myers runs a small bed-and-breakfast in his backyard. His guests tend to be on the small side and don’t pay him in

money—but in honey.“I’m in my second year of beekeeping and now

have two hives,” Myers says. “Come springtime, I’ll have anywhere between 40,000 and 60,000 bees.”

Myers is a maintenance and safety unit leader at LifeWay’s Ridgecrest Conference Center in North Carolina, where he spends most of his time ensuring the center’s facilities are ready for guests. A few years ago, Myers decided to take a stab at serving a different kind of tenant. He enrolled in beekeeping classes, bought a colony, and began constructing wooden hives.

“It fascinates me how God makes something so small but so important to our food supply and way of life,” says Myers. “After work sometimes, I’ll drive right up to where my beehives are and watch them. I’ll get a text from my wife asking, ‘Are you coming home?’ because I’ve been sit-ting there watching them so long.”

Myers plans on splitting his hives but says he’ll limit himself when he gets to 20.

“Beekeeping takes a lot of effort,” he says. “I don’t want it to turn into work.”

One reason Myers wants to put a cap on his beekeeping efforts is that he’s already quite busy. In addition to his full-time job at Ridgecrest, Myers works as a part-time firefighter, serves as a deacon at his church, and helps with his wife’s pottery business, which is run out of a small building behind their house.

“My wife, Jessica, started doing pottery around three years ago,” he says. “She’s very artistic and taught herself. About three or four days a week she’s out there making pottery just to keep up with the demand.”

Although Myers didn’t plan to get into pottery himself, he says he stumbled into it as he’d get

bored in the house and would wander outside to spend time with his wife. Now, he’s a regular part of the small business and says he likes investing in a pastime his wife enjoys.

“I’ll shape the cups up to the point of attaching a handle. She doesn’t let me do that because she says my handles are ugly,” Myers jokes. “Then we put them in a bisque fire, apply glaze, and fire them up again.

“We do about six street festivals a year where we’ll sell what we’ve made. We also make a cus-tom cup for Roots, the gift shop at Ridgecrest,” he says. “Right now, we’re working on a 30-cup order for them.”

The molding of vessels to be used at Ridgecrest is somewhat symbolic for Myers, who says he wants people to know God for-ever changed his life through the conference center.

“When I started working here, everyone really began pouring into me,” he says. “We have a ton of volunteers you get to meet sitting at the gate. They began investing in me. I’d never been a part of something like that before.”

Myers says his interactions with employees and volunteers chal-lenged him to think about what it means to be a follower of Christ.

“Before coming to Ridgecrest, I went to church and on some missions, but I really didn’t know how a Christian man was supposed to act until I met the people I did from working at the gate,” he says. “Through that, and others’ investments in me at the center, I grew so much.

“Who I am today is a product of what Ridgecrest does for people.” rAaron Wilson is associate editor of LifeLines.

Jack-of-all-trades says his greatest role was shaped by Ridgecrest By Aaron Wilson

LifeWay gives pastors and spouses a date night

O ne of Mark Dance’s jobs at LifeWay involves dating his wife.

These romantic evenings usually include flowers, fine dining, and a shared conversation with at least 50 other couples in ministry.

Mark is the director of LifeWay Pastors. This year he and his wife, Janet, will host more than a dozen Pastor Date Nights to help leaders develop healthy marriages and tackle questions specific to couples in ministry.

“Vocational ministry is the only profession on the planet that requires people to win at both work and home,” Mark says. “We host these Pastor Date Nights to help pastors and their wives accomplish both.”

Explosive growthLifeWay has hosted more than 30 Pastor Date Nights so far in cities around the country and even in Canada. This year, the event will visit more than a dozen new cities as far north as Maine. The growth of this event has been explosive—especially considering Pastor Date Nights were started just three years ago as an experiment.

“In 2015, I hosted six pastor roundtables, which were panel-led conversations about how pastors can get and stay healthy,” Mark says. “But it occurred to me the pastor’s greatest advocate wasn’t in the room.

“So I decided to try a different version of the event by inviting pastors’ spouses. We had no idea it would be so well-received.”

Time for questionsThe popularity of Pastor Date Nights is driven by a formula that involves free food, child care, and the opportunity to ask confidential questions to a panel via text messaging.

“That’s probably the most significant part of the whole thing,” Mark says. “The wall-flower in the corner has just as much a voice as the extrovert on the front row.”

By Aaron Wilson

Mark and Janet Dance (center) and other panelists answer questions at a Pastor Date Night at Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola, Florida.

PHOTO PROVIDED


Before sending in text questions, couples check their kids in with provided child care workers. They then enter a dining area set up as a date atmosphere with music playing in the background. Round tables invite guests to mingle and develop new friendships as dinner is served.

“After about 45 minutes I’ll introduce the panel, which consists of Janet, me, and typically two other couples in ministry,” Mark says. “I let them know we’re not here to talk about growing the church but about growing them person-ally. We’re here to help them get healthy and stay healthy.”

Pastors and spouses can submit questions to the panel anonymously using a Google Voice number. Because each panel has different hosts, no event is ever the same. However, the Dances have come to expect certain questions.

“We get questions about the expectations of a pastor’s wife and how to protect children from church conflict,” Mark says. “Couples ask about counseling boundaries, how to distinguish between preaching preparation and devotional time, and how to practice Sabbath as a family in vocational ministry.”

Mark says it’s a blessing to tag-team these questions with Janet, who’s not only a minister’s wife of 30 years but also a pastor’s kid.

“Janet brings a lot of street credit,” he says. “Pastors and their spouses want to finish strong one day with a healthy marriage and family. It’s helpful for them to hear from someone who’s been in the game for awhile and is still in the game.”

And Janet is glad to be available for the spouses.“It’s important for these women to have their questions

answered candidly by people who understand them,” she says. “[Being a pastor’s wife] is a life with unique challenges as well as blessings. A pastor’s wife is very hesitant to share among people who don’t understand this life.”

Strengthening marriagesThe Dances first realized the impact of Pastor Date Night when a pastor’s wife approached Janet after the first event they hosted. The wife shared her husband had been counsel-ing other women in the church one-on-one and was receiving texts at home from one of them. She’d submitted a confiden-tial text to the panel asking for their input on the situation.

“We made a bold but compassionate stance on that,” Mark recalls.

The wife shared afterward that her husband repented and apologized after listening to the panel’s advice.

“God used total strangers to save a marriage that night, I believe,” Mark says. “If LifeWay employees were to pray for one thing for LifeWay’s Pastor Date Nights, may it be that God will use them to strengthen and save marriages.”

Date nights = One LifeWayPastor Date Nights have also become an example of One LifeWay at work. When Mark hosts an event, he checks to see if the city has an assigned LifeWay church partner and a Life-Way store nearby. If so, the church partner and store manager are invited to the event to get to know the local pastors and spouses.

Francis Trascritti, North Central church partner, and Malcolm Spencer, manager of the Cincinnati LifeWay Store, were able to mingle with ministry leaders at an associational dinner that had spawned from a recent Pastor Date Night.

“It was great to get to meet these pastors and hear their stories,” Spencer says. “I told them we’re in this together.”

Trascritti feels the same way.“I’m thankful for the way LifeWay’s team of servants was

able to work together unselfishly in a way that made a differ-ence,” he says. “We truly showed to be One LifeWay in this effort, and none of this would have been possible unless we worked together to respond to such a great need.”

LifeWay also uses Pastor Date Nights to introduce pastors to new LifeWay resources by giving away CSB Bibles, com-mentaries, WORDsearch downloadable cards, new books, and other resources. Nothing is sold at the events, but they often serve as an on-ramp for LifeWay resources because of the relational trust that’s earned.

“There are two questions people want to intuitively know about you,” Mark says. “Can you help me? and Do you care about me? If we can answer those two questions in two hours on a Pastor Date Night, that’s where customer loyalty is rooted.

“These events are a way for us to tell pastors and spouses, ‘We love and support you.’” rAaron Wilson is associate editor of LifeLines.



B usyness. Fatigue. Negligence. Each of these serves as a reason many people don’t make physical fitness a priority.

I want to encourage you to take some kind of physical action to care for your health. I challenge you to under-stand this is connected to your walk with Christ and it will help you relieve major stress on a daily basis. And I want to impress upon you how much your testimony for Jesus can be enhanced by how you take care of your body.

A personal testimonyIn my youth I neglected my physical condition. I was going to school, not sleeping much, working long hours, and par-enting young children. Physical fitness was just not a priority. Sadly, eating was a major priority.

One day it all changed. I began a commitment to my physi-cal condition. I started walking daily. Years later, I began running and working out with weights. I was a sprinter in high school, not a distance runner, so running never appealed to me. However, for more than 15 years I’ve been running consistently.

I run an hour or so a day, four to five days a week. Addi-tionally, I work out with a trainer for one or two days a week. I’m convinced I couldn’t do what I do—with my work load and life’s pressure—without this strong commitment to run-ning and weight training. Caring for my body is very impor-tant, not only for the quality of my health but also for the management of my responsibilities.

Exercising your body is spiritual service to God.“And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”(Colossians 3:17)

Offer even your exercise and fitness as a spiritual service to God, bringing Him glory as you do it. While exercising isn’t always fun, it’s necessary to improve your health and the conditioning of your body. In turn, it will be an asset to your quality of life and service to God.

Benefits of exercise and fitnessBenefit #1: Exercise and fitness keep my body in better shape, giving me a greater ability to serve the Lord now and in the future.

Benefit #2: Exercise and fitness provide me opportunities to grow in my personal faith. Technology permits me to listen to others teach, preach, and mentor me on life, ministry, and leadership while I exercise. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I’ve grown the last two to three years by adding this practice to my exercise and fitness routine. In any given week, I may listen to four or five hours of great mentorship while working out.

Benefit #3: Exercise and fitness greatly reduce my stress level. I’m convinced daily exercise and fitness help me view life in a more positive manner because I’m reducing stress. I promise you, exercise and fitness will improve your attitude.

Final challengesHere are my final challenges to you about exercise and fitness:

• Start now—do something.• Get it done in the morning.• Be consistent five days a week.I read a few days ago that John Wesley stated at age 78, “By

God’s blessing, I’m the same I was at 28, chiefly by constant exercise and preaching morning and evening.”

That’s tremendously encouraging to me, and I hope to you as well. rAdapted from a blog post, “Pastor, How is Your Exercise and Fitness?” by Ronnie Floyd.

Now is the best time to commit to getting healthyby Ronnie Floyd

More than a third of Americans made a goal to get more exercise in 2018, according to Statista. However, many of the Fitbits that flew off shelves in January now find themselves sitting in kitchen junk drawers. Sadly, U.S. News reports 80 percent of resolutions tend to fail by the second week of February.

If your best intentions to get in shape this winter fell short, cheer up! Stewarding your health isn’t reserved only for the new year. Now is the best time to commit to healthy habits, especially with the new LifeWay fitness center open to employees.

Here’s some advice from Ronnie Floyd, pastor of Cross Church in Northwest Arkansas, on developing a fitness routine.

Look for Living Fit, a new resource on fitness by Ronnie Floyd and B&H Publishing Group, releasing this summer.


Milestones

5 YEARSChuck Gann, Logistics; Donnie Gordon, Information Technology; Pam Jones, Logistics; Kandi Mabe, Logistics; Jana Magruder, Kids Ministry; Ryan Means, Informa-tion Technology; Rob Moxley, Information Technology; Jeffrey Reed, Church Partnerships; Steve Reynolds, Trade Production; Dave Schroeder, Publishing; James Shook, Ridgecrest; Ziero Solano, Customer Service

10 YEARSGenna Ferrell, Olathe (Kansas) LifeWay Christian Store; Enrique Montiel Garcia, Ridgecrest; Brian Gass, Groups Ministry; Craig Stout, Olathe (Kansas) LifeWay Christian Store; Birdye Sylvis, Logistics; Boyd White, Greensboro (North Carolina) LifeWay Christian Store

15 YEARSBetsy Langmade, Adult

25 YEARSBrian Brown, Worship

30 YEARSMelissa Pettus, Trade Production

RETIREESRetired employees as of March 1:Wayne Poling, Sunday School, 36 years; Aubrey Ellis, Moody Campus (Illinois) LifeWay Christian Store, 10 years; David Francis, Sunday School, 20 years; Linda Boyd, Finance, 29 years

EMPLOYEES CELEBRATING AN ANNIVERSARY OF 25 YEARS OR MORE

MARCH ANNIVERSARIES

Brian Brown Melissa Pettus

T he new LifeWay fitness center is now open to employ-ees 24/7 and is a great resource for getting in shape. Search for “fitness center” on IntraLife to register your

badge for access to the facility.

EMPLOYEE ACCOMPLISHMENTS

“Unless the Lord builds a house, its builders labor over it in vain.” — Psalm 127:1 CSB• Pray for a successful launch of Generosity by LifeWay and that it will surpass its goal. Ask God to ignite a wave of gener-osity as church members grow in discipleship through the teaching and tools presented by this new area of LifeWay. (See pages 4-7)• Pray for new B&H titles such as Becoming a Welcom-ing Church and Cornerstones: 200 Questions and Answers to Learn Truth. Ask God to use these resources to help the church in her mission to make disciples. (See pages 8-9) • Thank God for the many guests who visited Ridgecrest last year and ask Him to continue to use the conference center and camps to change people’s lives. Pray for employees like Brian Myers who labor behind the scenes to show guests hospitality. (See pages 10-11)• Ask God to bless Pastor Date Nights in 2018. Pray that marriages will be strengthened and saved and that couples in ministry will finish strong as a result of these strategic events. (See pages 12-13)

Have a prayer request to share on IntraLife? Click the “Submit a Request” button on the home page or email [email protected].

4 ways to pray for LifeWay in March

Fitness center helps employees reach healthy goals

PHOTO BY RANDY HUGHES

By Andrew Scoles

O n July 26, 2017, my mom died from an aggressive liver cancer just a month before my 23rd

birthday.We assume our parents will live to

see us marry, have children, and be successful adults. No one ever thinks they’re going to lose a parent so young. It’s something we think will happen to someone else.

But this time, it was me. It was me grieving the loss of the woman who gave birth to me and taught me to be like Jesus. It was me who sat by her bedside the day of her death as she fought to hold on for just a few more hours. But death, even early death, is a fact of life—one I hadn’t fully accepted until this happened.

From her diagnosis until the day she died, the main comfort I found was in Scripture and prayer.

“Father God, heal Mom,” I prayed daily. “Do another of your great miracles. I’ve seen you heal much worse.

I’ve seen you do much bigger things.” Despite how hard it was, I also prayed, “Lord, may Your will be done.”

And it was. She fought the good fight and went home to her Creator. I felt my heavenly Father’s presence during this time, beckoning to me, grieving with me, letting me know He was there. He also whispered to me, Andy, you’re not promised tomorrow. What are you going to do with the life I’ve given you? Will you honor and pursue Me daily? Or will you assume you have all the time in the world and use that as an excuse to do nothing?

Through conviction, I realized I had God-given potential wasting away within me because of my inactivity. I could now choose to serve Him radi-cally and passionately, or I could squan-der my time.

As my mom lay dying, surrounded by family, pastors, and church mem-bers, my dad requested that Psalm 46 be recited. It was her favorite and it fit

the occasion. In it, we’re told God is our refuge and strength and that we need not fear. We’re told of His mighty power in heaven and on earth. We’re told to be still before Him. We’re told He is a God who loves and cares for us and is ever-present and active in our lives.

That is who He has been to me since the day my mother died. He has been God and Father, but also a source of life, strength, and motivation. He is a God of now—a God who is active and at work.

If we are to follow God and be like Him, this must be us as well.

“God is our refuge and strength, a helper who is always found in times of trouble. Therefore we will not be afraid.”—Psalm 46:1-2a rAndrew Scoles is an associate at the LifeWay Christian Store in Lynch-burg, Virginia.

Our refuge and strengthDevotionalSTRENGTHENING YOUR FAITH

Andrew Scoles

LifeLinesLifeLines is published monthly for employees of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. One LifeWay Plaza, Nashville, TN 37234.

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