Research Firm Launches in October as a Help to Churches
by Allie Martin
June 20, 2006
(AgapePress) - - The largest provider of church and Christian resources will soon provide custom research for churches and ministries. Dr. Tom Rainer took the helm of LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention earlier this year following the retirement of Dr. Jimmy Draper. Rainer says LifeWay will continue to focus primarily on upholding the inerrancy of the Bible. In addition, he says, LifeWay wants to help churches be more effective when it comes to reaching the unchurched.
Toward that end, LifeWay Research will launch in October. Dr. Rainer says LifeWay Research will help churches and other ministries to be more relevant. "We are, quite frankly, funding this and putting the resources into it, where it's going to be one of the most -- if not the most -- significant Christian research firms in the world," he says.
According to Rainer, the company is poised to conduct extensive research on a number of topics.
"We're the world's largest provider of church and Christian resources as it is," he says, speaking of LifeWay Christian Resources. "So we already have so much research that's going on just about our business."
Consequently, he says, having the two companies in close proximity will allow "so much of what we do and so much of who we are" to be centralized. "It's really a culmination of everything that has come up to this point," he notes. "So I think it's going to be an exciting endeavor."
Brad Waggoner is director of LifeWay Research. Waggoner is a former dean at Southern Baptist Seminary's school of leadership and church ministry in Louisville, Kentucky.
Allie Martin, a regular contributor to AgapePress, is a reporter for American Family Radio News, which can be heard online.
