In an effort to highlight a new season of ministry, Lifeway Christian Resources unveiled a new logo and began a significant update and refresh of its website this month. This is the first major rebrand since the organization changed its name in 1998.

“We’re so excited about the result of our rebranding project,” said Lifeway President and CEO Ben Mandrell. “The new logo and visual elements reflect a new season of ministry for Lifeway. Our brand promise is true to the legacy of Lifeway and affirms our commitment to serve churches and provide fuel to their ministries. It’s time for fresh branding to carry Lifeway forward into a new era.”

The rebranding effort includes new looks for lifeway.com, as well as Lifeway’s sub-brands, including Lifeway Kids, Lifeway Women, Lifeway Students and Lifeway Worship.

The new logo replaces the oval cross icon to the left of the company name, while the familiar red is replaced with a harvest gold. The organization’s name remains the same, though the W, capitalized since the “LifeWay” name was adopted, will now be lowercase.

“The new logo visually represents Lifeway’s desire to honor its legacy while looking squarely into the future,” said Jon Emery, director of marketing. “We intentionally incorporated the cross into our name so it would be ever present and central to our identity.”

Customers will begin to see the new branding and logo on printed materials this spring as the rollout continues through 2021. The company is promoting the new brand with an ad campaign on social media.

Throughout the year, Lifeway will be introducing improved experiences at lifeway.com.

“At Lifeway, church leaders come first,” Mandrell said. “We’re here to serve pastors, Bible study leaders, ministry volunteers and other spiritual difference makers within the local church as they seek to make and grow disciples of Jesus Christ.

“We’re humbled by the emails, phone calls and messages we receive from customers describing their experience of finding the right resource at the right time in their ministry. But we know we need to keep improving the experience on our website. We’ve taken the feedback we’ve received from our customers and are making much-needed improvements.”

Site improvements will include improved search capabilities, a virtual Bible store, product personalization (i.e. Bible imprinting and more), new gift-giving capabilities and an autoship feature allowing customers to set up an automatically recurring order on a schedule that works best for them.

In November, Lifeway launched a new ebook buy and share functionality to make it easier for leaders to buy and distribute books or Bible studies to their group members. Customers can also give an ebook as a gift.

In 1998, the Baptist Sunday School Board concluded a multi-year rebranding process changing its name of 107 years from the Baptist Sunday School Board to LifeWay Christian Resources. The Lifeway brand has largely remained unchanged in the years since.

“After nearly 130 years, we’re stepping into a new season of ministry. We have to keep moving forward and adapting to the needs of the local church,” Mandrell said. “We’re giving even more focus and dedication to our core customer – the church leader. By keeping the Word of God and His church at the heart of what we do, we’re ready for another 130 years of ministry.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE – Carol Pipes is director of corporate communications for Lifeway Christian Resources.)