BRENTWOOD, Tenn. (BP) – After meeting with church music leaders, Lifeway Christian Resources announced its commitment to continue operating lifewayworship.com.

Lifeway President and CEO Ben Mandrell said he and the leadership team appreciated the feedback they received over the last several months. “We’ve held listening sessions with over 200 church leaders from across the country since last fall,” Mandrell said. “Worship leaders told us this is their curriculum for discipling the people they lead in their ministries, and they rely on Lifeway Worship for music that has been vetted theologically and that encourages congregational singing.”

Mandrell continued, “Lifeway has decided to continue offering this essential resource and provide new arrangements of music for worship teams.”

Last summer, Lifeway announced it would shut down the website that provides arrangements, charts, sheet music and other music resources for church worship. In response to concerns from ministry leaders after that initial announcement, Lifeway made the decision to continue the website for another year while conducting listening sessions with worship leaders. Those listening sessions were a catalyst for Lifeway’s most recent decision to continue operating the website into the future.

More than 200 church leaders from 10 states participated in listening sessions, while many others reached out through email and phone calls expressing how much they appreciate the support Lifeway offers to their worship ministries through lifewayworship.com.

“We underestimated the value this tool brings to a meaningful portion of our churches,” Mandrell said. “The listening sessions not only underscored the value of lifewayworship.com, but they also revealed other ways Lifeway could come alongside worship leaders in their ministries.

“Lifeway is committed to our long history of serving music leaders, and we want to make sure that continues for years to come as we look for additional ways we can support worship ministry,” Mandrell said. “I’m very excited about the future of Lifeway Worship.”

For more about Lifeway Worship, go to Lifeway.com/worship and subscribe to the twice-a-week ministry newsletter.

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