Mississippi Baptist worship leaders react to closing of lifewayworship.com

Mississippi Baptists worship leaders react to closing of lifewayworship.com

Lifeway’s decision to shut down its most popular worship resource tool leaves me heartbroken but hopeful. As a full-time worship pastor, I use lifewayworship.com on a weekly basis and will have to look elsewhere for my church’s congregational music resource.

Although my heart aches in the “now,” I am hopeful that a new resource will spring forth to provide the best possible resource to equip and satisfy the need of the local church. God will provide. He is Jehovah Jireh! 

– Matthew Gaddy/Worship Pastor, First Church Long Beach 

While we don’t use lifewayworship.com as a regular resource, I hate to see the impact their discontinuation will have on sister churches around the state. Perhaps this will only be a season of restructuring and reinvention for Lifeway as they seek to both resource ministries and stay financially viable.

– David Leonard/Minister of Worship, Colonial Heights Church Ridgeland

Two years ago, Lifeway abandoned churches with choirs by doing away with their production of music for church choirs. Now they are abandoning music in worship altogether by doing away with their lifewayworship.com website that was vital to churches large and small. It’s a huge blow to worship pastors, full time and bivocational!

– Ross Johnson/Worship & Communications Pastor, First Church Madison

The announcement of Lifeway’s decision to shut down lifewayworship.com is a terrible loss for not only worship ministries across the country, but for the church. I don’t know why this decision was made, but I have no doubt that God will make a way.

– Jonathan McKenzie/Minister of Music, First Church Laurel 

I would say this decision will make preparation for Sunday morning difficult for bivocational worship ministers like myself. In the last couple of years, several companies like Lifeway have closed their resources and it has left us with very few reliable sources to acquire quality worship materials.

– Josh Tilley/Minister of Music, East End Church Columbus

As a Mississippi Baptist minister of music and former state worship director [for Illinois Baptist State Association], I was in shock to hear of lifewayworship.com was closing. As with many worship leaders, lifewayworship.com makes up 95% of our worship resources.

I think the closing is going to hurt many churches, especially the smaller churches. If Lifeway’s purpose is to resource the church, and musical worship makes up half of the Sunday morning corporate time, I feel this decision does not line up with Lifeway’s purpose.

– Steve Hamrick/Worship Pastor, First Church Greenville

I grieve the decision to shut down lifewayworship.com. I have used their worship resources from the very beginning. They were always my first stop when purchasing resources for congregational worship in my church.

I admit I am also frustrated to hear that the decision to shut down the site was due to a lack of profitability. I wish there had been attempts to adjust their pricing structure or even change their model altogether. Their “Pre-Pay and Save” discount was very generous, but I would have gladly given up that deep discount if it meant our churches could continue to purchase, in my opinion, their superior worship resources.

Lifeway exists to serve the church by resourcing them. Unfortunately, in this instance it feels like that purpose has been completely abandoned.

– Kris Smith/Worship Pastor, Carterville Church, Petal

The shuttering of lifewayworship.com is unfortunate and it’s sad that our denominational resource is no longer seen as important or profitable, but I have hope that other companies will step up and fill the void left by this egregious decision.

– Jasen Brown/Worship Pastor, Harrisburg Church Tupelo

“The decision to close lifewayworship.com will greatly affect Southern Baptist worship ministries in Mississippi and across the nation. It has been the most cost effective source for worship music in the world, making sheet music available for treasured hymns and inspired new songs to churches of all sizes and all budgets.

I pray that Lifeway reconsiders shutting down this invaluable resource. With Lifeway’s motto of “Faithfully serving the church since 1881,” it would be important to continue to follow this theme for all areas of church and worship ministry.

– Wes Dykes/Dean of the Winters School of Music, William Carey University Hattiesburg

For over eight decades, lifewayworship.com and its predecessor, the Church Music Department, served Southern Baptists well with a variety of products and training events. I’m sad that this announcement (at least as I understand it) means there will be no new music resources made by Southern Baptists for Southern Baptists.

It’s the end of an era and as a historian, worship leader, and Southern Baptist, this makes me sad. For all my friends who are really struggling with the implications of this decision, my recommendation would be to write to other music companies like PraiseCharts, SongSelect, Semsen, Prism Music, etc., and encourage them to add to their current offerings the products that you’ll miss from lifewayworship.com.

– Will Bishop/Associate Professor of Church Music and Worship/Southern Seminary, Louisville, Ky., and former music professor at Mississippi College, Clinton

Compiled by Tanner Cade, director of communication services for the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board. He may be contacted at tcade@mbcb.org.