LifeWay Christian Stores
LifeWay Christian Stores is a chain of Christian bookstores. They have 122 stores throughout the United States, as well as two of the largest Christian conference centers in the country. They are one of the two largest Christian bookstore chains along with Mardel.
LifeWay started in 1891 under the name "Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention" (they have, since inception, been owned by the SBC). In 1971 they began to use the LifeWay name on some products, as by that time their offerings had expanded beyond SBC-published materials.[1]
Although they are operated by LifeWay Christian Resources, an arm of the Southern Baptist Convention,[2] their product line is not limited to only Baptist-related items. However, it has, in the past, discontinued sales by authors who disagree with traditional Baptist views on social issues; for example in 2016 it discontinued selling books by liberal Christian author Jen Hatmaker after she endorsed same-sex marriage.[3]