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). The Board started opening retail outlets in 1925 under the name "Baptist Book Store". In 1971 they began to use the LifeWay name on some products, as by that time their offerings had expanded beyond SBC-published materials. In 1998 the Board officially changed its name to LifeWay Christian Resources and changed store names to LifeWay Christian Stores.[1]
Although LifeWay does not sell only Baptist-related materials, it has discontinued sales by authors who disagree with traditional Christian views on social issues; for example, in 2016 it discontinued selling books by liberal Christian author Jen Hatmaker after she endorsed same-sex marriage.[2]