Reading & Leading
Historic Partnership
Formed at Union

President David S. Dockery joins LifeWay
Vice President Mark Scott in the historic
signing of the contract.

Christian education has always been a hallmark of evangelical faith. The Bible in the hands of the "commoners," as they once were called, sparked a renewal of the study of the Bible's contents resulting in the Reformation of the 1500s. Reformation always followed education. No greater tool, therefore, can be used for the teaching and the training of men and women than books which reflect and elucidate the teachings of Holy Scripture.

The great Baptist giant, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, stated, "The man who never reads will never be read; he who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains, proves that he has no brains of his own." Such a strong emphasis on the reading of Scripture and other Christian literature has always marked the life of the church.

The first Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention born from the vision of Basil Manly Jr., and John A. Broadus was for this purpose: to further educate through the use of Christian literature. Broadus served as the Board President and Corresponding Secretary while concurrently holding a professorship at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary then located at Greenville, South Carolina. Kind Words (the Board's first published work) remained a staple teaching aide in Southern Baptist churches up to and beyond the first Board's dissolution.

Born out of controversy, the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention was proposed formally by motion from the convention floor in Fort Worth, Texas in the year 1890. A committee was formed to study the issue and report back to the Convention the following year. What followed was a year of "anxious waiting, discussion, earnest effort on both sides, for and against the new movement" stated J.M. Frost. of Virginia. Frost became the first Corresponding Secretary of the new Board, following the decision to move forward with the Baptist Sunday School Board at the 1891 Convention in Birmingham, Alabama.

The Board sought to confirm the place of teaching in the life of the church. As a partner with the Convention's churches, Frost stated, "Herein shall we do most to serve His purpose, most also for His triumph among men, most also for the kingdom, the church and the Book. Evangelize and didactize is the combination for which we stand, and in which the Sunday School Board is marshalling and directing all its forces, for the coming glory of the King."

Today the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention has been renamed LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. Its ministry reaches the churches not only of the Southern Baptist Convention, but into evangelical churches worldwide. LifeWay now reaches into the life of the university.

A new 20,000 square foot facility on the Union campus will house the new bookstore, university offices and classrooms. This state of the art facility will house the finest of Christian literature and resources as well as textbooks for university course offerings. Groundbreaking for the new facility will be Sept. 25.

While LifeWay operates stores at the six seminaries supported by the southern Baptist Convention, this bookstore is the first of its kind in the entire Southern Baptist Convention.

"This exciting partnership between Union University and LifeWay will benefit the university community as well as offer a wonderful resource for the churches of West Tennessee," stated President Dockery. "The influence of such a resource on our campus will be remarkable. We, at Union, are intentional about integrating faith and learning in every discipline. The reading of great Christian literature will help our students grow in becoming great commandment Christians - those who love God with mind and heart. To this end, we welcome LifeWay to Union's campus."