Posted on Jul 16, 2004 | by Staff

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)--LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention and InQuest Ministries have reached an agreement to form a publishing alliance for student ministry resources. The agreement comes after several months of negotiations.

"This is a time of thanksgiving as we enter into this agreement together," said Jimmy Hester, LifeWay's senior director of student ministry publishing, during a July 1 meeting to sign the agreement. "We're joining in an alliance with InQuest to bring before the Lord our offerings -- the resources we produce to support local church youth ministries."

InQuest Ministries, a company focused on youth ministries, is based in Raleigh, N.C. "We never dreamed we would be able to partner with LifeWay, but youth ministry is our passion and together we can reach more students for Christ," said Jeff Pratt, InQuest Chief Operating Officer, to LifeWay representatives at the agreement signing.

In the past, LifeWay has produced only a couple of youth Bible study curriculum lines, but because of the diversity of today's church practices, Hester said that isn't sufficient anymore. "[The alliance will create] another set of curriculum we can offer that will provide churches with other options."

Scott Lee, LifeWay's creative director in the ventures unit, is creative marketing consultant for the alliance. He said this is an opportunity for LifeWay to "turn the corner into a new image."

"We're expanding our ministry to better meet the needs of today's changing culture," Lee explained.

In early fall 2004, LifeWay and InQuest will release several co-branded studies, toward a goal of releasing three studies each year.

Pratt said InQuest and LifeWay realize that no single group "has all the answers, so we have the opportunity to begin learning from each other. This is an alliance of two organizations coming together for a Kingdom project."
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