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LifeWay’s specialty magazines offer customized help for today’s Christians

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–With 1 billion searchable webpages on the Internet today, 59 percent of Americans say they are overwhelmed with information, and 50 percent say they don’t want any more knowledge than they absolutely need.

That’s why the discipleship magazine department at LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention offers 11 magazines that cater to distinct groups of people with specific needs.

“We know the Internet is overwhelming at times. That’s why we want to give Christians information that fits their needs in a convenient format,” said Selma Wilson, director of LifeWay’s discipleship magazine department. “If you lay down one of our magazines on the coffee table for a day or two, you can go right back to where you left off. Sometimes, that’s difficult to do on the Web.”

Wilson’s area produces magazines designed for parents of children (ParentLife), parents of teenagers (Living with Teenagers) and a special edition of ParentLife for parents of new babies, newborn to age 2 (BabyLife). They also publish a magazine for single adults (Christian Single), older adults (Mature Living), families (HomeLife) and Christians seeking a healthy lifestyle (Christian Health). Additionally, the department produces three monthly devotional guides: Journey, for women; Stand Firm, for men; and believe, for new Christians.

One of the least-known magazines to emerge from the department targets youth leaders who must — as a byproduct of their jobs — minister to the parents of teenagers.

“Having served as a youth minister, I know the inadequacy I felt in trying to help parents improve their parenting skills,” said Joy Emery, editor-in-chief of Living with Teenagers – Parent Ministry Leadership Edition. “There was no way that I could really know the heart of a parent, not being one at the time.”

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Living with Teenagers – Parent Ministry Leadership Edition offers several regular sections that can help youth ministers understand and minister to parents. Phil Briggs, a professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas, writes a monthly column to help ministers understand the needs of parents and how those needs impact youth ministry.

The magazine also offers advice about ongoing parent ministry from Doug Fields, pastor to students at Saddleback Community Church in Lake Forest, Calif. It provides a discussion corner revolving off a feature story and furnishes monthly fellowship ideas.

BabyLife, for which Emery is also editor-and-chief, is a new arrival from the magazine department. First published in September 2000, the magazine is a special edition of ParentLife and offers encouragement and advice to parents of babies, newborn to 2 years of age.

“Because of the significance of the birth of a child and the window of opportunity we have to influence eager parents in how to parent their babies, we designed an entire special issue of ParentLife magazine to meet the needs of new parents,” Emery said.

Christian Health, another addition to the magazine department, “is a trustworthy new magazine for believers who want to live a healthy, Christ-honoring life but are caught in the blur of a hectic lifestyle pace,” Wilson said.

Each month’s issue includes a strong emphasis on physical health and provides up-to-date, quick bits of information on nutrition, fitness and exercise, relationships, biblical examples of wellness, spiritual encouragement and emotional and mental wellness.

For a quick overview of LifeWay magazines, go to: www.lifeway.com/christiansingle/dfmd_portal.htm [3]. To order a magazine, send an e-mail to [email protected] [4].
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(BP) photos posted in the BP Photo Library at http://www.bpnews.net. Photo titles: BABYLIFE MAGAZINE TEAM and COVERS.