End of an Era? These Christian Universities, Bookstores, and Music Resources Just Shut Down
Lifeway Christian Resources is discontinuing its music website that provides sheet music, instrumental charts, choral arrangements, demos, and other resources for worship services.
In a notice sent to its members, Lifeway explained that it would "focus its resources" on areas where the organization could "faithfully serve more churches" but did not cite the specific reasons for shutting down the site.
Announcement from Lifeway Worship...
— SBC Platform (@TheSBCPlatform) July 18, 2023
"We have made the difficult decision to discontinue https://t.co/e8GgsvI0wi effective September 30, 2023." pic.twitter.com/Iuv67uo0Yy
"These decisions are made for a number of reasons, but always with the goal of best stewarding our resources to serve Christ's church even as some needs of the church may change over time," read a statement.
Church leaders will have until Sept. 30 to download all content in their lifewayworship.com account before it shuts down.
CBN News has reached out to Lifeway for more information about the unexpected closure. At the time of publication they had not responded.
Lifeway Christian Resources is the latest faith-based organization to announce it is closing a whole or part of its organization.
In 2019, it closed 172 of its brick and mortar bookstores. The group told the Baptist Press that Lifeway Music plans to provide Lord's Supper supplies, hymnals, trade music, bulletins, church supplies, digital graphics, and seasonal supplies.
"We're also working to make our lifewayworship.com music library available at lifeway.com in the future. We'll continue to look for new and fresh ways to serve churches and their worship ministries," the statement said.
In 2021, a major Christian music publishing group, Brentwood Benson Music, shut down its entire operations citing the COVID-19 pandemic as the main reason for its decision.
"As we have all experienced over the past two years, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been extraordinary. The challenges presented to those of us charged with developing resources for church choirs and orchestras resulted in market realities that have become unmanageable. Unfortunately, these challenges have forced us to make the difficult decision to shut down all operations by the end of 2021," a statement read.
The Nashville-based music business reportedly owned 60,000 copyrights and had signed artists like Michael W. Smith, Gary Chapman, Yolanda Adams, and DC Talk.
The company liquidated all of its inventory but hoped to "find a home" for some of its best-selling products.
Meanwhile, closures across the Christian community are being felt in higher education as well.
The King's College, based in New York, announced this week it will not offer classes in the fall and cut staff and faculty positions amid a financial crisis.
"Following months of diligently exploring numerous avenues to enable the College to continue its mission, the Board of Trustees has determined that King's will not be offering classes for the fall 2023 semester," read an email statement.
The school lost its accreditation by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, in May. As a result, the institution cannot access federal financial aid.
Since that decision, King's College has been struggling to stay afloat falling $2.1 million short of its fundraising goal, Higher ED Dive reported.
Several public and private colleges have either closed or consolidated because of lower tuition rates, stagnating state funding, and a shrinking pool of high school graduates, the outlet reports.
At least 18 Christian schools have closed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
After 140 Years, Alliance University, formerly known as Nyack College, announced it will close its doors officially in August.
The school founded by A.B. Simpson began as a missionary training institution in 1880 but developed into one of the most ethnically diverse evangelical institutions of higher education.
Nyack News & Views reports that the school's closure is also due to the recent loss of its accreditation by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.
With the school's declining enrollment, the Middle States Commission on Higher Education also cited the institution's financial situation as the reason for removing the accreditation.
The school had been in debt for several years including a $10 million deficit in 2019.
Despite Alliance auditors warning that the school was in danger of closing, students, faculty, staff, and alumni expressed shock at the school's announcement.
"They had something so special," alumna Heather Beers-Dimitriadis told Christianity Today. "That school changed my life in ways I could have never imagined."
"The last week has just been an up and down of total despair and then looking for different ways to rescue things, then facing up to the reality of what is and what will be," Alliance provost David Turk told the outlet at the time.
Shirley Hoogstra, president of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, told CT she believes the school fulfilled its mission.
"The legacy of Alliance is being the affordable and accessible Christian college opportunity for the five boroughs of New York, as well as for students from around the country who wanted to participate in multiethnic and multicultural experience," she said.
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