LifeWay stores will continue selling NIV Bible

NASHVILLE — Trustees of LifeWay Christian Resources voted to continue selling the new New International Version (NIV) Bible in LifeWay stores.

Meeting Feb. 13–14 at LifeWay offices in downtown Nashville, trustees heard a report from a special task force appointed to follow up on a nonbinding resolution approved by the 2011 Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) that requested LifeWay consider not selling the NIV 2011 Bible in their stores. Committee chairman Adam Greenway, a member of First Baptist Church, Mount Washington, Ky., told the board “vast amounts of scholarly research and other relevant information was gathered and studied … and a number of subject matter experts addressed the task force.” 

Greenway, who serves as senior associate dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions and Evangelism at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., told trustees, “Messengers to the 2011 SBC annual meeting were encouraged to vote for the resolution based on incorrect information.” As an example, Greenway said the 2011 NIV contains no gender-neutral wording for the names of God. The 2011 NIV “follows translation methodologies that are embraced by the overwhelming majority of Bible translators in the world,” he said. “We do not believe the 2011 NIV rises to the level to where it should be pulled or censored or not carried in our retail chain.”