NASHVILLE — Thom S. Rainer, president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources, announced May 12 that Brad J. Waggoner, dean of the school of leadership and church ministry at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., will lead LifeWay Research, an initiative Rainer unveiled when he took office earlier this year. Waggoner will join LifeWay July 1 as director of LifeWay Research, a department reporting to the president. In addition to his role as academic administrator and teacher, he served as one of the lead consultants for the Rainer Group, a research organization Rainer once headed that assists churches in assessing and promoting church health and effectiveness.
At his February inauguration as LifeWay’s ninth president, Rainer revealed his intention for LifeWay to become a more relevant organization through the launch of new initiatives such as LifeWay Research. “LifeWay Research [will be] an entity that listens to churches, that listens to Christians, and that listens to the spiritually lost,” Rainer announced. “We will be an authority on what’s going on in the world of churches, beliefs and the world of the unchurched.” The goal, Rainer said, is to make LifeWay Research the premiere Christian research organization in the world.
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