Dear Dr. Rainer, Trustees, Employees, and retired LifeWay President, Dr. Jimmy Draper,
Today I will board a plane, God willing, with my dearest loves – my husband of 36 years, our two adult daughters, our son-in-law, and our two grandchildren – to head to Nashville to commemorate and celebrate God’s inconceivable kindness to us in 20 years of Bible studies with you. I will have the chance to express some of my heart to you face-to-face while I am there but I’m unsure of being able to convey all I’d like to say without crying. And what if it spun into serious tears which, while sweet and sentimental, can prove to be embarrassing and awkward in a public address? And what if, on the way home, I had to get furious with myself for not being able to say what I’d flown to Nashville to say? Thus, with your patience, this letter.
Exactly 20 years ago, my husband, Keith, made a few phone calls behind my back to find out when the very first Bible study – A Woman’s Heart: God’s Dwelling Place – would be placed on a shelf at one of your stores in Houston. I was too green a new author to even ask you guys about a release date. I had no idea how the whole thing worked or, for crying out loud, if it would work at all. Keith, however, has never been one for holding back questions. He took me out to dinner without saying a single word about the Bible study then told me that he needed to run an errand on the way home. He pulled up in front of the store, opened my car door, took me by the hand, and walked me into the store. He marched me down an aisle like he knew just where he was going then stood me right in front of the ugliest cover I would ever love.
And we both cried.
As you who were around at that time know, there were never any promises from your side or expectations from ours about a second Bible study or, with the second, a third.
What began as a publishing relationship turned headlong and heart-long into a ministry partnership.
We who have worked together on the curriculum team have marveled over and over again that God would risk anything at all on such a flawed concoction of people. Early on we came to the conclusion that God either has a lot of grace or very poor taste.
His grace was not in vain. I want to boast in Christ for the caliber of people that I’ve had the privilege to labor alongside at LifeWay for 20 years. From Day 1 to this day, every single man and woman I’ve gotten to know (young, old, or middle aged, from customer care to graphic design to editorial to management and so on) has had a heart to love and serve Jesus Christ and an authentic desire to see people come to faith and be discipled in God’s Word.
Every person. Without exception. I mention it because I just don’t think that’s normal. I think that’s the Holy Spirit.
Every single time I had a conference call to run a concept for a new study past the discipleship team, it wrapped up in earnest prayer, placing it before God, asking Him to do with it what He would. Never did you enter into it lightly. Never did you pressure me to write on a particular concept. You always gave me the room to seek God for what He’d stir in my heart in the pages of Scripture for the next Bible study.
20 years is more than enough time to get cynical, to lose respect, and to shift into automatic and just shell out material that doesn’t have an ounce of the Holy Spirit on it.
Because of the unfathomable grace and sustaining power of God through our Lord Jesus Christ, I will board that plane today free of cynicism and full of respect for you. I don’t have a sick feeling in my stomach like I sold my soul to the devil or have been a part of playing people or putting on a big act.
I have had the privilege to do the one thing on earth I feel most called to do.
And I’ve had the privilege to do that one thing with you.
Thank you.
That’s what I’m writing this open letter to say.
Thank you so much for your patience with me through 20 years of growing and changing and going through all sorts of highs and lows and crises and losses and some excruciating learning experiences. Thank you for dealing with the drama. Thank you for standing with me, believing God with me, dreaming with me, serving with me, and for fighting for me. 20 years is time enough to see someone at her best and her worst. We are long past the point where we don’t really know each other. And here we are. Still together. We didn’t have to always see everything the same way for me to be so deeply thankful we’d seen it together. I would not trade a minute of it.
A dyed in the wool sanguine, God used another little element to make this thing work for 20 years. I have laughed my head off with some of you. You’ve got some men and women on your payroll that are among my favorite people on the planet. I have been to the other side of the world and back numerous times with a merry band of your employees, made enough memories for 10 lifetimes, and laughed till I cried. I have eaten pizza on the Mount of Olives with them and walked with them through a foot of sheep manure in fields outside of Bethlehem. The privilege of working with people that you just flat-out like is no small thing and it is not wasted on me.
I could write for hours and still not convey all that is stirring in my heart toward you but just this one time, I’m going to accept what my editor has tried to tell me for years: Beth, less is more.
So I will end with this and then bid us onward to the future:
Today I set this stack before our glorious and faithful God in His honor alone as a stone of remembrance. As an occasion to look back over our collective shoulders, reflect and say our God has been so gracious to us. For He alone can establish the work of human hands. May this makeshift stone of remembrance made of pages and ink serve as living proof to somebody reading today that, if He could be willing to use someone like me, He is willing to use absolutely anyone.
With so much love for all of you at LifeWay, for those recently retired, and for an unstoppable visionary in a wheelchair who now stands strong and complete in the presence of Jesus,
Beth
In 2002 with Lee and Myrna Sizemore
Jesus, You and I alone know the miracle You have accomplished. We alone know the depths from which You pulled me. Your boundless grace saved me, not just from the enemy, but from myself. The patience with which You have taught me, disciplined me, helped me, refocused me, restored me, redirected me and constantly revived me is astonishing. You just don’t give up on Your own, do You? You, Jesus, are my Prince. You are the single greatest joy of my life. Thank You for the cross.
Thanks you Beth for your over 20 years of faithful Bible teaching. I know that my wife and thousands of other women are walking more deeply with God and Christ because of your ministries.
I am so thankful for what God has done through you in my life. I am also thankful for what God has done for you. I can’t even begin to tell what God has done in and for me through these Bible studies.
“Brother” Beth,
I hope you’ll remember our fun conversation from your visit to our LifeWay bookstore booth at the SBC in Houston a couple years ago. I commented about how much I enjoyed working at the Living Proof Live conference bookstores. And, as a man married to a huge Beth Moore fan, I had to tell my wife that I was going to visit “Brother” Beth before every trip. I still get wise cracks from the men in our church when their wives come to me to ask which study of yours I recommend they do next. I wouldn’t have it any other way. Blessings on your anniversary and welcome to Nashville!
I’m always right about people and one thing I knew years ago…Beth Moore is the real deal! Congratulations and thank you for your faithfulness to His call on your life.
It certainly has changed mine.
Beth,
We here at Southwestern LifeWay, have truly enjoyed your ministry over the past 20 years. In many instances, it is your books or studies that help those who are hurting or are desiring to grow in their faith walk (more than you will know). For us, your products are usually what we think of when we have an opportunity to minister to those who come in our store. So from all sides and angles, God has used you mightily for our customers and us who serve as well.
Thanking God today!
I should say Almost always!!
So beautiful Beth. I just love your heart for Others, and most of all for Jesus!. You have helped me trust Jesus More, and just lean on Him. Thank you so much, and God bless you in all the coming years as He has since you started!
Congrats on 20 years and millions of lives touched. We at Lifeway are honored to continue to partner with you in ministry and look forward to all God has ahead!
Thank you, Beth, for allowing God to use you in the lives of so many, including me. I was a recent college grad when I went through Believing God with some ladies at my church. I still have Romans 4 almost memorized from your instructions to read the text over and over again. Now, as a Content Editor for LifeWay Kids, I am applying those truths as I work on several sessions on Abraham this very week. I am praying God uses these sessions to teach kids about “present active participle believing God” as He used your teaching to grow my faith! Can’t wait to celebrate with you tomorrow!
God has used every one of those studies to change me, heal me, grow me, comfort me and love on me. Please tell me this is not where you are stopping???
God willing, no plans for stopping! 🙂
Congratulations on 20 years of writing incredible Godly resources that have touched so many lives around the Globe. I have been honored to help produce almost every title that LifeWay has published. Blessings to you and your family as you come to celebrate with us!
Beth~
Oh how I wish I could attend this celebration! I am one of your greatest cheerleaders in the faith and have studied under your writings for eighteen of those twenty years. You showed me how I could love Jesus–really LOVE Him, and KNOW Him. The group I study with now and another group earlier, learned to study in-depth through you and other Bible study writers-Kay, Liz, Priscilla, Angela, (and more!). Our lives have been changed. Our love for our Savior is deeper. Our faith is stronger. Our witness for Him is greater. Thank you, Beth, for your willingness to let God use you to further His kingdom, for being honest in your testimony, for showing us how to love Him as no other, and for being our BBF all along the way! We love you!
Beth,
Your association with LifeWay is so appreciated. When telling others about LifeWay I love to mention that your teachings about the good news of Jesus Christ are published here.
Beth–What a touching post! Thank you for your obedience to God and His plan for your life. I have done almost every one of your studies and several more than once, they have changed my life. Your willingness to share your life and be transparent is greatly appreciated. Congratulations on this milestone.
Beth, I am so thankful that you did not give up on your really hard days. I have thanked God that you have been an example of how to pursue and turn to Christ. No teacher or writer has impacted my faith more than yours because you point the way to Christ. Your passion is contagious. Through your studies God has renewed my passion for His word. He is calling me to receive…receive His teaching, His Spirit, His mercy, His compassion, His promptings, His incomparably great power and His deep, deep love for me. I can’t tell you how life changing it is. I woke my husband up not too long ago on a Sat morning and said, “Hey, hey, guess what? I believe God, like, really treasures me.” I am 51 and it is the best truth to ever pierce my heart. Blessings
Amen, Terri. Amen. He really treasures you.
Wow! So honored to be a small part of this standing by the side of Bill. Because of your journey, we had the privilege of taking our 4 children to Israel and Greece. Our oldest, Brittany, celebrated 2 significant birthdays with you – 18 in Greece and 21 in DC. Aaron enjoyed several hours driving up and down Natchez Trace Parkway with you, and he and his sister, Heather, were allowed to run around Greece with an anthropologist, going into museums through the back door because of a Beloved Disciple! ; ) Nathanael learned bus hosting a tour group several years before he was sent on a tour to Iraq. Our lives have been touched by yours, and I have not even mentioned actually going through your Bible studies yet! Thank you Beth! The Cox family loves you! May many more years of blessings come!
Beth, As a LifeWay employee I am so blessed to experience the joy of sharing your studies and talking with individuals and groups who have benefited so greatly from the WORD that you share through your materials. Congratulations on 20 years. Can’t wait to see how Our Lord Jesus uses you over the next 20. Blessings dear sister, Elaine
As I read this open letter to Lifeway, I also want to say to them thank you for giving women such an incredible opportunity to study God’s word in such relevant ways. I have been teaching and leading bible studies to women for over 20 years, and I remember the day I picked up one of your studies Beth. I was so excited to read the words coming from a woman that so identified with every woman. I have done every bible study you have written and many more than once to different groups of women. I have seen God move in their lives and save many during these studies. I can’t express more how much I appreciate you Beth and Lifeway for giving us teachers a beautiful avenue by which God can reach His people with His love. I stand in awe of what God has done and will continue to do in our generation. Praise Jesus!
Thank you so much for all that you do. I love love love being the link between so many believers( here in Florence, SC) and your Bible studies. Much ministry and spiritual growth in done through your writings.
Beth,
God has used you in so many ways, with the words he’s laid upon your heart, he used you to direct people to him. For those who longed to know him or to have a deeper relationship with him but felt unworthy for one reason or another, God used you to help them to see…that could not be further from the truth. You have an honest, kind, sweet and humble spirit and your faithfulness to our father has been amazing to watch.
God has used you in the lives of many and he’s used you significantly to speak to me.
I want to take this opportunity to say, thank you. I praise our father for how he’s used you and I celebrate with you twenty years of a job, well done.
Adrian
Beth, we are so excited to be celebrating with you over what God has done through us together over the last 20 years! AND looking forward with great expectation to the years ahead. Safe travels. We will see you soon.
Dear Beth,
I have had the privilege of studying with you, both as teacher and participant, and have so enjoyed the deep insights God has given us through you. I am thankful for your obedience in using your God-given gifts. Dale McCleskey has been a dear friend as well and y’all make a great team! Know our prayers are with you and your loved ones as well.
Many blessings!
Gail
Beth
As a LifeWay Store Manager, we want to return the Thank You to you for your commitment to follow God’s will in this ministry partnership. It has been a blessing to see your humble heart as we have seen you write and speak through LPM. As one of the folks who has been graced to travel to other location to help your ministry, you are a blessing!
Thanks for this letter, but more importantly, Thanks for your service to Him!
Drew Altom
My heart is racing with gratitude to Jesus for using you Beth in such mighty way to reach His people. You are such an example of how God works everything for good. God bless you always and I thank you for stretching me and growing me fuller with His love. This picture of your study workbooks looks just like my stack I keep very close!
Happy everything girlfriend❤️
Beth, I began a study of yours with a group of Godly women that I couldn’t believe would want me in it. I had heard of you but never studied your materials. LIFE-CHANGING . . . God’s work in using you and putting me in the group I still study with. I live in the Nashville area, 45 mins. south in the town of Spring Hill and it is my earnest dream to one day design for you. I’ve been a graphic designer for more years than I care to count and allowing God to work you into my life has been extraordinary to say the least. May God continue to bless you, your family, and the words that so beautifully spill onto your books, guides, etc.
Dear Beth,
Congratulations on 20 years of Love laughter & faithfulness to God and to all of the LifeWay Family. Thank you for sharing your letter with us and thank you for your studies and the impacted they have had on many.
Thank you!
THANK YOU Beth – from a current LifeWay Corporate Retail Division employee who has the privilege to work with your product and see it change lives on a regular basis (and yes I’m a guy who has snuck into my wife’s Bible Study on more than one occasion and watched some of your teachings – wow!).
Beth –
Thank you for taking that step of faith 20 years ago. Your courage to follow the Lord and devotion to His Word are examples for us all in our faith journeys with Jesus.
Thank you for the kind letter to those who serve and have served the Lord here at LifeWay.
Jon
Thank you to Beth, Thank you to Lifeway, Thank you to The Lord Jesus Christ!
Congratulations!!
Can’t wait to hear about the celebration.
Ahh Beth,
As one of your faithful readers and Bible study follower and fellow siesta, I do love and appreciate you so much. I pray for you and your family daily. I, too, have a stack of your Bible studies on my bookshelf just a few shy of your stack. One day, I will complete them all. Because of you, I know and love Jesus deeper, I seek His guidance, I pray daily, I write a Christian blog, and I am a 9 year member of a ladies’ Bible study group that I have worked through 9 of your Bible studies with, fought cancer with, prayed with, cried and laughed with, and probably would never have loved, if it had not been for your Bible studies. You are like the sister I never had. You are a treasure. Thank God for Lifeway! They helped bring you into our hearts and helped you teach us so much about love and about Jesus and the Bible.
Thank you, Lord, for this dear lady who opens her heart to us and reveals the love of Jesus. God bless her every day. Amen.
Hey Beth! I have been through several of your studies and have loved each of them. Thank you so much for sharing your heart and the love of Jesus! I started working with Lifeway about 4 years ago and that is when i was introduced to your many studies. Again, thank you for all you do and good luck in the up coming years. 🙂
Well said. We at LifeWay are humbly grateful for our partnership.
I am who I am today, by the grace of God, a much stronger disciple in my faith. A gentler person in my relationships. A wiser daughter of the King with a more solid foundation in doctrine. A hope-filled pilgrim who knows where she’s headed and has learned more acceptable ways to get there. All this and more because of that stack of precious study guides. I also want to thank each of those who worked with Beth and who had the vision to look at Bible study with creative initiative. But I especially thank God for Beth Moore and for what she means to me. Thank you, Beth, for the hours of seeking the plan of God for your life and for selflessly sharing those lessons with all of us.
Beth,
I love this post. I still remember early on in your partnership with us at LifeWay how men use to call once in a while to ask “would it be o.k. for men to partcipate in her studies, because we really like how she teaches”!
I hope part of our eternity in heaven might be spent saying thank you to those who have impacted our lives. The line to say thank you to Beth Moore will be a long one and will include plenty of women…and men. Thank you for letting us all interrupt your last 20 years as God poured His Holy Spirit in and through you to teach, encourage and minister to His body. We love you! Galatians 6:9
I am one of the Church Partners at Lifeway who serves churches in Arkansas and Northeast Texas. I won’t be able to attend chapel but wanted to take the time to say thank you for your partnership with churches in helping them to teach the transforming truths of God’s Word!
Thank you for all of your work for the Kingdom and the partnership with all of us here at LifeWay! We are blessed.
Read Ps 40 this afternoon and thought of you and your testimony:
“I have not hidden your deliverance
within my heart;
I have spoken of your faithfulness and
your salvation;
I have not concealed your steadfast love
and your faithfulness
from the great congregation.” Ps 40:10
Having done design work for you through LifeWay remains one of the greatest, and most humbling honors of my professional career. How God continues to use you to help me fall SO in love with Him and His Word — and hold onto BOTH for dear life — is something where “thank you” feels inadequate. For your faithfulness to your calling, your transparency as you have shared, and for your overflowing joy — I continue to praise God for you.
As a LifeWay Retail employee, it has been an honor to have played some small part helping provide your resources to our customers through our stores. Countless lives have been impacted. Thank you for your partnership with LifeWay and for your service to our Lord.
Love seeing that stack…what a marvelous work He has done. Thank you Beth and Lifeway!
Beth, I was honored to work on your A Woman’s Heart revision during my short time working with Dale and the Leadership & Adult team. From the LifeWay side, I know you are beloved because your heart is so open and you are not proud, despite all your accomplishments. Congratulations on an amazing 20 years.
Thanks for your vision and inspiration you give us through the studies and devotions you have written. Although the only time we ever met was way way back in 1999 in Tallahassee Leon co Civic Center, it has been a pleasure to have the opportunity to serve with you through the sell of your products. Thanks again for your time and for your families commitment for your service to our God!
Thank you for your continued and devoted ministry! My wife has been greatly encouraged by your studies. Also, as a LifeWay store manager, I have a front row seat to the many, many people and churches who are impacted by your insight into God’s Word. Thank you for all that you do and your willingness to be used by Him.
Thank you for leading me deeper into His Word which has brought me into a deeper relationship with our Lord.
Beth, i don’t know how it’s been 20 years since i was frustrated at having to drive to another town for in-depth Bible study & fussing about why couldn’t we have one in our town when my mother-in-law said “I want you to listen to this teacher…” what an answer to this young mom’s prayer. so yes, thank you. for all the obedience & time & sacrifice that stack of books & all those LPL messages represent, thank you. Jesus knows all the lives that He has changed through your obedience. He knows. be blessed, sister.
Dear precious Beth…thank you so much for sharing your heart with your SS’s. Thank you for getting up when you’ve been knocked down, for listening to the sweet soft voice of the Spirit over the lies of the defeated one, for believing when there didn’t seem to be much to be believed, for living…daily…minute by minute…for and with Jesus!! Thank you for the example you are to me…for teaching me that I’m not you…but, certainly am a beloved child of the Most High God. Thank you for your whacky, lovely sense of humor. Major, massive blessings on you today my sister!!
What a precious and inspiring message. I know you know your Siestas are grateful for your obedience and incredible work ethic. We are all thankful for Lifeway’s solid ministry as well! Hope you enjoy every moment of your well-earned celebration.
Much love!
Congratulations Beth!!!! The Lord and I have trekked through each and every study pictured (some more than once – some of us need a repeat!). I have such sweet memories of special times with the Lord, through each of those studies. You, my dear Bible teacher have had a profound influence on me and my family. Thank you Lord for Beth and Your great work through her! Great is Your Faithfulness. We love you.
Beth,
Thank you so much for your example as a Christian woman who serves a faithful God. If it were not for God and you, I would not be writing daily encouragement for other people. You gave me a voice and certainly a bold one at that to go after my dreams of writing and telling others about our beloved Jesus. I will forever be grateful! I may not be standing on a stage like you, but as a person who has struggled in life, I can speak his word of truth daily. So, thank you! God bless always!
Maria Pietuszka
I am Broken in his presence because he loved me first. Psalms 139
Sweet, dear Beth. We love you so. Not because you’re funny or sweet or have fabulous hair . . . and not even because you’ve loved us . . . but because you have stayed singularly focused on getting us to the Word of God. No greater legacy could there be and may He keep you faithful to it for many, many more years.
Also, I just have to say that I smiled big as I read through some of the comments. You may not know him, but one of the commenters on here, Steve Bond, is a dear, gifted, brilliant, godly man on the Bible & Reference team. He basically wrote the Holman Bible Dictionary. He wrote a Bible dictionary and today he’s thanking God and you for your faithfulness in ministry. I’m not sure it could get more logical than that.
Grateful for you and praying for God to give you great joy and peace.