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.
Well, if that doesn’t make you cry and give you goose bumps at the same time! 🙂
Beth, Thank you for being their for us (women). Who needed a sister to say I understand, I have been there. Guiding us through God’s word and showing us God’s grace and love through the gifts God has given you.
Breaking Free was one of the first studies I did, wow, how it changed my life. And then taking a girls trip to Charleston WVA and seeing my best friends life change and her fall more in love with Jesus!
You have been a part of our lives and are just a like sister, mother, daughter, friend to so many of us.
20 years with Lifeway, wonderful.
Congratulations~ Thank you for letting God use you to touch millions of lives for HIM!
Thank you my sister! Soooo grateful for all Jesus taught me through you. Happy Happy 20 years!! With much love!!!
Thank you Beth for your in depth study of the Bible, for helping us understand the Bible, making it clearer and applicable for transformation and for your sense of humor and camaraderie through it all. I have witnessed so many women being set free by “Breaking Free”. My daughter wrote a production on the same ideas without reading your book. I asked her how she understood at 30 years old something I was never exposed to until 50. Anyway, I thank God for you. Many blessings for you and your family.
Breaking Free changed my life and God timed many other of your studies to be exactly what I needed at the time. Thank you for teaching all of us to love His Word and believe Him. I’m grateful to be one of many whose lives have been changed.
Noreen Cleveland Ohio, Dearest Beth, I am blessed to call you sister in Christ. I have formed a deep love for Gods word through your studies. Each one has meet me where I am and moved me forward into a new realm! I love your simulcasts and have enjoyed deep relationships with those I attended. I look forward to joining you in Houston next January 2016! Thank you for following the Lord s calling on your life to lead all of us to Our Ever loving Savior!
and 20 years ago I picked up A Woman’s Heart at a book fair while attending our national church conference. Changed my life! Thank you!
Beth,
Having my LifeWay retirement right around the corner, it has been my joy and honor to serve you and your wonderful Living Proof staff (Hi Diane Riley!) for these past 13+ years. I will miss my role as Customer Care Specialist and Author Relations Representative and will continue to pray for you, your staff, upcoming studies, and all your special work for Him. May the Lord continue to bless you and yours richly over these next few days, weeks, months, and years. Thank you, Beth, for enriching my life. Hugs & Prayers always – Becky Rau
Thank you for letting us in on your open letter. Looking at that stack of books made me cry and I thank God for each and every one of them. I thank God for the people you are thanking who made these available to me and to my dear friends who have taken your studies. You will be glad to know, Beth, we have taken to heart your admonition to “not just do another bible study”…we have applied the Word, become hungry for the Word on our own. You have made us laugh and cry and love Jesus. We consider you one of our dearest friends and talk about you like we just had coffee with you the other day. We love you Beth and are thankful for what God has done through you and through Lifeway <3
Oh, sweet Beth. How you have blessed my heart over the years. God has used you to speak to my heart on so many levels. I, too, am thankful for Lifeway. They have brought you to us and made you our mentor and friend as we struggle through the ups and downs of life.
There is also a book in me. One that I am just beginning to put together even though the story started over two decades ago. It is a story of love, grace, loss, and restoration through the illness and death of our sweet daughter. She also taught me well through her unrelenting faith in the darkest of days. You have given me new hope that someday people may be able to read her story and know God’s faithfulness to her and to us.
I love you Siesta Mama!
I am just a redeemed believer trying to live out this thing called the Christian life. Your studies have helped me understand scripture like no other. I love you so much and I don’t even know you!…..well not really, but then I guess I do. When you know a person’s heart, and you so beautifully and openly express yours, you KNOW them. Maybe someday we can share a cup of Nespresso. It’s simply the best! (grin)
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for answering the call to do what you do so wonderfully. Through your studies of scripture, I have discovered the heart of God and fallen so in love with His word. This year I have joined SSMT! I’m so looking forward to January 2016 in Houston. And I want the whole Megillah!!
Thank you, Jesus, thank you, Beth.
My life has been richly blessed by your studies. You have a way with words that encourages me to “dig deep” and for that I am eternally grateful. God bless you, Beth.
I am celebrating with you all this morning! Your studies (I have done all but 5) have been a huge part of what the Lord has used to grow me up in my faith! He saved me out of a pit of sin in 1994 and A Heart Like His was my entrance into Beth’s beautiful ministry. Thank you Beth, for listening and obeying our gracious God and writing what He wanted you to! My life is richer because of your faithfulness.
Thank you Beth. God lead me to one of your studies 6 years ago when I was heart broken over the suicide of my baby brother. I have drawn closer to my Lord through your teachings. God has comforted and healed me through your teaching and other special ladies at your encouragement to dig deep into the Word.
Thank you and may God bless you!
Dear Sweet Beth,
Thank you so much for the past 20 years of bible studies. I remember doing the first one and being so deeply changed that I wanted everyone to jump in with both feet with me. My daughter was five when I did your first study and she grew up watching me dig deeper as I worked through each one and I eventually become a facilitator for several. I loved sharing what I was learning with that little bright-eyed girl. Now a grown 25 year old woman, it is my hearts joy to say those observations and discussions led her to dig deeper with the LORD too. I went to Israel in January for the first time and I was so thrilled to see so many of the places you had written about and that I had studied. So many times I marvel that God can use just one person to make such a big impact in so many lives. Thank you, Beth & Lifeway, for changing my life and helping to create a bible legacy in my family. My first grandbaby is on the way, I can’t wait to study with the next generation of our family.
I could barely see to finish reading your letter for the tears filling my eyes and streaming down my face. Your prayer at the end is my life. Thank you for letting Jesus use you. I couldn’t have gotten through these last 15 years without you. I am not the same person I was back then because of getting into His word with your help. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. I pray for you. I love you dear sister!
I loooove your Bible studies, Beth! Please keep making more!
Thank you, Beth, for listening to God’s call on your life, for allowing Him to speak through you and for pouring into women all around the world. We have been blessed to partner with you. May God continue to bless your ministry. Thank you.
Dearest Beth, thank you so much for posting your sincere loving letter to those retiring. Your ministry has helped change my Christian life into a relationship with the lord and a desire and thirst to study and live gods Thuth. I started this journey with anointed transformed redeemed and then attended your conference in Toronto Ontario where your message was. I am going to do something brand new! Within about 2 weeks I was diagnosed with stage 4 ovation cancer and given about 6 months. Being set aside with sickness was a complete gift to me. I have been given a miracle and love to do many bible studies. The ovation cancer story u told about yourself and the two nurses Mercy and Truth was the first thing I asked my husband after surgery. I did not get nurses with those names but in GOds way I did. Two wonderful friends came everyday for 6 months and looked after me and the family here. At the time it was over I realized fully that I also received Mercy and Grace as my nurses. Thanks for your ministry and I be praying for u on this trip. I also hope to attend your conference in Toronto in November.
I have worked at LifeWay for 15 years and I have not seen any one author contribute to the kingdom of our God like you have. Thank you for your commitment to tell the truth. Keep on keeping on!
Hi Beth,
My life has been enriched because of your writings and your integrity and your darling way of being a girl friend to all your readers. I have a dream of getting to meet you face to face and giving you a big hug!
With much gratitude and love,
Lynn
Oh you made me cry! I’m so thankful for you and for your partnership with LifeWay. God uses you both in mighty ways!
In 1999 I was in the US on furlough and was introduced to your first Bible Study. I took it back to the field with me and after that you became my teacher and my mentor. I was no longer satisfied with the working relationship that I had with God, I wanted that intimate relationship with my Father that you showed me was possible. Since then I’ve eagerly awaited the next study, I’ve shared them with women on both sides of the world, I’ve been changed, been healed, and been freed.
I love you, sister. Congratulations on your 20 year anniversary. I’m looking forward to what God has next.
I love the way you said you were no longer satisfied with the ‘working’ relationship with God, but wanted the ‘intimate’ relationship. He truly is life!
Sturgis, MI
I, too, have been so blessed by your studies, Beth. Interestingly enough, we as a ladies group will be doing A Woman’s Heart beginning in March 2015. The studies never grow old. Thank you and thanks for your transparent heart and passion for God’s Word.
I was once asked if I could have lunch with anyone (excluding Jesus), who would it be? I said you.
You are such an inspiration to me and countless women (and men I’m sure) all over the world. Your hunger for the Word, your drive to be full of it, and your willingness to share it with the world is amazing – thank you for being transparent, honest, deep, passionate, hard-working, true to the Word, and full of integrity. God bless you and may He continue to use you!
Beautiful word from your heart, Beth. Amen.
You will never know the impact these studies have had on my life. So thankful! 🙂
Beth,
I cannot begin to tell you the impact your Bible studies have had on my life. I actually cried when I saw your picture because I remember the fire for God it started in my heart. Thank you doesn’t seem to be enough. I love you sweet sister in Christ. I pray abundant blessings on you and your family.
Tears of joy for the utter faithfulness of God. What a testimony that truly brings God ALL the glory!
Thank you Jesus for Beth Moore. She has taught me so much and beyond that she taught me how to seek You for myself! Happy Anniversary!
A beautiful tribute. We all sing praises to Jesus with you! What a gracious, faithful God we serve!
Thank you so much for your life of faithfulness, your hard work and for showing me a Jesus I never knew in 40 years of going to church. I love you back.
This is so beautiful Beth, thank you for sharing your heart with this community. Thank You Lifeway for believing in Beth and following the Holy Spirit’s lead. We are all so much richer for your obedience. Seeing that stack of studies, it truly did touch my heart as an altar of remembrance. Through your tutelege I have grown from being a fair Bible Study girl whose relationship with God consisted of “the rules” to passionately seeking the intimacy with Him that your studies and the Spirit made me hungry for. God has truly blessed me with the desires of my heart, and part of that has come as a direct result of your ministry. Thank you indeed!
I read this post and the tears sprang into my eyes.
I’ve never met you Beth, but I feel like I know you and God sent me you as a mentor through the studies He and you have penned, at a time in my life when I needed it most. I marvel at the way God works and the way He has opened His Word and Himself to me. I thank Him for your ministry and I often pray for you.
I praise Him for the sister, of a friend of my sister’s, who wrote about Beth Moore and a Bible study on her blog and I decided to order one.
I thank-you Beth, and Keith too, for the hours you have labored. I thank you for the feelings and heart you have shared and the emotions I so often relate too. I also thank God for laughter and humor and I relate to your sense of humor!
Thank-you is inadequate. We women that pick up your workbooks can feel your love for women in them and I praise God for growing this in You and spilling it out on us all.
God is good. So good. Never failing or tiring, even when everything in my life is swirling around me like a hurricane. Praise Him!
The power of God has changed my life through these studies. Beth, thank you for your willingness to serve God and be so open and honest. Your ministry and your team are a blessing.
Beth, what a beautiful letter, and what a ministry you have had! I was at Ridgecrest with you when you did the pilot study of A Woman’s Heart. I knew then that you had a special ministry, even if it never went beyond that pilot study. Because of your work, I now absolutely LOVE the Old Testament. May God grant you many more years of amazing ministry. Thank you for changing my life. You are so loved.
Morning, Bethie! 🙂
Just a quick note to congratulate you on 20 years with Lifeway! 🙂 God has used you in countless ways in so many lives over the years. I for one am so grateful to be a beneficiary of the studies you have written. It was during the study of Esther that I felt God’s call to ministry and began a simple closed Facebook group called Mourning into Dancing (a ministry to young widows) in April 2009.) Five years later, God has brought 300 girls (with another 100 girls or so still waiting to get in) from all over the world our facebook group. We have been seeking God’s face for next steps in recent days because our girls seem to have outgrown the limitedness of the Facebook group and desire more face-to-face ministry opportunities. We feel God’s go ahead to apply for non-profit status and to begin face-to-face groups and will be launching a new website within the next year, with Bible Studies, devotionals, retreat materials and so much more for our girls to use wherever they happen to be around the world.
Thank you for discipling me and for helping me to dig deeper into God’s Word over these years. God bless you, Bethie! He has used you to reach beyond even this mess of a girl!
And congrats to the Lifeway team as well. Some of those folks are mutual friends and I have known and prayed them through their hard work over these years.
Blessings on this day to all of you!
Bitsy Rawlings
Precious! I’m thankful for Lifeway & thankful for you! I’m also thankful for your sweet family for their love & support. That story about Keith is so sweet & brought tears to my eyes. I’ve done 12 of these 15 studies & have learned so much!
This OKIE will be in Seattle next week along with my sister, my daughter & two nieces. We can’t wait to hear what God has laid on your heart. Thanks again, Beth for your faithfulness to our Lord!
Thank you Beth for your faithful service to our Lord. And for the servant you are to the Kingdom of Christ. We at Lifeway love you.
CONGRATULATIONS ON 20 YEARS!!!
God has been good… to you Beth, to your fellow so-sojourners who have worked and helped you to the finish line of studies done; and also to all of us, who have taken those books with lines of words and applied the teaching to our hearts and minds – with the help of Jesus and His Holy Spirit! GOD IS GOOD!!!
A heartfelt round of thanks to all the men, women who caused the studies to come to us so effective, professional, beautiful and useful!!!
Looking forward to continued Blessings to fall upon us all from these studies, words, teaching!!!
Thank you Beth, and your publishing team for sharing God with us.
I have grown in God and knowledge of him through your studies, simulcasts, etc.
I am thankful.
Well as a new christian 16 yrs ago I asked God for a mentor who would impart the WORD so I could learn the word of God. well I was thinking of an in the flesh one well you were in the flesh alright but on the other side of the screen and pages. However it was exactly what I needed someone who was not afraid to be real and vulnerable. Thank you for that and how you impart the word of God in such a rich way better than most do and I will leave it at that 🙂 and I know God has gifted you beyond words. Thank YOU GOD and keep it REAL!!!
Beth,
I am a LifeWay Christian Store Associate and have been selling your Bible studies and books for over 17 years now. I’ve climbed ladders to display books high on the wall and climbed them again to get them down when the regular shelves needed refilling. I’ve lugged cases of books to the front for Bible study leaders to purchase. I’ve stocked and restocked and shifted books and studies. I’ve called churches to tell them about brand new studies. And I’ve loved doing it because I have also been a student using the material and have been so impressed with your spirit led teaching.
But mainly, I’ve listened to stories of how much your studies have meant to the ladies that come into the store. The ladies that come in for their first study usually say something like “They tell me I’ll be blessed by this study” and I reinforce this from personal experience. The ladies that come in for the next study say something like “I can’t wait to do another study”. The leaders say “I hope I’ve ordered enough” or “The group wants to do Beth Moore again” or “Is there a new Beth Moore study?” You’ve touched my life by following the spirits call, but also you’ve touched the customers that walk into my store each and every day. I listen to their stories of growth, of tears, of doing studies with their mothers or daughters and how much they’ve meant to them. You’ve led them to know themselves better and grow their relationship with Jesus Christ.
So, from an associate on the front line in the stores. Thank YOU! Thank you for the work you’ve put into these studies, thank you for being faithful to your calling for 20 years, thank you for being a voice that leads to Jesus! I’m looking forward to more!
Blessed to have studied many of your bible studies with my fellow “Princess Prayer Warriors” for over 10 years. My stack of completed studies is tall. My knowledge and relationship with God’s word even taller. Thank you for following Him. What a day that will be when Our Jesus we shall see! Blessings from Southern Indiana!
I read your post twice and still don’t get it. Are you going to stop writing Bible studies? Is Lifeway going out of business or merging? My Bible study group finished “Children of the Day” back in December and I am eagerly awaiting your next study.
Hi Lynn, Thank you for your question! Beth’s letter to LifeWay was just a ‘thank you’ as they celebrate 20 years of ministry together. That was the sole purpose of the letter. 🙂 Beth is not planning to stop writing; Lifeway is not going anywhere. Just taking time to celebrate this milestone!
Thank you Beth! God has used you greatly in my life. May God bless you with many more studies and many more women who come to know Him.
What a beautiful letter ~ thank you for ALWAYS being so transparent! In some sort of odd way…feel like I have travelled this journey with You. God’s Heart was my first official Bible Study and have never been the same. You have challenged, encouraged and modeled what it looks like to be head over heals in love with Jesus…contagious! It blesses me to no end and continues to be generational with now my grown daughter a “siesta” and loving you. Thank you for doing the “hard work” and the hours you pour over the Word to open it up for all of us! We bless you and we thank you and celebrate this momentous time with you!
Beth – As a former LifeWay employee – and member of the original LPL events team–I’m grateful that God allowed me to be a small part of the early days of such a great legacy of ministry! I remember in those early planning days — we all thought “if we have about 1500 women in a church on a Friday night–that would be great!” — Well–obviously when we hit the small town of Dothan, AL for the 2nd event and had over 3000 – and had to move from the church to the civic hall –We shoulda known that God was up to something. I’m glad that I knew a young worship leader named Travis Cottrell that I had brought in to do some single’s events – and that Faith Whatley and I could suggest him to lead worship for those early events. The rest is history.
I’ve been away from LW for almost 7 years now– but count working with you as some of my finest days there! BIG HUGS! Dave
I PRAISE the LORD for what you as a person have done in my life. I have enjoyed every Bible study that I have done…and it all has applied to me.
I have used some of your material; translating it into Spanish for my friends when something pertains to them.
Dios te bendiga….hoy y siempre!
In Christ,
Aurora Quiñones
Believing God changed my walk of faith. I have done it four times and know that I will do it again. The timeline of our lives that you led us through made it perfectly clear to me how often God was there, working in my life, always faithful, even before I knew Him! I return to that knowledge of His faithfulness and that He never changes when the next trial, mountain or valley comes along. And I ask myself “So are you going to believe God and who you know Him to be, or aren’t you???” And that kind of settles it for me. Thank you Beth, and thank you for allowing God to use you for His purposes and His glory. Agape, Patti
Happy happy happy 20th year celebration! Thanks for the hard work, diligence, and follow through to Beth, LPM, and Lifeway!