Unconventional Marketing Promotes Lifeway Telegu Study Bible

When Pastor Benny first received the Lifeway Telegu Study Bible, he was elated. In 25 years of ministry, this was the first time he had access to an in-depth Christian resource in his native language. He immediately recognized that this was not just a useful personal resource but a valuable tool for young pastors throughout the state of Andhra, India, where the Telegu language is spoken.

“I have a burden for a healthy church where right doctrine is taught,” says Pastor Benny (name changed to protect his identity). For several years he has been training pastors from towns and villages in his state, believing that ministry through small churches is the best way to reach the people of India. He believes that a resource like the Study Bible will help unify the church, minimizing differences in interpreting Scripture between different denominations.

Pastor Benny is one of the “pastor-ambassadors” who have been introducing the Lifeway Telegu Study Bible to Christian communities across Andhra, a state in India where the church is growing but where robust Biblical resources continue to be limited.

Lifeway India CEO Jose Oommen, or “Captain Jose” as he is called, has observed this problem of the mismatch between on-the-ground needs and relevant Christian materials. “I have been visiting Andhra for a while and found there is a great need within the church here—less than 10 percent of the church is English speaking but about 90 percent of resources are in English. We wanted to bridge this gap with the Telegu Study Bible.”

The Telegu Study Bible was developed over a span of two years with a panel that both translated and contextualized it to fit Indian culture. With digital literacy in India extending to smaller towns and villages, the Study Bible was designed to be a “hybrid” resource—while it is a hard-copy Bible, readers can also scan QR codes which lead them to in-depth online information like commentaries and sermons.

Within a year of its launch, this edition of the Bible has sold more than 32,000 copies. But it was the unconventional way these sales took place that surprised Captain Jose and his team. While formal promotions were intentionally kept to a minimum, it was the decidedly Indian route of “word of mouth” marketing that got the ball rolling. “There was no database of email addresses that we used to publicize it. It was just pastors who rallied around this study Bible to spread the word about it,” comments Captain Jose.

When pastors in Andhra delved into the Bible in their own language with study notes, maps, genealogies, introductions, and QR codes that took them to additional teaching they didn’t need to be convinced of its merit. They automatically became ambassadors and self-appointed sales reps for this resource, promoting it as they traveled to small churches across the state.

The Lifeway India team was often surprised to see local pastors who they had never met publicizing this edition of the Bible on their YouTube channels. Captain Jose fondly recounts how one of the pastor-ambassadors named his first child, “Vachan” meaning “Word” because this project had impacted him so deeply. They even heard of one instance where a young man was selling the Study Bible at traffic lights simply because he was so passionate about it.

As for Pastor Benny, his enthusiasm has not waned. He firmly believes that every believer is created to be a disciple and that the church should be their Bible school. The Telegu Study Bible is therefore integral to his mission of making disciples who understand the Word in its context.

“I have a burden for my India,” he says the passion of a man who has moved homes and planted new churches 14 times because of persecution. “I have been waiting for so many years for something like this.”

In a world of celebrity endorsements, Captain Jose says these pastor-ambassadors from these often-ignored towns and villages are the “greatest testimony” to the value of this Telegu Study Bible. “If these pastors were not impacted by this Bible, they wouldn’t be doing what they are doing.”