The genesis of Lamplighters was in 1991 when a group of committed Christians met at a Bible-believing church in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Lamplighters developed quality materials and a unique leadership training process to serve Bible study groups. Interest in these Lamplighters resources grew as pastors inquired about incorporating the Bible study resources into their churches. In its first decade, Lamplighters distributed hundreds of Bible studies to meet the demands of churches and individual believers. Then in early 2000, Lamplighters International was formally organized as a non-profit corporation in the state of Minnesota and it was granted official 501C3 non-profit status by the Internal Revenue Service.
The Lamplighters International ministry has grown through networking to a nationwide scale with thousands of disciples. In 2021 we embarked on an extensive growth initiative to increase our reach and significantly multiply our impact.
As a faith-based ministry, Lamplighters is supported by believers who are committed to our vision and mission, the sale and distribution of discipleship resources, and seminar fees and speaking honorariums.
To understand more about founder John Stewart’s vision and his transition from a professional hockey player to an author and Lamplighters’ executive director, please watch this video.
John is the executive director of Lamplighters International. After graduating from Central Baptist Theological Seminary, John served as a pastor, planting two Bible-believing churches and starting Lamplighters International – a ministry dedicated to equipping God’s people to fulfill the Great Commission. John is the author of the Lamplighters Bible study series and the Lamplighters discipleship training program. John continues to write and lead discipleship conferences for pastors and churches.
Joline earned her Master in Music Education with an emphasis on leadership training and character development. Joline is a Certified Trainer and serves as Director of Women's Ministries where she utilizes her strong educational training background to develop new discipleship training resources and her ability as a gifted communicator to train women for ministry.
Nancy oversees order processing, communicate with customers, coordinates office logistics, and assists in the editing process.
One of the things she enjoys about being at Lamplighters is the people. Serving with staff and volunteers who truly love the Lord, seek to live by the Word, and grow in Him is a blessing. She also has the opportunity to interact with many people who participate in the ministry
Cheryl has been serving as the ministry’s financial administrator for two years, and one thing is clear. The Lamplighters team has a passion for discipleship. Knowing Jesus through the study of His Word is a gift, and knowing that we provide Bible study resources and discipleship training to the body of Christ keeps me excited.
As the financial administrator, it's also a real joy to watch as the Lord continually blesses the ministry’s finances.
Rick (Moe) serves in a volunteer staff position as Director of Special Projects. Rick has a B.A. degree in business administration from Gustavus Adolphus College (MN) and is currently Principal Consultant/CEO at Woodland Human Capital Consultants, a management, organization and compensation consulting group located in Wayzata, Minnesota. Rick’s responsibilities include overseeing and developing leadership training materials and human resource consulting.
The Lamplighters Bible studies have five distinctive features. These are:
As of now, there are 31, of which 20 are New Testament studies and 11 are Old Testament studies.
John would love to write Lamplighters studies on all the books in the Bible. He plans to write as many as the Lord allows him to. He is on pace to write approximately four new studies per year.
It usually takes approximately 3-4 months to write an individual study. This is an addition to the ongoing study and research he does on an ongoing basis in preparation for the writing of new discipleship resources.
Yes. People make recommendations for future studies regularly. However, John usually works 1-2 years in advance in his writing. If you have a recommendation for John, let us know by clicking here.
Here is a list of the resources John uses to develop the Lamplighters studies:
The New King James Version (NKJV) is used. The NKJV is a “modified literal” translation of the Bible and is very accurate. Other “modified literal” translations of the Bible (NASB, ESV) could have been used, but this was the one that was chosen.