LIFECHURCH.TV Church Story

LIFECHURCH.TV EDMOND, OKLAHOMA (MA I N C A M P U S ) Church Story LifeChurch.tv consists of mostly young adults. At no point has the leadership ever set down to discuss how to reach this age group because this is the consistent part of the make-up of their church. Craig Groeschel, the leading pastor, has been key in reaching this generation and showing them the relevancy of the church. “It’s something that probably is pretty easy and natural for him to connect with because he is close in age to that group. The only thing that has happened is that he has gotten older. The church has not necessarily gotten as old as he has.” Many of the rest of the staff of the church would fall in their 20’s. The church offers small groups and worship that is relevant and authentic. The leadership of the church has realized that young adults seek authenticity in everything they become a part of. It is important for the church to be authentic in all things including their mission program. The church is not afraid to try new things and to admit when they fail. Young adults also appreciate this characteristic of the church. Church Background Life Church.tv was begun in 1996 by Craig Groeschel in Edmond, Oklahoma. When Craig started the church, he was 28 years old. The directional leadership team of the church is made of five people serving specific roles in the church. These members are Craig Greoschel (41), Senior Pastor; Bobby Gruenewald (32), Pastor, Innovative Leader; Sam Roberts (32), Pastor, Campus Operations; Jerry Hurley (47), Pastor, Team Development Leader; and Kevin Penry (54), Pastor, Operational Leader. The directional leadership team consists of men of diverse ages, leadership abilities, and backgrounds. LifeChurch.tv has a board of directors that includes these five men and six other outside independent directors. The church has thirteen campuses located in various parts of the United States plus a global internet campus. Each campus has a diverse make-up from an economic perspective. Despite the diversity of the cit- ies in which their campuses are located, the church remains predominantly white in terms of population. “We will have some Hispanic population here in the Oklahoma City area, more diverse in Phoenix. But we still skew more towards a Caucasian group, and we are working pretty intentionally to try to broaden that.” Young Adult Ministry Young adults are the DNA of LifeChurch.tv. The leadership of the church attributes this to two things. First, they are willing to try new things, and secondly, they are willing to fail. “This approach is part of who we are, and so I think that kind of innovation-type approach involves transparency… meaning we are willing to say we made a mistake. This is a characteristic that resonates with the younger culture.” At the church they have this phrase, “We will do LifeChurch.tv 1 anything short of sin to reach people.” The church is passionate in everything it does. “I think this younger generation really connects with passion and with people who are passionate about what they believe or what they do. And so that kind of causes people to want to rally behind that.” All in all, LifeChurch.tv is reaching those that identify with their current DNA. The church does not have a specific staff person targeting or guiding young adults. The Still- water campus has a college pastor. His position was dictated by the make-up of the college town. The campus pastor wanted to have a person specifically designated to interact with the university students. “This is sort of the only exception. It is interesting. We don’t have conversations on how to specifically reach young adults.” Leadership LifeChurch.tv recruits leadership through their “volunteer pipeline.” The church looks for people who are shining in their roles at the church, and they give them more responsibility. Many people have joined their leadership team from the volunteer pool, whether the role was something simple like the host team, or they were responsible for the organization of greeters at a select service. “We have had an influx in the last couple of years of younger leaders that are just coming to our website and applying for jobs just because they see the church as a place they would want to work or consider working. I think more of it is just there is a bit of an excitement or draw to what we are and what is happening in our church.” Small Groups LifeChurch.tv has about 1300 small groups focused completely on young adults. Some of the groups are based on life stage. For example, one group is currently comprised of young adults with children. “My wife and I have been married for almost 13 years. So we are like kind of the old married people even though we are young. We have been married a lot longer than most of the people have, but all of us have kids in the three-year-old-below range.” There are other groups that are extremely diverse and meet with people of all age types. One group has singles, married people, married people with children, and senior adults. Some campuses of LifeChurch.tv tend to be more age specific. The only exception to that would be the Stillwater campus, which has more college students when school is in session. Young adults want authenticity in everything they are a part of. “I have seen churches that are sort of making an attempt to try to communicate something in a relevant way, but it doesn’t come across as authentic. They are like going through the motions of doing it.” LifeChurch.tv has recognized this desire of young adults and is appealing to it in their small groups and other pro- LifeChurch.tv 2 grams of their church. Missions LifeChurch.tv has begun to change the way they approach missions. They desire to focus more on local missions. They package this in what they call a micro mission. The projects are usually one-day community service projects designed to mobilize large groups of people. At one time, the church had 4,000 people involved in a micro mission event. The church also has a prayer event. In the Oklahoma City metro area, the church mobilized 1200 people for a one-day prayer event. The church has different projects going on with schools and apartment complexes. The church also put together life packs for the children of Hurricane Katrina. A semi truck filled with school supplies was delivered to the city by a group of volunteers. “We are passionate about mission opportunities in our church. We have got some campuses that are even more ag- gressive than others when it comes to the number of opportunities and the relationships they establish lo- cally to do those, but I would say that probably the biggest conduit for service in their community is through those opportunities.” These opportunities vary by campus and they happen throughout the year. Worship Craig Groeschel is a key component of the worship event at LifeChurch.tv. He is a transparent indi- vidual especially in his teaching style. He is relevant and vulnerable. This connects well with a young audi- ence. The worship style has varied throughout the church’s history. “The instruments and the band are more reflective of the bands heard on the radio.” The church intentionally has varied from the traditional approach of three or four singers up front with many different instruments behind them. They have a band with three or four musicians and maybe one or two vocalists. The worship team is removing the predictabil- ity of the music choice. Some variation in the music makes the worship service more appealing because repetition can make the music feel slightly inauthentic. Currently the church is trying some different things in their worship experience. “We have always wanted and desired to have a participatory worship experience. We have never wanted a concert feel. I would say that as we have tried different things in the past, we have sort of probably crossed that line at times of making it feel more like it is a show. Right now the meter is probably pushing well back the other direction just because we have this sense that we want people to experience the passion we have for worship.” The church also varies from the traditional seeker sensitive church. One way they vary is their evangelistic approach. They are not trying to use their services as a way to build a long-term relationship with someone LifeChurch.tv 3 “with the hope that we might have permission to one day sort of invite them into what it means to be a follower of Christ.” Instead Craig Groeschel would call it a paradoxical experience. The service is more comfort and confrontation. A feel or a vibe is created in this worship service that will be comfortable for someone who is not a follower of Christ, but at the exact same time they are confronted with the gospel. “When I have talked to some others that are more in the seeker church model, it is sort of like we want to create this relationship first and maybe we can get them to come to a Wednesday night or something else.” Technology LifeChurch.tv is using technology to reach people for the Kingdom of God. The church has currently begun an online campus to reach a whole new segment of people.

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