27 Reasons Why Life.Church Led By Pastor Craig Groeschel Is America’s Largest Church

Led by founding and senior pastor Craig Groeschel, Life.Church is America’s largest church.  With its 25 campuses, this incredible ministry based out of Oklahoma City averages over 70,000 in its weekend services.
Recently while out-of-town attending the Southern Baptist Convention, I decided to watch one of their Saturday evening services to better understand the impact of their ministry.
As I watched their online service I gleaned 27 Reasons Why Life.Church Led By Senior Pastor Craig Groeschel Is America’s Largest Church.  The quotes below are from Craig’s message.

1. The Online Ministry Feels Personal – It is a reality few talk about but most internet campuses drive people towards isolation, not community.  Life.Church had several online hosts.  They even gave you a personal welcome when you joined.
2. Everyone’s Favorite Sound Is The Sound Of Their Name – You logged on with a nickname.  This provides anonymity but also a chance to interact with others.  FYI, my nickname was Brian1.
3. The Church’s People Had A Real Names – A gentleman named Alan George gave a personalized online welcome to myself and others in the global community.
4. Though Hundreds Or Thousands Of Miles Away, They Gave Great Tips On Building A Life.Church Community In Your Own Neighborhood – This is absolutely BRILLIANT!  The host gave great instructions on how the online community could have Watch Party competitions at their homes for the upcoming At The Movies series.
5. What Gets Rewarded Gets Repeated – They then asked people to send in pictures of their Watch Parties.  Whomever had the most attendees, the Life.Church team would crash their online Watch Party anywhere in the world.  Talk about how to plant churches.  Just brilliant!
6. They Create Interest – They heavily promoted the upcoming “Bad Advice” series in a way that I wanted to watch it as well.
7. Craig Teaches Leadership – He said, “When the leader gets better, everybody gets better.”
8. Craig acknowledged both Jesus-followers and those who are not Jesus-followers were watching.
9. They Get People Into God’s Word – Craig continually encouraged people to get into a YouVersion Bible reading plan.
10. They Discuss Sin – “If you do not feel as close to God as you did before, God didn’t move.”
11. They Discuss God’s Goodness, Greatness And Grace – “There are many that don’t even recognize how far they’ve drifted from the goodness, greatness and grace of God.”
12. Craig Ambushes People with incredibly hard and challenging Christian truth.  But he does so in the most winsome, humorous way I have seen.  For instance, he did an amazing job of discussing the folly of people who want to drift away from God.
13. Craig’s Humbleness And Transparency Is Powerful – “This was a real issue in my life at a significant development in my life as a pastor…I ended up playing a role more than I was pursuing Christ…I was a full-time pastor and a part-time follower of Christ.”
14. Craig Uses Old-School, Traditional Terms Like “Conviction” – “Conviction is a good thing.  It means your heart is good soil.”
15. Craig Asked People To Change The Condition Of Their Heart – He urged people to ask God to make their heart good.
16. Craig Constantly Uses Scripture – He used countless Bible verses.
17. Craig Personalized His Campus Communications – While it is hard to do with 25 campuses, he spoke specifically to several.  This communicates value, importance and that you are part of the centralized ministry.
18. Craig Explained Repentance In Great Detail
19. Craig Called For Great Commitment – He asked the people to serve Jesus with all their heart.
20. Craig Glorified Jesus – “I want to glorify the One Who gave His life for me.”
21. Craig Provided A Chance For Everyone Attending A Live Campus To Receive Jesus – At the conclusion of the service, he gave people time to respond to Jesus at each of the campuses.
22. Craig Provided A Chance For Everyone Attending An Online Campus To Receive Jesus – Life.Church provided a link for the online community to respond, “Yes, I want to draw close to God again.”
23. Craig Gave People Hard Truth As Well As Hope – “There’s a longing inside of you only Christ can fill.”
24. Craig Offered New Believer Classes To Both The Live And Online Audiences – He invited everyone to email their decisions in and get involved in a new Christian class.
25. Craig Called The Church to Irrational Generosity – “You are never more like God than when you give…We will lead the way with irrational generosity.”
26. Craig Gave Both The Live And Online Audiences A Chance To Practice Irrational Generosity – They even provided a link for an online offering.
27. Life.Church Combines Cutting-Edge Technology With Conservative Messaging To Reach People For Jesus – Craig walked the online community and all campuses through the plan of salvation.

The last point was my greatest takeaway.  If you are looking deliver ministry in a relevant manner while not losing the conservative message of Jesus Christ, watch a Life.Church message this weekend and see how it is done.

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