Life.Church
Life.Church (pronounced "Life Church", formerly known as LifeChurch.tv, Life Covenant Church, and Life Church) is an American evangelical multi-site church based in Edmond, OK. Craig Groeschel is the founder and senior pastor of Life.Church. Weekly church attendance was 72,494 people in 2018. The church is known for its YouVersion ministry, which publishes the Bible App. History. In January 1996, Life.Church was founded as Life Covenant Church in Oklahoma City with 40 congregants meeting together in a two-car garage. The church membership grew rapidly and Life.Church built its first facility (now known as  the "Oklahoma City Campus") in 1999. In 2001, MetroChurch, a 25-year-old, nondenominational church in nearby Edmond, Oklahoma merged with Life.Church, effectively making it a multi-site church. With this merger, they changed their name, combining Life Covenant Church with MetroChurch to arrive at the name "LifeChurch", a nod to both previous churches. Their staffs were combined under the leadership of Craig Groeschel as lead pastor. Groeschel said he would be calling on MetroChurch members to help them grow in God. Life Church has had tremendous success in reaching people, but MetroChurch is a proven developer of faith , he said. During these early years of the merger, Craig Groeschel traveled back and forth between the two campuses to deliver his sermons live to the congregations. For a while, this meant he gave five sermons each Sunday, as there were multiple services at both locations. Following the success of the multi-site services, the church launched campuses in Tulsa and Stillwater, Oklahoma in 2003, with these new campuses incorporating satellite video teaching into their services. Life.Church opened an additional campus in Oklahoma City, the South Oklahoma City Campus, in Spring 2005. In February 2006, Life.Church introduced a  campus in Fort Worth, Texas, its first location outside Oklahoma. In April 2006, the church established its "Internet Campus" which broadcasts weekly, interactive worship services live over the internet. On Easter Sunday, 2007, Life.Church began broadcasting from their new campus in the online game Second Life. Also in 2007, Life.Church opened campuses in northwest Oklahoma City; Wellington, Florida; and Albany, New York. In 2012, the church had more than 26,000 members. In 2015, the church had 15 campuses in different American states. In 2018, the church would have 85,000 people and had opened 30 campuses in different cities . Beliefs. The Church has an evangelical confession of faith and is a member of the Evangelical Covenant Church.