Lifechurch.tv opening Yukon campus

[metro]

Been meaning to post this for awhile, but for anyone interested, Lifechurch.tv will be opening a Yukon campus in the very near future. They are currently remodeling the former Elks Lodge on the corner of Route 66 and Mustang Rd.

LifeChurch.tv - Welcome!

[ewoodard]

What does life church plan to do with the old Dillard's they bought at Heritage Park Mall in Midwest City? They have owned that section of the mall for a while now with nothing being done. Just curious as to what the plans are.

[stephy]

Is this like a cult thing? Like the Rhema thing in Broken Arrow?

[Midtowner]

It's a megachurch franchise.

[MsDarkstar]

No, it's a legitimate church.

I attended Life Church when they first started. I'd been a member of First United Methodist downtown, where Craig Groeschel (LifeChurch's pastor) was an associate pastor/singles minister. He conducted a Friday night singles sermon/social that was wonderful. He split off from FUMC shortly after the OKC bombing though. FUMC's building sustained serious damage & the senior pastor opted to conducted services at First Baptist on 23rd, then the sermons took a decidedly Baptist turn. From what I remember, Craig (and a bunch of others) didn't agree with the direction FUMC was going so they decided to do their own thing. They started out with a handful of people meeting in someone's living room. After a month or two they moved to a dance studio, which is when I started attending. Then they just kinda exploded. I followed them to three other locations before deciding that it was just too far to drive from South Moore to Edmond. I'm not sure if they still abide by the "Evangelical Covenant" religion, which is how they started out, or if they're billing themselves as Non-Denomenational. All I know is it got way too big way too fast & lost part of what made it a comfortable place for me to be.

Congrats to them for their new location though. They're reaching alot of people & spreading alot of good faith.

[Edmond_Outsider]

I'm trying to cease judging other people's faith. Like anything else, if a person percieves benefit or spirituality or sexual orientation or anything else, than it is as true to that person as anything else and I can't dispute or critique another person's reality.

So, for those LCers, I'm glad you find LC a good thing. God Bless You.

On the other hand, I have no conflict with taking a critical look at the organization of a particular belief system. In this aspect, I find the announcement of a new LC about the same as a new walmart and that is an explictly drawn connection.

Similar to Walmart, LC is a highly integrated, low cost, high volume enterprise. Similar also is how LC tends to siphon off people from other churches as often if not moreso as reaching the "unchurched."

There's a preditory nature to this I find the opposite of Christian. It seems rather ugly, really. Big is better? Groeshel is closer to Jesus than the churches who are pushed aside for the high production values of LC? It calls to mind the money changers in the temple.

It doesn't help me that Groeshel seems like the guy who would flush the wimpy kid's head in the toilet in the locker room to complete the picture of why LC tends to act like walmart--because it/he can and nobody can stop him as long as he gets away with it.

I was working in Mesa Arizona during the time when LC was trying to establish thier base with the two startups in Mesa and Gilbert. I forget which survived, but it seems clear now that this was a test market for a god-in-a-box strategy which has proven successful for them since.

In Mesa, I saw no shortage of churches. However, most seemed small,old school types with no big flash lights, sound, smoke machines and the 100 foot tall projection of the disembodied GROESHEL to impart his earthy humor and Tom Cruise all american boy charm upon the Arizonans.

The local press was full of glowing PR talking about how God had led them to Arizona because it needed LC.

I wondered why God found the existing congregations so lacking when the locals seemed pretty happy with them.

Well, I don't think God did the marketing and demographic studies which were actually what determined where they would test their start up church concept.

Again, to me this smells funny. To those who find the LC way appealing, God Bless.

My personal view of evangelism is that it is unimportant to any spirtual endevor. In fact, My view is that it is actually destructive more often than anything else. This is my opinion. "Reaching People" is a term I have some difficulty with because I have seen a few Edmond churches bled dry by the combined forces of congregants leaving for LC and then incurring debt in a impotent attempt to compete.

It's a true free market consumerist dynamic playing out with LC/ Walmart almost always winning and the smaller business drying up.

Is this good or bad? I don't know but after being marketed to 24 hours a day, I find the explicit Jesus as a marketing tool approach of LC--yes I have attended--to be not to my idea of spiritual fulfillment.

As a spritual practice, I can't help but think of "The Church of Stop Shopping" as having a far more legitimate message which is, in essence, marketing feeds your greed not your soul. Marketing for Jesus seems like a spirtually bankrupt practice to me.

For people who love LC, they probably have no conflict with the medium or the message and that is great. God Bless them.

For me, I feel more spiritual at Walmart.

[metro]

EO, let's call a spade a spade, you're a LC hater trying to disguise yourself as tolerant.

[Bunty]

Now, now let's be nicer about LifeChurch. View this charming video about them here. No body ever does this at Wal-Mart. YouTube - LifeChurch.tv-Stillwater Phillip

[circuitboard]

Now, now let's be nicer about LifeChurch. View this charming video about them here. No body ever does this at Wal-Mart. YouTube - LifeChurch.tv-Stillwater Phillip

Wow, LC is a joke. It is a company not a church. I mean for christ sakes they operate and maintain incredible pizza on nw expressway. I am sorry that LC followers don’t understand that LC is a business. Also after watching that Video, it reminds of how far behind Oklahoma still is. That was just awful. My family is very religious, but they all have degrees and our intelligent, and completely understand science. Religion is this state and many southern states is so ass backwards. That was my 2 cents.

[ewoodard]

Metro, would you please answer my question about the plans for the old Dillard's at Heritage Park Mall in Midwest City. I am not a hater or anything else, just curious as to the plans for that part of the building since they bought it a couple of years ago.

[metro]

I'm not sure, I don't work for the church (well, just as a volunteer). I know it is in the plans to be one of the next campuses. I imagine because it is such a large building, it is going to cost more than other campuses. I would suggest if you are that interested you might want to contact the central church offices and they could probably give you a better answer.

[Edmond_Outsider]

EO, let's call a spade a spade, you're a LC hater trying to disguise yourself as tolerant.

Nope, I'm not trying to be tolerant. I think I've been honest about my opinion.

If people like LC and find the spirituality sold there meaningful, God BLess them.

Its not for me. I don't like LC's operations and I don't like Groeshel. I don't have to like either. It is my perogative.

It isn't reasonable for you to expect that everybody will see LC's expansion as a positive thing.

[Thunder]

LC bought out Dillard's space so that another anchor doesn't move in. They're evil!!!!!

[bluedogok]

Another anchor was never moving into Heritage Park Mall, if an anchor was going to move in there they would have sold it to them for much more money. It sat empty for a few years because it was a "dead mall" long before it was pronounced officially dead, it looked dead in the late 80's. The owners pretty much sold it to the only group that was interested. Wanting an anchor to move in and it really happening are two completely different things, don't you think the owners of Shepherd Mall way back when would have preferred to get some anchor stores in rather than getting call centers or offices in there? Malls dying are a fact of life, it happens all over the country.

I went to Life Church before I moved to Austin and really liked it, I moved when they had started the new addition to the OKC Campus. My wife is a Baptist and her Grandfather was a (Hispanic) Baptist preacher and she felt that most of Craig's sermons that she saw were very based in scripture, more so than some of the traditional Baptist churches that she went to. When we have gone back in recent years it just seems like a completely different place, not what I remember. I was also never comfortable with the .tv branding, to me it seemed to cheapen the perception of what was really going on there. There are some good people doing good things there as a church is really its people, not its branding or image.

[oneforone]

I understand Lifechurch is opening a chain of drive thru churches in association with Church's Chicken. Every member get's a free Pastor Craig bobblehead with a $100 tithe.

[buckt]

I understand Lifechurch is opening a chain of drive thru churches in association with Church's Chicken. Every member get's a free Pastor Craig bobblehead with a $100 tithe.

Ouch....and lol....

[Joe Daddy]

I understand Lifechurch is opening a chain of drive thru churches in association with Church's Chicken. Every member get's a free Pastor Craig bobblehead with a $100 tithe.

LMAO!