20 Years and Counting: The Life.Church Story

“Whoever Finds God Finds Life” – The Birth & Rise of Life Church

Opening Moments

• First memories flood in from a “small little bicycle factory,” rough-edged yet crackling with “excitement, anticipation.”
• The launch Sunday greeting resounds: “Welcome to Life Church this morning for our first service.”
• Song that sparked everything: Crystal Lewis’ “Come Just As You Are.”
• Scripture spoken aloud: Proverbs 8:35 – “Whoever finds God finds life.”
• Simple, heartfelt prayer before the new building campaign: “Father, we give you the glory and the honor because you’re the only one worthy.”

Testimonies

Early Attender (“we walked through the doors…”)

• Walked into the bike factory campus and “could just see the life change…You just had a sense of expectation that God was going to do something special.”
• Emotion: awe that something so unpolished felt so alive.

Craig & Amy Groeschel

• Calling confirmed in a 1989 Honda Accord when the same Crystal Lewis song played: “Let’s start the church.”
• First service (Jan 7, 1996) in a snow-stormed two-car garage: seven hands raised for salvation. Craig’s thought: “Anybody who came in the snow certainly knows Jesus” — yet God surprised them.
• “We had nothing, honestly, nothing,” yet doors kept opening: garage → elementary school (five months) → bicycle factory → purpose-built 600-seat building (March 1998).
• Core conviction: “We always have to grow larger, but at the same time, we have to grow smaller.”
• Breakthrough of video teaching (Jan 14, 2001, the morning after Sam’s birth): congregation “didn’t seem to mind. In fact, they even liked it.”
• Vision crystallized: “To reach people no one’s reaching, we’ll have to do things no one’s doing…anything short of sin.”

Small-Groups & Family Ministry Team

• Charge given: “I’ll get them in the front door, you get them connected.”
• Goal: “Everybody is needed and everybody is known.”
• Kids ministry seen not just as tomorrow’s church but “the church of today,” partnering with parents so children become “fully devoted followers of Christ.”

Tech & Expansion Leaders

• Multi-site dream began with a rented movie theater, then a 19-inch TV and VHS in a Tulsa living room — proof that distance could not limit church.
• Campuses multiplied: Stillwater, South OKC, then mergers in Nashville, Hendersonville TN, Wellington FL, Albany NY, Fort Worth TX, and Church Online “literally around the world.”
• 2006 crossroads: sell or give away creative resources? They chose generosity and “God really started to bless us with even more resources.”
• Outflows since: free sermon files, the Church Online Platform, YouVersion Bible App, and Bible App for Kids — “hundreds of millions” receiving Scripture freely.

Holy-Spirit Highlights

• Expectation met by tangible salvations: seven hands on Day 1, countless since.
• God repeatedly provided the next space within days of being shut out.
• Innovation birthed out of necessity — video teaching the morning after a birth, multi-site from a living-room TV.
• Radical generosity (free resources, free apps) unlocked greater provision.
• Unwavering mantra echoed through every stage: “Anything short of sin to reach people who do not know Christ.”

Prayer Points & Next Steps

• Praise for God’s faithfulness in every move, from garage to global.
• Continued prayer that each campus and online platform stays true to “help people find life in Christ.”
• Ask the Lord to keep small groups vibrant so “everybody is needed and known.”
• Believe for fresh creativity to reach “people no one’s reaching” in coming years.

Closing Blessing

“Whatever it takes, we’ll do anything short of sin to reach people who do not know Christ.”