Catching up on my reviews from my vacation and I never thought to review church but stumbled upon…read morethis so here we go!
Life.Church is a great place to come just be yourself and explore faith or worship like you've been a believer for 70 years! If you haven't, please do.
This particular location is where my family has attended for the last two years since moving to Oklahoma. Full disclosure, my husband works on the YouVersion team for Life.Church but they in no way solicited my review.
Come in jeans, come in sweats, come in a dress or suit... you will feel just find no matter how you show up!! There's always sweet tea, unsweet tea, coffee and snacks in the lobby and no one is going to single you out if you don't want to be asked a million questions, but there is alway somewhere to go to talk to someone as well. There's a wall of community groups to have a look at and often Pastor Stuart or (oh goodness... vacation tiredness has me forgetting the other gals name!! SORRY) are there to help guide you to the perfect community group where you will feel welcome. I've always found this aspect of church the most challenging and they were super helpful in getting us connected.
Pastor Jacob is our location pastor. He is such a loving genuine guy, great solid human and I totally respect him. This is a video church meaning the teaching pastor, Pastor Craig is beamed in from either headquarters or pre-recorded studio times (always with a live audience). That may take some getting used to (and to be honest, I hated it at first) but you do adjust to it, and there is still live worship (more on that in a moment) and Pastor Jacob is always there to lead with announcements, to meet with people, pray with people and all that good stuff, and sometimes does the preaching as well. Craig is great at communicating, keeps it interesting and even has fun with it sometimes, which brings me to...
JULY!! July is the month to make a visit if you have been on the fence!!! This is the time of year all L.C locations has At The Movies. We spend so much time decking out lobby's out to feel like you are walking into a movie set! It's always a surprise to see just wait waits for you these weeks. During that time, Craig preaches using movie clips. There are often special songs or video montages that start off the service as well. Believers an non-believers alike can enjoy a low pressure church experience here.
KIDS: Pastor Stephen and Pastor Katie & Pastor Barbie (among others) run the Life.Kids childrens program... They are AMAZING! Some of my favorite people! I have been serving with them most of this year and you couldn't find more caring individuals who really want to make sure your kids have a great experience in Kid and also to make sure that those serving in Kids ministry feel loved, appreciated and supported. As a person who used to run a much smaller childrens ministry, let me tell you, they do a fantastic job. If you want a great, safe, learning and super fun environment for your kids to attend church, this is the place. Saturday nights or Sunday!
YOUTH:
Switch is the youth group here and they meet on Wednesday nights. My three girls have so much fun!! There's a great worship time (like going to a massive concert) and then they break up into small groups for a more connected time. They have so many different activities and things to do. My girls are all three so different, shy, energetic, extroverted, introverted, nerd, jock, quiet, loud... all three have found their place here. If your youth is on the fence about trying it... ask them to give it just 3 visits!! See what happens, because it really is a great place!
WORSHIP: Worship is loud. You may count this as good, or bad. There are ear plugs provided for those who would like it (I have a sound sensitive teen so she will often grab a pair) or you can enjoy from the lobby before entering if you really struggle. It's a beautiful experience with Visual effects/lyric boards, lights and a full band. Pastor Rob, his wife and all of our musicians are super talented (you can check out the band Switch, look for their Symphony album to make sure you have the correct group on iTunes or Pandora or what have you if you wanna preview) but Sunday live is different.
ONLINE: For times when you can't make it in person, you can always login and check out life.chruch online. Same teaching just online instead. There's still worship and such with Church online so you will not miss out completely.
There's also lots of kids church videos online for all ages as well... you can look online or load the app on your Roku too.
Hope that covers any questions you might have :) Hope to see you there some Sunday!