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| Craig Groeschel's and Andy Stanley's bro-love. No, it is not what you are thinking. These Enthusiasts are the leading lights of Fox Valley, WELS. |
Monday, August 2, 2010
Craig Groeschel Fact Page
to sell the Gospel, to be entertaining.
Craig Groeschel and Andy Stanley (Babtist) often conduct Catalyst conferences together. This is a fairly recent one.
Groeschel was born in 1967 in Texas, grew up in Oklahoma, attended a Methodist university (Oklahoma City U.) and pursued a degree in marketing. He attended Philips Seminary, which is affiliated with the ultra-liberal Disciples of Christ, the denomination of Jim Jones and Donald McGavran.
He married Amy in 1991. They have six children.
He was a United Methodist minister in 1995 when the Oklahoma City bomb blew up the federal building and severely damaged the nearby church where he worked.
In 1996 he began a church in a two-car garage, apparently because his denomination did not want him to start a mission church. Like Hybels of Willow Creek, he began with a marketing survey. The church grew rapidly and became Life Church - with the URL of LifeChurch.tv.
The New York Times reported:
He set up a website for people to post "secret confessions," an idea copied by Pastor Ski at The CORE.
The Catholic Church noted this new trend started by Groeschel.
USA Today says:
"Of the USA's 100 largest churches, 67% now have two or more sites and 60% of the 100 fastest-growing churches also have multiple sites, according to the annual listings of the USA's largest churches in Outreach magazine's October issue."
The most innovative churches in America are:
· National Community Church (Washington, DC) :: Mark Batterson
"Granger broke the rules when his church plastered mylamesexlife.com billboards around the local city, which stirred debate among Christians and a media storm. LifeChurch.tv went out of bounds when it launched the multi-site movement, which includes an internet campus for worship services. And Life Church's senior pastor,Craig Groeschel, broke the rules when he went into bars to meet "the sick" and tell them about Jesus."
Groeschel motto: "In order to reach those that no one else is reaching, we will have to do things that no one else is doing," he said.
Groeschel began as a United Methodist minister but is an Evangelical Covenant minister now. The Evangelical Covenant church is Pietistic and related to the Swedish Augustana Synod which merged into the LCA in 1962.
Groeschel's thoughts about the United Methodists can be found linked here.
He claims 21,000 in attendance each week.
He may not have been the first to promote multiple sites, but he is known for them now. He began using video when his fourth child was born and he could not lead services.
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