Covenant News

Life Church Expands to Phoenix

PHOENIX, AZ (July 12, 2005) - Life Church, a Covenant congregation based in Edmond, Oklahoma, entered new territory last weekend as it held preview services at two satellite campuses in the Phoenix suburbs.

Despite a scorching heat - temperatures reached 112 degrees outside - more than 400 people attended the services. According to Evelyn Johnson, superintendent of the Pacific Southwest Conference, 280 people attended a service in Gilbert, Arizona, and another 150 attended in a service in Mesa.

The services were held Saturday night at Desert Ridge High School in Mesa and at Mesquite High School in Gilbert. Although separated by fourteen miles, attendees heard the same message from Life pastor, Craig Groeschel, thanks to technology that Life Church has used to start several satellite campuses in Oklahoma. The church's total attendance surpasses 14,000 each weekend.

The multisite model - known as "one church, many locations" - is a new and growing concept among churches, with Life Church joining Willow Creek, Seacoast Church in South Carolina, and North Pointe Church in Atlanta as high profile examples. According to a recent survey by the Leadership Network, as many as 1,000 churches in the U.S. have some form of multisite ministry.

In the Life Church model, each church campus has its own pastor and worship band, but Groeschel's message is broadcast via satellite or projected from a DVD. Those attending the preview service Saturday saw a recorded message but that will change later, says Katie Moore, the church's director of marketing.

"Yes, there is a lot of technology, but in the end it comes down to person-to-person ministry," says Johnson, who noted that several people made decisions to give their lives to Christ during the services Saturday. "The excitement for me is in the wonderful way in which they have sought very diligently to create a welcoming environment."

Life Church has also been diligent in promotion. The church conducted extensive marketing in the Phoenix area, including an advertising campaign featuring billboards and half-hour television infomercials. (The infomercial can be seen online at http://www.lifechurch.tv/blog-phoenix/archives/2005/06/index.html.)

The church decided to open campuses near Phoenix because the area is one of the fastest growing in the country, leaders say. Life Church is ranked among the fastest-growing churches in the country, according to Outreach magazine, and was recently featured in BusinessWeek magazine.

"The mission expansion of (Life Church) into Phoenix offers an innovative mission outpost for the Covenant church into a fast-growing metropolis," says Garth Bolinder, superintendent of the Midsouth Conference.

Although Life Church is based in the Midsouth Conference, the satellite campuses are located in the Pacific Southwest Conference. Both conferences are working together with the church.

Area churches also are working together to help the plants succeed. Thirty members, including pastors, of Phoenix and Tucson Covenant churches attended the preview services. Area pastors and officials from the PSWC attended an orientation at Life Church in Edmond to better understand that church's model for ministry and how they can best work together.

"There's a meeting of the hearts here," Johnson said. "It's an alliance."

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