For the last 10 years, Life.Church, led by Senior Pastor Craig Groeschel, has given away more than 9 million downloads of its creative and technological resources to more than 350,000 church leaders.
Feeling there was more that could be done to support the local church, the leadership team recently launched Life.Church Open Network, offering additional apps, training and online community to further equip pastors and build community within the global church.
"In the earliest years of Life.Church, we looked to other ministries for ideas to repeat, resources to use, and best practices to follow. We soaked up as much wisdom as we could from some really incredible ministries," says Life.Church Innovation Pastor Bobby Gruenewald. "Even though we've been giving away our ministry materials for more than a decade, we realized we have much more we can be using to help other local churches, just as we were helped in our early years."
In addition to the free resources available since 2006—including downloadable sermon videos, kids and youth curriculum, original worship music, editable graphics packages and more—the Life.Church Open Network now also offers:
- Training – Life.Church provides access to best practices, leadership development and message support training videos to help pastors grow as leaders.
- Apps – Churches can use tools like Church Metrics to track data, Develop.Me to conduct performance reviews, and the Church Online Platform to launch an online church experience.
- Community – The Open Network allows church leaders around the world to connect with each other, ask questions and find encouragement—all with the goal of building unity in the church.
"Life.Church is committed to equipping church leaders around the world so they can focus on serving people and becoming the leader God has called them to be," Gruenewald. "We're excited to see how God will continue to change lives in countries across the world as the "capital C" church works together."
Church leaders from nearly every country have sought out resources on Life.Church Open Network, including Cobus Fourie who leads Punchline, a church in South Africa.
"Above all else, I want to reach people for Jesus Christ and lead them to salvation in and through Him," Fourie says. "The way Craig explains the gospel at the end of every message is consistent, easy to understand, and inviting. These resources are such a blessing to my ministry because by using them, I am able to lead many people to Christ."
Church Online Platform, one of the Life.Church Open Network apps, extends the reach of Westside Family Church beyond its three locations in the Kansas City area. Jason Morris, Global Innovation Pastor, said he has seen countless people give their lives to Christ through the use of the technology.
"With the Church Online Platform made available by Life.Church, my son led his first person to Christ online, a man from Saudi Arabia," said Morris. "It happened in spite of my small perception of how online ministry could be used by God. I now know that online ministry removes barriers: the place barrier, the space barrier, the time barrier and even the age barrier."
To learn more about Life.Church Open Network and access valuable ministry resources, training, apps and an online community of church leaders around the world, visit open.life.church. 
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