When businesses and schools closed as the COVID-19 pandemic hit America, almost all churches stopped in-person worship as well. Crowds were a risk of spreading the aggressive virus. Some churches were familiar with livestreaming services, but many had not done that before. Pastors realized the internet was about the only way to share sermons and live worship with the millions of families now staying at home for safety. But how? For 25,000 churches there was a quick and reliable solution – the Church Online Platform software developed by Life.Church, whose home church is based in Oklahoma, with campuses in 11 states. [podcast is below]
Incredibly, thankfully, Life.Church believes in offering whatever help they can free-of-charge to other churches. So, for 25,000 churches the ability to bring their services online in high quality was just a matter of downloading the platform and learning. No charge. No strings attached.
“We were very honored to provide the tool,” says Pastor, Innovation Leader Bobby Gruenewald of Life.Church, who explains for years the church has felt called to use technology “in a missional way.” He shares that God has provided them with the resources and “we feel very, very honored and very blessed to be able to do it for free.”
You may not be aware, but the landmark Bible app YouVersion was created by Life.Church in 2008 - and to this day remains free. This is a project Pastor Bobby has been very connected with since its launch. To date, there have been more than 424,000,000 YouVersion apps installed worldwide.
In our podcast below learn how the Church Online Platform was used by a church in Australia to touch the life of a 90-year-old man in a nursing home. He was able to ‘attend church’ for the first time in 30 years. Up to this point, he had not been a person of faith, but the online worship and teaching has caused him to start having conversations about God with his grandson.
Consider the incredible international connection - God used a generous church based in Oklahoma to assist a church in Australia to share Jesus with a man in a nursing home, who did not have a relationship with Christ. That’s just one amazing eternal connection as a result of this free technology!
Examples of other churches that are using the Church Online Platform:
