Life.Church, Founder of Popular Bible App, Opens $ 10.4 Million Church in Northeast Colorado Springs | New

An Evangelical Christian mega-church in Oklahoma opened its 35th location in August 2020 in a leased space in Colorado Springs.

Less than a year later, Life.Church, founder of the world’s most popular Bible app, will unveil a new $ 10.4 million church building on Sunday’s growing northeast side on Sunday. city.

“A lot of people who have moved to Colorado Springs from other states where there is a Life.Church have been praying for years for the church to come here,” said Reverend Tony Doland, Colorado Springs Campus Pastor .

Before the COVID pandemic forced churches to turn to technology to continue feeding their flocks, Life.Church, which is part of the Evangelical Covenant Church denomination, understood the power of social media posts, phone apps, podcasts and video preaching.

“Technology allows us to reach more people,” Doland said. “We’re going to do anything but sin to share the love of Jesus.”

Life.Church – developer of the YouVersion Bible app for the first version of the iPhone App Store and downloaded half a billion times – focuses on hope, spiritual healing and community building, did he declare.

Its affiliate denomination was founded in 1885 in Sweden as an outgrowth of 16th century Protestant Reformation and today describes itself as “multi-ethnic” and “determined to transcend boundaries of race, ethnicity, culture, gender, age and status. “

The denomination allows pastors to attend same-sex marriage ceremonies but does not preside over them and says leaders have chosen “not to be divided on long-standing historical diversity issues” and “to focus about what unites us as disciples of Christ, rather than what divides us.

From a doctrinal point of view, the denomination supports the Apostle Symbol, focuses on Bible teaching and study, organizes baptism and fellowship, accepts the Trinity, teaches salvation by grace by faith outside of works and emphasizes evangelism.

The 25-year-old Life.Church builds its churches with a theological nod to the past and a big look to the future.

The modern, industrial look and feel of the 42,400 square foot worship and education center at 9306 Grand Cordera Parkway is the same as its churches in Texas, Kansas, New York, Tennessee and elsewhere, a Doland said.

And, “Everything is intentional,” he said.

On two Sunday morning services, worshipers will be transported from the vast 5-acre site’s parking lot via golf carts to the front gates, where they will have free coffee, a chance to take their photos as a backdrop. to share on social media, T-shirts, bumper stickers and invitations promoting the church, to distribute to friends or to strangers.

“There’s already a buzz in the neighborhood about what this new church down the street is like,” Doland said.

Adults sit on upholstered folding chairs in the building’s 734-seat auditorium and listen to a live Christian band. They watch Reverend Craig Groeschel’s founder preach from Edmond, Oklahoma on giant screens and hear Doland speak. Kids from infants to teens will be doing cool stuff in a children’s wing, the church said.

Babies and toddlers will interact with volunteers and staff in bright, colorful rooms that surround one wing of the building.

Older children can play video games, try out the climbing wall, bounce in a bouncy house, and see Jesus on the big screen in groups divided by age.

Entering Colorado with the Colorado Springs Church marks her physical presence in 12 states and her weekly attendance exceeding 85,000 nationwide, with thousands more online.

Locally, Doland said about 400 people attended a Sunday night service inside Mountain Springs Church, about 4 miles from the new Life.Church building.

The popularity of Life.Church, which Senior Pastor Groeschel started in 1996 from his two-car garage in Oklahoma as Life Covenant Church, is multi-faceted, he said.

“There is an aspect of ‘you come as you are’,” Doland said. “You come in normal clothes, you come with questions, you come with doubts, you come with problems, and we will do our best to make sure everyone feels welcome.”

There is also bling.

During services, loud, live Christian music vibrates from a sound system complete with a kaleidoscope of fog lighting that keeps the beat going.

“People like to go to concerts, bars and foggy venues, so we capture an element of that,” Doland said.

While the format may be more appealing to younger generations, participants of all ages and backgrounds love the environment, he said.

Each of Life.Church’s 35 physical locations has the same culture, songs, and spiritual messages, with a local twist, such as a Garden of the Gods mural on a stage backdrop and a map of the region of Pikes Peak on an office wall.

Life.Church’s presence will help Colorado Springs develop “the great C (Christian) Church,” said Bobby Taylor, pastor of Mountain Springs Church.

Life.Church was struggling to find a space to host in-person services during the pandemic, Taylor said, and Mountain Springs was familiar with the work of the church.

Mountain Springs is one of many churches that use the free material provided by Life.Church which, in addition to the Bible app, includes online sermon support and a generic online platform for organizing services, which churches have turned to during the pandemic.

“It is a very generous church,” Taylor said, “and we wanted to be generous to them by allowing them to have services in our church.”

Most of the new Protestant churches that are opening in the Pikes Peak area are “planted” as startups or are extensions of existing local churches, such as Woodmen Valley Chapel, which now has five campuses, and New Life Church, which manages eight congregations in the region. .

With a multitude of evangelical Christian organizations headquartered in Colorado Springs, the city has been an attractive place for churches. Last year, a grandson of Christian televangelist Kenneth Copeland opened a church in Green Mountain Falls.

“We are delighted to see Life.Church open,” said Taylor. “We want the El Paso County Christian Church to be united.”