Featuring Craig Groeschel, Founding and Senior Pastor, Life Church
Craig Groeschel is a leader who prepares, equips, and leads others in the Church and in the Community. As the Founding and Senior Pastor of Life Church, he has guided many church leaders both within his staff and congregation, but also throughout the country through a range of ministries, outreach innovations, and other resources.
Pastor Groeschel was raised in southern Oklahoma. After high school, he attended Oklahoma City University on a tennis scholarship and received a bachelor’s degree in Marketing. But his heart and his leadership skills were with the church rather than in business.
After Pastor Groeschel married his wife Amy in 1991, he became an associate pastor in the United Methodist Church. He later attended Phillips Theological Seminary, and earned a Master of Divinity degree. Notably, he was an associate pastor at First United Methodist Church in Oklahoma City during the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing.
But Pastor Groeschel’s calling in the Church would become much wider. In 1996, he was among a group of individuals that started Life Covenant Church in a two-car garage. He designed his church in response to his own market research of non-church goers and their needs and interest. With a non-traditional style, Life Covenant grew rapidly, eventually becoming (as of January 2019) the largest Protestant church in the United States with 32 Life Church campuses in 10 states.
Pastor Groeschel also was an innovator in the use of video for his sermons. He discovered the popularity of video messages after he first shared a video message when his fourth child was born in 2001 and he was unavailable for the Sunday service. Life Church went on to launch the first fully digital church experience in 2006.
Since then, Pastor Groeschel and Life Church have launched a number of other innovations. In 2006, Pastor Groeschel set up a website called “Mysecret.tv” as a place for people to confess anonymously on the Internet. Groeschel also began delivering his services to the “Second Life virtual world” on Easter Sunday 2007. Other Life Church innovations include its free resource library with sermons, transcripts, videos, artwork, and a team that develops free software like ChurchOnlinePlatform.com and YouVersion, the most downloaded Bible app in history. For these initiatives, Life Church was named America’s Most Innovative Church by Outreach Magazine in 2007 and 2008.
Through his work at Life Church, Pastor Groeschel has become one of the most respected leaders in the Church community. Pastor Groeschel speaks frequently at leadership events and conferences worldwide. He writes and speaks extensively on leadership principles and strategies.
In that context, Pastor Groeschel became a champion for the Global Leadership Summit which brings together thousands of participants from around the world each year. He also hosts the top-ranking Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast.
His leadership has been recognized by Glassdoor which named him in the top 10 CEOs in the U.S (small and midsize companies) and named Life Church the #1 Place to Work under his leadership.
Pastor Groeschel is also a New York Times bestselling author. His books range in topic from dating and marriage, social media, purpose, direction, church leadership, and more. His latest book, Winning the War in Your Mind, discusses how to break free from the grip of destructive thinking, enabling a life of joy and peace God has provided.
While Pastor Groeschel’s achievement within the Church and Community are significant, his role as father and grandfather are just as significant. He and his wife are parents to 6 children and 4 grandchildren.
Throughout his life and career, Pastor Craig Groeschel has been a leader that leads other leaders for the cause of Christ.