5 Questions with LifeChurch’s Bobby Gruenewald

Last week I had the opportunity to have lunch with LifeChurch.tv’s Innovation Pastor Bobby Gruenewald.

LifeChurch sets the bar, in my opinion, in technological innovation (like starting an Internet campus in the virtual world SecondLife) … and the person behind most of it is Bobby Gruenewald.

Earlier this year, Bobby and senior pastor Craig Groeschel started a blog called Swerve, which I enjoy reading.

Anyway … after our lunch, I emailed him and asked him five or so questions that I thought would be of interest to us in church communications … here they are:

1. Why do you do what you do?

“I do what I do because I’m passionate about sharing the amazing freedom and love that I found through surrendering my life to Christ.”

2. What trends do you see in church technology? Good and bad?

“Many churches have used the web as a marketing tool or as a way to communicate more effectively to their members. Now, I see a trend toward Internet evangelism and community online … a more two-way use of the technology. I think that is great!

On the “bad” side of trends … I see a trend where some churches are looking to venue technologies like video projectors and intelligent lights to bring relevance to their services. I don’t know of any church where that technology by itself has brought relevance to something that is not already connecting with the lost. You can enhance or improve the delivery of a relevant experience with better tech like what I mentioned above, but the tech by itself is not what makes it connect with the hearts of people.”

3. What’s one thing you wish more churches would do?

“I wish more churches would work together.”

4. If you weren’t at LifeChurch and could attend any other church in the world … which one would you pick?

“Hmm … I’d hate to choose. I’d probably look for an online church where I could develop relationships with people from around the globe.”

5. How much time do you spend on Swerve?

“Don’t know for sure … probably around 5-6 hours per week in total.”

BONUS: Also, wanna tell people more about Open????

“I’d love to tell more people about LifeChurch.tv OPEN (http://www.lifechurch.tv/open). It is a site where we make available our creative resources (videos, graphics, transcripts, etc) for download, and they are all completely free. There is much more available on it today then when we first launched a year ago and the library of resources is increasing each week. We are committed to making it a great online service for users that has fantastic support and help. Hope many of your readers will check it out and tell others about it.”

***

Here are a couple of observations I made from meeting and having lunch with Bobby …

1. He’s pretty darn smart. (I think I knew that before meeting him.)
2. He loves to learn and grow.
3. He’s passionate about personal evangelism … and tries to find ways to be where people are.
4. He’s eager to help other churches (For evidence of that, see Open.)

June 10, 2007 · Filed Under Church Marketing, Internet Ministry, Web 2.0

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Comments

2 Responses to “5 Questions with LifeChurch’s Bobby Gruenewald”

  1. James Mitchell on June 10th, 2007 7:07 pm

    I love his answer to question number two. I agree and fell that too many churches are looking toward all of that “flashy” kind of “performance” stuff. That is not the purpose of the church, despite that growing trend.

    I am a staunch advocate for the back to the basics kind of church. At the same time utilize the technology to the end goal: Bring the lost to Christ to allow Him to transform their lives.

  2. Billy Chia on June 11th, 2007 6:21 am

    I agree. The answer to 2 articulates well the value of relevance and tech in relation to their importance.

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