30,000 Users Download 1 Million Free Resources

In last weekend’s Behind the Curtain message, Craig talked about the importance of the Church working together: “No matter how hard we try, we will not make a significant difference in the world alone.”

At LifeChurch.tv, we’re especially excited to serve other churches by giving away our resources. In 2006 we launched OPEN.LifeChurch.tv, a site completely dedicated to sharing what we create with ministries around the globe.

It’s been amazing to see how God has worked through OPEN so far:

30,000 users in 100+ countries

1 million free resources downloaded

Church planters, military chaplains, prison ministries, youth groups, and churches all over the map have let us know that these resources are making a difference in their ministry.

Our hope is that more and more leaders would continue to find helpful resources at http://open.lifechurch.tv/. If you have ministry friends who might be able to use free materials for their church, you can shoot them an email or send a quick invite to let them know about OPEN. It’s an honor to partner with you and with churches of all shapes and sizes as we work together to reach our world.

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One Prayer - Father’s Day Message

I’ve pre-produced a special Father’s Day Message titled, God is…Father. We wanted to make it available early in case any One Prayer churches wanted to use it on the actual weekend. Go to www.oneprayer.com to download.

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Free resources in more formats

We hope many of you have been able to take advantage of the free church resources we offer on OPEN.LifeChurch.tv. We’re always looking for ways to make those materials even more useful, and you’ve let us know that additional video formats would help. So, based on your feedback we’re beginning to provide our video resources like messages, openers, loops and more in two new formats: .mov and .wmv.

This means the files will be compatible with major presentation software like MediaShout, ProPresenter, PowerPoint, and EasyWorship. It’s especially good timing with the recent release of MediaShout Version 4.

Of course we’ll continue to offer video resources in the variety of formats already available on OPEN—these are just additions to help those of you using presentation software. You can find the new formats beginning with our recent series: Life. Money. Hope. with Dave Ramsey and every series moving forward.

What presentation software are you currently using at your church? Do you pull your videos into it, or just use it for worship lyrics and message points?

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LifeChurch.tv Announces Dave Ramsey Speaking At Your Church!

My friend and financial mentor Dave Ramsey is teaching a 3-week series at LifeChurch.tv for churches across the world to use. It’s called Life. Money. Hope. Featuring Dave Ramsey and our church will be viewing these messages starting this weekend, March 14 and 15.

You’re invited to join us at any of our campuses or at http://live.lifechurch.tv for any of our 10 church online experiences.

If you’d like to use these at your church, you’ll be able to download them from http://open.lifechurch.tv beginning March 31. This is a gift to your church from Dave Ramsey and from LifeChurch.tv. We’ll have more information coming your way in the next few weeks, along with details about how you can incorporate Financial Peace University at your church to teach people practical skills for making the right decisions with their money.

Here is part one part of a two-part interview I did with Dave following his messages.

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It Takes All Kinds of Churches

When I was a kid, my church friends were critical of other churches. The “other” churches were too weird, too charismatic, too legalistic, too boring, or too stuffy.

Sadly today, many Christians are convinced their style of church is the only and best way.

It takes all kinds of Christian churches to reach all kinds of people.

Surely God can work through Bible Churches, Charismatic Churches, Traditional Churches, and Seeker Churches. He can use Baptist Christians, Methodist Christians, Episcopal Christians, and Spirit-filled tongue talking Holy Ghost rollin’ Christians.

No matter how much you enjoy your expression of worship, your church won’t reach the world alone.

It is exciting that instead of criticizing the differences, many are embracing the similarities and truly making a difference for Christ.

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Partnering with Churches: OPEN

Partnering with churches globally is a huge focus of LifeChurch.tv. This week I’d like for us to discuss the three ways we do that.

OPEN - A website where churches can access, download and use LifeChurch.tv’s creative content for free. The content includes, but is not limited to, message series artwork, themed videos that are used to promote and brand a series (provided in full resolution), message outlines, and layered graphic files.

Network - LifeChurch.tv Network is a global network of churches that are strategically partnered with LifeChurch.tv to reach more people to become fully devoted followers of Christ. LifeChurch.tv Network churches consistently utilize our video teaching messages in one or more of their weekly services or experiences.

United - In the short history of LifeChurch.tv, five of our existing campuses are the result of churches of different sizes and in different locations taking the step of faith to become a part of all God is doing at LifeChurch.tv.

Today, we’ll take a closer look at OPEN, which provides free resources for churches to download. Absolutely free. There are message series, kids stuff, series for students, administrative tools and things for LifeGroups.

Since launching in 2006? we have had over 225,000 downloads from over 75 countries! Currently, OPEN is averaging around 2000 downloads per day.

We are honored that so many churches have taken what we have done at LifeChurch.tv and used those resources to lead people to become fully devoted followers of Christ!

Interestingly enough, sermon transcripts and videos are the most frequently downloaded items.

If you haven’t visited OPEN, please do! We are adding new content all the time.

Have you used OPEN? What resources have been helpful to your church?

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Hostage - Sneak Preview

We are starting a great series this weekend called Hostage.  In the series, we are going to address  how to break free from several things that can hold us hostage like fear, pride, anger and jealousy.

I wanted to show you all a video that we will be using in the message this weekend as a lead-in to Craig’s message about how bitterness can hold us hostage.  I think the team did a great job with the video and thought you might be interested in seeing it in advance.  Let me know what you think.  It will be available on OPEN after the series is over if you’d like to use it in your church.

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OPEN Website Redesign

About a month ago, I mentioned OPEN (our site with free resources for churches) was redesigned with some great new features.

Based on feedback and recommendations we’ve received, we’ve made it easier to utilize. Here are some of the changes:

• Thousands of free resources are available on OPEN. A few of the newest resources include volunteer training tools and updated youth resources. We plan on announcing other new resources soon.
• A new and improved user interface makes it easier than ever to locate and download free resources.
• You can choose as many free resources as you like, place them in the Download Manager, then simply agree to one licensing agreement for all of them.
• The Download Manager will organize the resources by file size, helping you download your files more efficiently.

Creating an account (if you already haven’t) takes less than two minutes. Simply visit open.lifechurch.tv and click “login” in the upper right corner to get started.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on OPEN. Have you downloaded resources from it? What other features would you like to see in the future?

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