Pros
When I started at Life.Church years ago, it was a great church and it was home. It was full of passionate leaders that cared for people, focused on Jesus, and was all about helping people grow. The mission and momentum was tangible, you witnessed true life change, and you saw God moving.
Cons
Unfortunately, LC is not the same church it used to be. It’s a facade and a ghost of its former self. Over the years, I really started to notice a shift in the culture that was concerning. When I started as a pastor at LC over ten years ago, the church felt small. It focused on the individual (growth for the attender and staff member), loving and knowing “the one”, and caring for its people. Now? Now it’s a church that focuses on numbers, attendance growth, the “experience”, and dare I say, false appearances. Plain and simple, it’s a mega-church wanting to get bigger. There are still some great people that work/attend there that are trying to maintain the same focus that the old LC had, but unfortunately a lot, and I mean a lot, of good leaders that were apart of the church when I was there have either been edged out or left on their own volition. That includes long-tenured volunteer leaders and attenders. There’s a serious issue within the leadership of the organization. Toxic leaders have their hands all over the organization. Central and regional leadership is a mess. It sounds like it has only gotten worse after speaking with friends and past colleagues who are currently still there or have recently left. My own personal experience started out great, but over the years the direction of the church shifted to what it is today. Gone is the heart for developing people, and instead it’s all about the experience of the service and numbers. I personally worked with and under a very conceited, manipulative, impulsive, erratic, and toxic leader. Unfortunately, this eventually resulted in other leaders under this person, who wanted to suck up to them or just survive under their watchful eye, starting to lead like them. Fear, intimidation, and unnecessary intensity-based leadership became the norm in certain areas of the organization. Central leadership is aware of this individual and their toxicity to the church and its staff, but instead of doing something about it, the individual has been promoted over and over again and their toxic leadership flows throughout the organization. I personally needed therapy after working under them and after working at LC. After speaking with others, it sounds like I’m not the only one, as dozens of current and former staff have needed therapy after both working under this individual and/or just working in the culture of the organization. That’s a major issue that has been shared to leadership but it seems it has fallen on deaf ears. I didn’t realize it until after I had left just how miserable I was. I’ve never been happier in my life and relationship with Jesus, had more time with my family, and felt more like myself (!) since leaving this church. I don’t recommend working at LC. You’ll be severely underpaid, gaslit, overworked, manipulated, and forced to reach unattainable goals only focused on numbers. There are a lot of 1-2 star reviews, and I encourage you to read them all as it’s remarkable how similar they all are to each other and a lot of them list the same issues that are pushing out good leaders. The 5-star reviews? Copy and pasted. LC sends out company-wide emails soliciting current employees to submit good reviews. Staff would sometimes celebrate (with cake, balloons, etc) being rated as a top organization on Glassdoor (?!). If you had negative feedback to give as a current employee? Better not post it on Glassdoor. That leads to my comments below.