IT Stuff from Craig Groeschel -- 1

Craig Groeschel says in Chapter 1 of his book, IT, that IT is caused by off the charts excitement about Jesus. When they started their church, LifeChurch.tv, the initial meetings were held in a garage with 75 green felt-back chairs, a closet for their children’s ministry (they would bring the kids out of the closet at some point in the service), an overhead projector, and a guy named Jerome that changed the transparencies that only had three fingers on one hand due to a drug deal gone bad. The whole production was lit with a floodlight purchased from the local hardware store for $19.95. However, they had IT, and so new people came by the dozens because they were attracted to IT, followed by hundreds, followed by thousands. That is a similar story to what we have experienced at The Bridge. At this point, from what you have heard about IT, and what has happened to IT at The Bridge, what do you think IT is?
Craig also talked about that IT sometimes seems to be random even among their own organization at their church. They have 13 campuses at LifeChurch.tv and there appeared to be explosive IT at times among some of their campuses. During the last year, all of their campuses experienced explosive growth and discipleship except one – the one that he taught at live. There seemed to be a randomness and an ebb and flow to IT. He pointed out that the good news is that: if you don’t have IT, you can GET IT, and If you have IT, you can lose IT. The former-Baptists can relax; he is not talking about salvation. There are saved people who at times appear not to have IT.

C.S. Lewis said, “The perfect church would be one we were almost unaware of. Our attention would have been on God.” It appears that some churches that have magnificent facilities, a lot of money, and every advantage do not have IT. Sometimes when we visit churches we feel like we are not dressed in the right clothes or whether we even qualify to receive a bulletin. There may be a lot of people there, but when we leave, we never experience IT. Sometimes the beautiful cathedral churches don’t have IT, but some small poorly lit, poorly equipped churches like Pastor Pedro’s in Nicaragua have huge IT. New, excited believers die if they stay in these places. Craig tells the story of the first time he experienced IT as a new believer. It was at a Bible study / prayer meeting at college that was simply built around an electric excitement about the majesty of Christ and the power of the Gospel. He, then, attended his first church with IT. The people were warm and ECSTATIC to express what was in their hearts. The preacher almost actually glowed; his words from scripture pierced hearts. This church had Craig at , ‘hello.’ They had IT. He wanted IT. He needed IT. And he got IT.