Growth-focused, not people-focused. You are constantly reminded you work at the largest church in America, hearing about huge numbers of people impacted but in the end how many of those people were actually loved? Or were they just more numbers to keep making the ship get bigger and contribute to all the growth goals? Every part of the organization is transactional. From how they attempt to impact their community through mission partners vs pushing people to serve in the community, down to the way you see relationships with other people. How much "equity" do you have with this person and can you afford to spend it? Should you hold off and let this go so you can save that equity for a bigger problem? These transactional relationships are heavily lopsided and oftentimes sexist. You'll also be met with empty promises, inaction, and apathy, from the moment you come on staff till the day you leave. The hardest thing you will have to navigate and try and get used to is the Life.Church bubble, especially if you're coming from out of town. Maybe you didn't even know who Life.Church was until they came to your city, they seemed great and like they loved people well. When you come on staff it can feel very lonely after the honeymoon stage. Eventually, you wake up one day realizing that your entire life is wrapped up in Life Church. You will realize the only people you talk to in life are LC people who are just as "bought-in" to what LC is selling. Because of the mentality of "no other job is like this" and "this isn't a job, it's a calling" you might eventually feel trapped and alone. Some of my least favorite commonly repeated phrases: "Bought in" if you aren't bought in, you'll be weeded out. DLT has even said from the stage that if you somehow make it through our interview process, you'll be gone in a year if you aren't "bought-in". It's all or nothing straight from the beginning. "Trust is freely given, mistrust is earned" is a great theory until your mistrust is negated by others. That's when you're gaslit into thinking you're the problem for not leading with trust. "If you don't have integrity, nothing else matters" LC is bankrupt on integrity. Practice what you preach rather than cover things up and enable manipulative people. For a place that should be the best at leading with empathy and taking care of it's people, I can count on one hand the number of apologies I've gotten when treated poorly or situations were mishandled. Maybe that's one of the many sacrifices that you have to make working there. "We all make sacrifices to work here" This phrase is a great manipulative phrase for keeping pay low and plenty of other things. But I bring it up because one of the biggest sacrifices you will make in Life.Church's all-consuming culture, is your family. You will end up sacrificing your family on the altar of Life.Church.
