Heaven may have just gotten funnier

LifeChurch.tv has done it again.

It started with their church franchise. With more than 10 locations everyone is guaranteed to get "powerful worship and a life-changing message."

Then came their revolutionary "money-back guarantee." If you tithe to LifeChurch.tv for 3 months, and "God doesn’t hold true to His promises of blessings", they will refund your money.

Then LifeChurch.tv began saving virtual souls when they built a church in Second Life. Earlier this year they began worshiping and teaching to the avatar community.

Now, LifeChurch.tv is making history once again, with a first step toward saving the animated community.

It began when LifeChurch.tv received information from God, via a multimillion dollar marketing campaign, that The Simpsons Movie would be a huge cultural phenomenon.

"We were watching the Simpsons, trying to figure out what we could use for a message series when it hit us," said Hugh Jass, a member of the LifeChurch.tv creative team. "Springfield is totally undeserved by the church community."

And that is when plans first started being made to reach the animated community by putting a LifeChurch.tv church in the fictional town of Springfield.

The first thing LifeChurch.tv did was hire an animated Teaching Pastor.

"I was very excited when I got the call from LifeChurch.tv,"said animated Teaching Pastor, I.P. Freely. "The current church serving Springfield is really outdated. Most of the residents in Springfield are what we would call 'seekers', but the church is not very 'seeker friendly'. They sing outdated hyms to organ music. The pastor wears a robe. And where is the powerpoint and the IMAG [image magnification]?"

LifeChurch.tv's approach will be totally different. Not only will the service include updated worship music, but the teaching will be relevant to the community.

"It is obvious that the community of Springfield needs teaching that is going to meet their needs. They need messages about marriage, parenting and sex. These are the kind of things that bring people to church," said Mr. Freely. "And the worship will rock. Because we are an animated church we won't just perform David Crowder songs, but we can have an animated David Crowder singing David Crowder songs. The next week, Mercy Me. I don't think there will be a better worship set in any animated, virtual or real church in this country."

And LifeChurch.tv thinks they will draw people not just from Springfield, but from surrounding communities like Shelbyville, Salem, and Burlington.

"This is just the beginning," said LifeChurch.tv representative Maya Buttreeks. "Most cartoons die without hearing the Gospel message. Some live in purgatory [reruns] but there are many more than can still be reached. When we put a LifeChurch.tv in Bikini Bottom, then we will be making real progress."

Chris Rice once asked, "What if cartoons got saved?" Thanks to LifeChurch.tv it's not a matter of "what if" but a matter of "when."

This article reprinted, with permission, from my imagination.