The Greenhouse Culture Oral History

Abstract

Oral history interview with Jared Scholz and Kalah Sipp conducted by Emily Stratton in Lawrence, Kansas, on June 26, 2013. Jared Scholz is the founder and Senior Pastor of The Greenhouse Culture; Kalah Sipp is The Greenhouse Culture’s Administrative Assistant. The Greenhouse Culture is one of Lawrence’s most recent church-plants, launching in 2012. It is also an affiliate church of Resurrection Life Church International (RLCI), an international church-planting organization based in Michigan. Both Jared and Kalah were former employees at Life Church in Olathe, KS (also an RLCI affiliate) while feeling the call to plant in Lawrence. This interview discusses how both Jared and Kalah transitioned out of their positions at Life Church and into planting The Greenhouse Culture in Lawrence. Since Jared also played a large role in planting Life Church in 2002. Therefore, a few interview questions near the beginning of the discussion also cover Life Church’s early days and Jared’s role there. See the interview Emily conducted with Gregg Hall for more information about Life Church. The remainder of interview questions, then, discuss the logistics of planting Life Church and how the church has begun to take shape (financial resources, relationship with RLCI, how funding is utilized, how people have gotten connected into the congregation, how church services are conducted, roles of social media, etc). This interview was conducted for the Religion in Kansas Project as part of a summer fieldwork internship funded by the Friends of the Department of Religious Studies.