A strategic plan to accommodate and facilitate the spiritual and physical/numerical growth of LBC by implementing a series of short-term, mid-term, and long-term plans.
The relationship between a trellis and a vine is a helpful metaphor for how to grow a strong, healthy, thriving church. The vine represents the disciple-making work of preaching and teaching God’s Word in the power of God’s Spirit so people are converted to Christ and grow to maturity in Christ. The trellis represents the organizational structures and programs that support the vine and enable it to develop and flourish. In order for the vine to thrive the trellis needs to be modified and/or expanded from time to time.
LONG-TERM PLAN
Over the past year or so, God has been directing a lot of new people to our church. In light of the sacred responsibility He has entrusted to us to care for their souls, we have been praying and planning how to best minister to our growing congregation. In order to solve our present space issues and help us envision how to modify and expand our facilities to reach and teach more people in our community which is experiencing explosive growth, we hired Crosspointe Church Architects to analyze our needs and provide us with some creative options. We now have an updated Master Plan which fully utilizes the remainder of the property God provided us 22 years ago and completes the third and final phase of our original Master Plan. The main feature is a new 900 seat Worship Center solely dedicated to ministering the Word through music and preaching along with a secure, self-contained, consolidated Children’s Center where kids can hear the gospel and be trained up to love and live for Jesus.
This is an exciting but daunting project which will require God’s providential provision along with an enormous amount of faith and sacrifice on our part. From the beginning, we adopted the motto of the famous pioneer missionary to China, Hudson Taylor, who said: “God’s work done God’s way will never lack God’s supply!” Like Taylor, we have tested the promises of God in the past and He has proven Himself faithful and so we are confident He can be trusted for our future and will continue to glorify Himself at Lakeside Bible Church by doing above and beyond anything we could ask for or even imagine (Eph. 3:20-21).
That’s our long-term plan but we need to create a pathway of growth in order to get there. So we have come up with a short-term plan and a mid-term plan that will provide time and space for our church to extend its impact in our lives and in our community.
SHORT-TERM PLAN
In order to address our current space challenges, accommodate our increasing attendance, and eliminate the need for anyone to attend church in an overflow room, our short-term plan is to transition to two Worship Services on Sunday mornings beginning October 2.
Both services will be identical and Nursery/Toddler Care will be provided during each service. We will have Children’s Church (PreK-2nd Grade) during the First Service along with some Adult Equipping Classes. All the children (PreK-5th Grade) and students (Next Level, 220, and Crossroads) will meet for Equipping Hour during the Second Service along with other Adult Equipping Classes.
While this new format may limit how many ministries people can serve in, it maintains our current time commitment (9:00am-Noon), provides everyone a live worship experience, enables families to worship together, prioritizes fellowship, and encourages equal distribution between the two services. It will also enable us to offer more Adult Equipping Classes in the near future, and most importantly, it will give us room to breath and grow.
MID-TERM PLAN
Our mid-term plan is to build a Student Center to house our Next Level and 220 Ministries where the original playground is presently located. Our goal is to raise the funds this Fall to supplement what we already have in savings and break ground in January 2023. Lord willing, the students could move in at the beginning of the 2023/24 school year. This will free up two of our largest rooms for the Children’s Ministry and/or other Adult Ministries to use for various classes or events. This new building could also be used as a multipurpose space in the future.
No one likes change or having to sacrifice but these changes and sacrifices will be temporary and they simply serve to buy us time and space to grow and expand as we raise the money needed to build the new Worship Center and Children’s Center.
Please be praying with us that God would clearly guide us and provide for us and keep our church unified as we move forward in faith with one mind striving together to advance the gospel in our community and around the world.