Lakeshore history

To fully appreciate Lakeshore’s origins, you would have to take a look inside the mind and thoughts of a young graduate school student who was studying for ministry and striving to understand two questions that perpetually caused him to search for answers. Those questions were: “How does the church reach people who may be interested in God but not necessarily in church?” and “How does God’s truth change peoples lives?” It was these two questions (both raised by the command of the “Great Commission”) that fueled the passion for what Lakeshore Community Church is all about… even today.

These questions were raised by Vince DiPaola, founding Pastor of Lakeshore, and in the course of his last year of graduate school studies, a series of events led to helping him find some of these answers from a number of cutting-edge churches in America. It began when someone Vince didn’t even know gave him free plane and conference tickets to a conference that brought great perspective and insight into these matters. It led to other studies and events that opened him up to developing the philosophy of ministry that shapes the way the church “reaches out” to people and helps them grow into “difference-makers”.

In 1994, Vince and his family— wife Sue, and young children David and Alisha— moved from Dallas, Texas (where both Vince and Sue received graduate degrees from Dallas Theological Seminary) to Rochester, New York to start Lakeshore. Armed with just their fresh ministry insights and a sense of God’s calling, they began with no attenders, no contacts in the area, and little financial support. But they had a big dream and a great God! After meeting in a living room and then at an area church’s break room for a number of months, the church core group slowly and humbly grew to about 30 attenders.

On April 16, 1995 (Easter Sunday), after three “practice services”, the small church trusted to God to hold it’s first public service and pray for at least 100 people to attend. After mailing out 14,464 tri-folds to area residents, 112 people attended and 3 people made first-time commitments to become Christians. The church was born! For the following 6 months, church attendance averaged 70 people, and with the loss of many core group people during this time, the workload (and viability!) of the church fell into the hands of a few hard working families.

Later that year, on October 15, 1995, the people of Lakeshore sent out a sequenced double mailer to 15,000 residents for their Grand Opening Service (another attempt to get the word out) and this time trusted God to bring 200 people to the service. To the excitement of many, exactly 200 attended and the people were awestruck at God’s power to grow a small church of 30 people (many of whom had left just after the Easter service) to a church that ended the year at about 125 people at weekly services… all within a matter of months.

In 1997, the church moved to a 2-service format to accommodate growth in the limited size facilities of the Marriott Hotel and God continued to bring spiritual and numerical growth to the point that it broke the 200 person attendance barrier in the Fall of that year.

From 1995 to 2004, the church held Sunday services at 10 different locations (not including the various places that midweek services and seminars have been held) all the while growing larger. It set-up and tore down for well over 500 services and seminars.

Thanks to two capital campaigns, the church purchased 36 acres of land in January 2001 and began building the first facility in June 2003. Lakeshore celebrated its first service in the building on June 13, 2004. Current plans involve building an additional building in the near future.

The church currently has about 700 people attending one of their two services each week. But the mission of the church will always be the same: to focus on building people up and being used by God to have a hand in changing their eternal destiny by sharing the greatest message the world has ever been presented— the message of God’s amazing grace through His Son Jesus Christ, available by faith in Him.

It is fulfilling the DiPaola’s dream to reach many more people and helping hundreds of people be a part of a church that exists “to turn the indifferent into difference-makers for Jesus Christ.” And Lakeshore is a living testimony in Rochester to what a simple dream and great faith can accomplish for God.