The Thursday Update

JANUARY 15, 2026

Lakeshore Friends,

Most of us grew up with a Piggy Bank. Do you remember yours?

Whether it was shaped like a pig or some other figure, it was our family’s way of teaching us the value of money. We learned so many valuable lessons on how to feed the Piggy Bank with money, how to protect it from theft or harm, and when and how to break open the Piggy Bank at the right time and for the right expenditures when the time was right.

Believe it or not, some of those important lessons from childhood carry over into how we should manage our finances today as adults. Today, we have (or should try to have) many different adult names for our adult Piggy Banks: Checking and Savings accounts, Health Savings accounts, CD accounts, IRA accounts, 401K accounts and our giving to God “eternal rewards” account. We can apply so many of these lessons from our youth to our adult Piggy Banks when we deepen our understanding of these “Piggy Bank” principles.

In a new series we’re beginning on Sunday called, Lessons From The Piggy Bank”, we’ll look at what the Bible says about feeding, protecting, and breaking your adult “Piggy Banks” in ways that honor God, benefit you and your family, and keep you from going… broke! This is a great series to learn and grow in the foundational principles of biblical financial management.

If you want to have a great financial year ahead, I encourage you to be here for this important series.

Warmly,

Vince
Senior Pastor

JANUARY 8, 2026

Lakeshore Friends,

The quality of our life can be measured by many things, but I’m not sure it can be measured by anything more important than relationships. Tell me about the quality and depth of your relationships and I will be able to predict how much you are enjoying life… or not enjoying it.

Think about your life. If you charted the happiest times in your life, I’m really confident that you would have relationships with people close to you that are strong and vibrant as well as encouraging and comforting. And if you did the same thing with the saddest times in your life, I feel just as confident that you would be distant from the relationships that matter most in your life. These relationships would likely be in a very discouraging and discomforting state.

Would you agree?

Interestingly, the most important relationship that shapes your joy and determines how satisfying your life is the one you have with God. In fact it all starts with Him and your fellowship with Him. Your relationship with God will carry over into your relationship with others which will carry over into your enjoyment of life.

So choose to relate well to God. Find times to be with Him in Bible Study and prayer. Think about Him non-stop. Thank Him for His love, mercy and grace toward you.

And choose to relate well to others. Find friends who will encourage you so that you can, in turn, find others who you can encourage.

On Sunday, I’ll talk about how to find faithful friends and how no friendship is better than the one we can have with God.

I hope you’ll be here to learn the third big step in “Making The Change And Keeping The Changes” you make in life.

Warmly,

Vince
Senior Pastor

P.S. If you want a list of great and key Bible verses to memorize, here is the “ABC List” I mentioned last Sunday, find it here.

DECEMBER 30, 2025

Lakeshore Friends,

The calendar year is coming to an end soon. What was 2025 like for you? I’m pretty certain of a few things:

First, you had some successes in your life, hopefully involving getting closer to Jesus.

Second, you had some areas of your life that didn’t reach the levels that you know they should have, hopefully not involving your closeness to Jesus.

Third, you want to make some changes in the new year ahead so that when 2026 ends, you have more of the first things to celebrate and less of the second things to commiserate over.

So how do you make changes in your life that will really last beyond the first few days or weeks of the new year? That’s what we’ll cover on Sunday with our first service of the new year. Building off of what Pastor Brian Pawlowski taught last Sunday, I’ll talk about the kinds of resolutions that last.

I hope you’ll start the new year off on the right foot by being at Lakeshore. Let’s kick off the new year together!

Warmly,

Vince
Senior Pastor