The Thursday Update

MAY 1, 2025

Lakeshore Friends,

This Sunday, May 4, we're celebrating the greatness of God in a special way. Lakeshore turned 30 years old in April and we want to thank and praise Him for all He has done in these incredible three decades to impact lives in Rochester and around the world. God loves it when we celebrate Him because He is so worthy of it.

In fact, God called on Israel to celebrate seven of them with feasts and festivals: Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, The Feast of Weeks or Pentecost, The Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and The Feast of Booths (or Tabernacles). These events were commemorative (remembering what God did) and communal (done with all the people together). So when we celebrate God like this, we are doing something that pleases Him.

On Sunday, we'll celebrate Thirty Years of God’s Faithfulness and I want every one of you who loves God and loves Lakeshore to be here!

I’ll talk about how God has been faithful to us and how He will be faithful to you too as we reflect on our past and talk about our future. I think you’ll learn a lot about Lakeshore, learn a lot about living a great life for Him that satisfies you, and get a glimpse into my heart for what the future holds for Lakeshore.

I hope to see you here with friends. I’m trusting God to use it to help everyone see His greatness.

Let’s celebrate together!

Warmly,
Vince

APRIL 24, 2025

Lakeshore Friends,

This past Holy Weekend is the greatest one of the year, along with being the busiest. I hope you enjoyed it and that our services helped make it really meaningful.

At Lakeshore, we had four services that brought in a high attendance of 1,720 people, which is close to an all-time high, and three of the four services were somewhere between comfortably full and packed. I want to thank you for inviting people to church, even if they didn’t attend. I met many of your friends and saw some of the many friends I invited. I also thank those of you who are taking yard signs. Let’s keep them up all summer and hope that people visit Lakeshore because of it.

As we leave this great weekend, I think this coming weekend will be a really good one as well. We'll kick off a brand new series in Philippians called, “How to Find Joy in Life.” Can you think of a more timely series than this?

There are so many people are struggling to find joy in our joy-sapping world and I’m convinced the main reason is because people are looking for joy in all the wrong places. As we’ll see, joy is a choice, and it’s only when you know how to choose joy will you be able to find it. We'll talk about how to find joy in relationships, in tough circumstances, in conflict, in stressful times, and in so many more circumstances and moments.

So thanks again for being a part of last weekend and I hope to see you this weekend for the kick off of this new series.

Warmly,
Vince

APRIL 16, 2025

Lakeshore Friends,

Today, Lakeshore officially turns 30 years old. I love to tell the story of our very first service. Looking back, April 16, 1995 was such an amazing day in our history:

The weather was nice but chilly. After three practice services the previous Sundays, and after 14,464 direct mailers were sent out to all homeowners 54 years old and younger (I was only 33 years old back then), Lakeshore held its first public service.... In a bar.... At the Marriott hotel.... That held 75 adults comfortably.... The rest had to sit in a booth and watch the service.... Seated sideways (you paid a price for being late back then). On that day, 112 people showed up and three people became Christians in the somewhat beer-scented bar. It was an exciting day for our family and many others. Lakeshore Church was born.

Thank you to everyone who has made this work of God we know as Lakeshore possible. Your attendance, involvement, generosity, serving, and support have all been used by God to do amazing things.

For as great a day as that day was, there is a much greater day coming on Sunday: the resurrection of Jesus Christ! No day in human history was more meaningful in the entire history of the world. Think of it— no day is as great and earth-shattering as the day that Jesus became the first person ever to rise from the dead in a new body (Lazarus and others were technically resuscitated back to their same body). And because of it, this day means more for people than any other day.

We’ll explain it all at our Easter services this weekend as I talk about, “Why Easter Means Everything.” We’ll do our best to celebrate and explain the greatness of Easter, and our hope is that you’ll be here along with friends you invite to join you. Easter is the one holiday where more people come to church than any other day of the year, so it stands to reason that we should make as many invitations to others as we possibly can. I hope you have or will invite every friend, family member, coworker, and neighbor that you can.

Holy Weekend kicks off with a Good Friday service at 7:00 pm. We’ll remember the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and take communion together.

We are still just as passionate about reaching people in Rochester as we were 30 years ago! That’s not the norm for churches, because most gradually turn inward and focus on their own needs. This weekend is another opportunity for all of us to point people to the cross, the empty tomb and the Good News.

Warmly,
Vince