The Thursday Update

FEBRUARY 27, 2025

Lakeshore Friends—

As I sit in my office writing this note, all the snow that covered the ground for the last two months is rapidly melting away. The green grass that has been hidden for so long is finally being revealed again. I can’t help but see this as a picture of the difficulty and struggles that each of us goes through. The harshness of winter—the cold, the ice, the barrenness — they can feel unrelenting, much like the trials and burdens we carry in our lives.

But as the warmer temperatures soften the frozen ground and the snow begins to give way, a new season emerges. In the same way, the long seasons of struggles, trials, and difficulties we face are not permanent. If we lean into God and press on, He will give us the perspective, strength and hope we need to melt away the snow and ice that so easily discourages our souls.

I want to invite you to come to church this Sunday as we continue in our series, Press On. This week we will be looking at select verses from Galatians chapters 5 and 6 to learn how to keep the good things that God prepared for us to do, without becoming tired, discouraged, weary, or burned out. I hope through this message you will find encouragement and a renewed sense of purpose for which God created you.

Make a great day!
Pastor Frank

FEBRUARY 6, 2025

Lakeshore Friends—

This Sunday is the Super Bowl and the numbers surrounding this game are staggering. Consider that:

» 125 million people will watch the game in the United States, making it the most watched broadcast event in history.
» 63 million people will watch the game outside the United States.
» 1.47 billion chicken wings will be consumed on Sunday.
» 12.5 million pizzas will be consumed on Sunday.
» The host city of New Orleans will take in $1 billion dollars of tourist revenue.

It’s amazing how this day has become one of the biggest days of the year. While I don’t mind any of this, I wonder if 125 million people went to church last Christmas or Easter? My guess is that they didn’t attend anywhere near that level. It speaks to where people’s values lie today. Worship has moved away from the Creator to the activities of His created. So how do we respond?

Rather than curse the darkness and complain about it, God would call us to shine the light of His love and leverage it. Afterall, we are “the light of the world” and are called to “let our lights shine before others” (Matthew 5:14-16). How do we do that? We leverage the big game by speaking the language of the culture. Sports is the language of the culture, and football has no equal in America.

That’s why we’re holding another Football Sunday event at Lakeshore this Sunday. It’s a popular event because everyone understands the language it speaks.

We have a great Sunday planned for you, from the service in the auditorium (and in your kid’s classrooms), to the atrium which is being transformed into a tailgate party with free food and drinks. We do all of this for you, but also for you to be able to more easily invite your family and friends to join you on Sunday.

So I hope you’ll be there to take in this event with a football jersey on and some friends to enjoy the experience with you at Lakeshore.

Warmly,
Vince

JANUARY 30, 2025

Lakeshore Friends—

Let me begin this week’s post with the reminder that while I am a New Orleans Saints fan, I was pulling for the Buffalo Bills to go to the Super Bowl this year. I’ve said that the past two Sundays at church and I meant it. Let me also say that they played a good game last Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs and I am sad that they lost. I really am. I really like QB Josh Allen and Head Coach Sean McDermott. But they lost.

With that said, the Bills the past few years are like money in a lot of ways. How so? They tend to promise so much for a while but only end up disappointing us in the end.

Let me explain.

All year long, the Bills were playing great football. They had a great record, Josh Allen is a Most Valuable Player finalist (yeah, I do hope he wins it this year), and they beat the Chiefs earlier in the season, one of only two losses KC had all year. But in the end, when it really mattered and “the money was on the line,” they fell short of going to the Super Bowl.

So much promise, but so little delivered in the end.

Money is a lot like that. It always promises so much: status, comfort, vacations galore, happiness, security, success, and the like. But in the end, it can’t deliver on these promises. Money was never designed by God to be able to do that. If you doubt that, think about the last five things you bought that you thought were so great a few months ago. I can almost guarantee that they don’t bring you the same level of satisfaction that you thought they would. In fact, you may even wish you never even bought some of them in the first place.

It’s only in the Person who owns it all, the Person who gives us the ability to create wealth, and the Person who satisfies us in places nothing or no one else can, that we’ll find a promise that can be fulfilled. In fact, unlike money and possessions, He will actually satisfy us more than we ever thought possible with the passage of time!

So let’s remember that money has its place, it’s just not something that can promise to meet our deepest needs. Only a Person named Jesus Christ can fulfill that promise. So let’s look to Him to meet our needs, starting with the spiritual.

And for the Bills fans reading this, there’s always next year!

Warmly,
Vince