The Thursday Update

NOVEMBER 2, 2023

LAKESHORE FRIENDS—

Each year, the month of October is designated Pastor’s Appreciation month.  Now that we’re in November, I wanted to say thank you to all of you for being such a great church and for treating our pastors with such love, respect, and confidence.  I know that we all try to do our very best to lead you in the most biblical way we can because we all realize the tremendous responsibility that God has given us.  We also care about you and everyone in our community who needs Jesus and that drives us to give our best as well.  You make it easy by your love for Jesus.

Special thanks goes out to those of you who gave us cards, small but meaningful gifts, or just said something that encouraged us this past month.  These all mean so much and they fuel us with high-octane encouragement.

I know I speak for all the pastors when I say that the greatest gift you can give us is being at church each week, eager to worship God, hungry to learn from the Bible, and excited to see others who can encourage you in your walk with God.  We need each other, especially as the Day of the Lord draws near (Hebrews 10:23-25).  Seeing you here each week is worth more than almost anything else to us.  You understand the importance of being together with others each week.

So thanks for being a great part of Lakeshore and for the gift of seeing you each week, and thanks for all you do to make Lakeshore a great place for us all.

Much love,
Vince (for all the Pastors at Lakeshore)

OCTOBER 26, 2023

LAKESHORE FRIENDS—

First off, I want to send a huge thank you to our Lakeshore family!  Several weeks ago I had the humbling honor to be ordained as a minister of the Gospel, and my family celebrated our 10^th anniversary at Lakeshore Community Church.  The outpouring of love and encouragement from you all has been overwhelming!  I am honored and humbled to be able to serve you as one of your pastors and you have so greatly blessed me and my family. 

As the Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 1:3-5 “I thank my God every time I remember you.  In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”  I will be heading out on a sabbatical after this week and can’t thank God and each of you enough for your prayers and support.  With that, we get to talk about a topic this week that I know we can all relate to.

We all know them.  When we see them, we sometimes try to avoid them.  We know the conversation will be riddled with personal drama or a crisis.  We know they will see themselves as the victim, or always seeking your approval and validation, or always needing something from you.  Why are needy people the way they are?  Well, that can actually be a complicated question.  You see, there is often a lot of nuance to what is happening in the world of a needy person that we don’t see. 

We need to be careful because we want to help these people, but sometimes we end up causing more long-term hurt.  That's what we'll talk about this week as we continue Relational Vampires: Loving the People Who Suck the Life Out of You.  Specifically, we'll look at how we can identify and love needy people without hurting them.

Make sure to join us in person this week at 9 or 11 am, or online at live.lakeshorechurch.org.

Pastor Brian

OCTOBER 19, 2023

LAKESHORE FRIENDS—

God calls us to love all people, no matter what.  No “ifs”, no “ands”, no “buts” are allowed.  If God loves us with unconditional love, we must offer the same to others.

With all of that said, have you ever encountered a person who tends to suck the life out of you, like a vampire sucks the blood out of its victims?  It may be that they are so critical of you that you feel lifeless when you encounter them.  Or it could be needy people who always begin a conversation with you with words like, “what I could really use is…” and make you feel obligated to do something for them every time.  Perhaps it’s a manipulative person who is trying to get you to do what they want and you feel worked over every time they try.  What about the hypocritical person who tells you what to do but never takes their own advice?  Or the gossipy person who leaks information faster than a radiator leaks fluid after your car front ends a deer in rut?

After a while, you have no blood left inside.  But you still have to love them!  What do you do?

That’s what we'll talk about in our brand new series starting on Sunday, Relational Vampires: Loving The People Who Suck The Life Out Of You.  We’ll examine five of the biggest 'vampires' who seem to be more focused on a re-leech-tionship than a relationship, along with how we can spot them, help them, and respond to them.

Sound like something you could benefit from? Yeah, I've heard many of you laughing during the series trailer we shown the past two Sundays, so I think the answer is yes.

Why not invite family, friends, coworkers and neighbors to join you here on Sunday?  Let’s invest and invite people and live out what we just learned in our prevois series on the gospel.  We’ll do all we can to provide services that are power-packed and practically helpful.

Warmly,
Vince

P.S. Let’s keep praying for Israel and the Middle East (Psalm 122:6)