Lakeside Baptist Church celebrating 30th anniversary Dec. 9
Courtesy photo
The current Worship Center at Lakeside Baptist Church where the 30th anniversary celebration will take place at 10 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 9.
While there will be plenty of opportunity for Lakeside Baptist Church to take a look back, the focus of the 30th anniversary celebration at the church Sunday, Dec. 9, will be on looking at the future as well.
“The 30th anniversary celebration of this church is a blessing of the Lord most of all because most new church starts do not make it,” emphasized Lakeside Baptist Church Senior Pastor Mark Moore, who will be celebrating his 30th anniversary as Senior Pastor at the church in 2019. “The failure ratio is quite high. The founding members of this church were told that they were making the biggest mistake of their lives when they decided to start a new church here. They did not listen to those who questioned their decision. They believed that God wanted them to start a second Southern Baptist church in Canton.”
The Sunday morning schedule at Lakeside Baptist Church on Sunday, Dec. 9, will feature one service at 10 a.m. followed by a community-wide luncheon for everyone in attendance. There will be no Sunday School hour or evening service that day.
“We will be recognizing the founding members of this church during the service,” said Moore. “Our choir will be singing that morning and we will also show a digital video timeline of the history of the church.”
The digital video timeline is being prepared by Lakeside Baptist Church Associate Pastor of Worship Ken Sims.
“We will be talking about the past but also about the future of Lakeside Baptist Church during this special service,” said Moore. “We don’t want this to be a time of just looking back but we want to look forward as well. We want to emphasize the ministry of this church.”
Plans for the 30th anniversary celebration have been in the works for almost a year, according to Moore.
“We have a small group that has been working with me on this and we have been meeting seriously about our 30th anniversary celebration since the spring,” pointed out Moore.
According to the church website, in early October 1988, a group headed by Ken Bond, Kyle Geer and Charles Baker held several meetings to determine whether a new Southern Baptist church should be started in Canton.
On Oct. 4, 1988, the small group of visionary leaders agreed to begin taking steps toward the formation of a new church.
A building dedication was held on Dec. 4, 1988, and a constitution and by-laws were adopted. During the constitution service, 65 people became charter members of Lakeside Baptist Church.
According to Moore, Lakeside Baptist Church in Canton received its name came from the Lakeside Baptist Church located on White Rock Lake in Dallas.
“Some of our members were actually members of that church,” recalled Moore. “My wife, Elaine, and I went up in a city helicopter when we first got here and the tributary really does come close to the church so the name made more sense to me then.”
In discussing the strengths of Lakeside Baptist Church as the 30th anniversary date approaches, Moore said, “I have always said God blessed Lakeside Baptist Church with Godly men from the word go. If it had not been for the women down through the years, the churches would have all closed up. I have never been in a church where God has surrounded me with Godly men who understand what church is supposed to be. It is just amazing the quality of Christian men that have been a part of Lakeside Baptist Church. That is a great strength to any Pastor to know that the men will stand with you. Our deacons have been totally supportive. There is a friend/foe/adversary relationship in most churches between most Pastors and deacons but I can tell you that I get excited going to deacons’ meetings because it is all about those guys saying to me, ‘What more can we do? How can we help? What more do you need?’ and that has been true for me in the 29 years that I have been here. God has served me with Godly men who understand why we have church. These men are not looking for power, prestige or position. They want this church to be what God wants it to be. I am so blessed as a Pastor to have such Godly men around me.”
Moore also discussed the growth of Lakeside Baptist Church through the years. “During the first few years of the church, we grew exponentially,” pointed out the Senior Pastor. “We got into our worship center and continued to grow quite a bit. When I got here, there were basically no young adults. Those numbers began to pick up. The hardest number to break in our membership was getting over the 200 mark. We took off from there. We are baptizing more people now than we have in the last nine years, maybe longer than that. People are joining and the spirit of the church is incredible. Our staff has been so unified and easy to work with. They take direction very well. The church, as a whole, has really had a great spirit from day one.”
Members of the church staff include Moore, Senior Pastor; Paula Harvey, office assistant; Donna Drake, Children’s Minister and Director of Finance; Carlton Young, Associate Pastor of Senior Adults; David Wilkerson, facilities and technology director; Meagan Zinkgraf, Pastor’s ministry assistant; Joe Zinkgraf, Student Minister; Ken Sims, Associate Pastor of Worship Kim Adams, financial secretary; and Renee Bryant, custodian.
The Senior Pastor commented on the future direction of Lakeside Baptist Church. “I am very excited about the future,” emphasized Moore. “We have plans to build a new fellowship hall and office complex but that is not what we are majoring on. We want to emphasize ministry and investing in people’s lives. That is what we are majoring on. During the first few years of the church, an educational building and fellowship hall were built. We had to remodel the original church into a children’s preschool wing. Then, we needed to build a new worship center. We want to share the Gospel with anyone that will listen to us.”
A couple of new ministries will be kicking off at the church in 2019, according to Moore. “One will be called Home Point and that is a way to strengthen our families and that will be a major ministry in our church. Another new ministry that we are excited about will basically be a one-night event called A Night to Shine. Every male will be a king and every woman will be a queen that attends that night. This is sponsored by the Tim Tebow Foundation.”
The theme verse for the 30th anniversary celebration is Isaiah 40:8 which reads, ‘The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.’
As part of the 30th anniversary celebration Dec. 9, there will be an ingathering day for world missions.
“When we built our Worship Center, we had the foundation people, before they poured the concrete, right underneath where I stand in the pulpit, dig the deepest hole,” recalled Moore. “I took a Bible that my sister had given me in 1972, opened it up to Isaiah 40:8 and we laid the Bible in the bottom of the deepest hole of this foundation. Every Sunday as I preach, I am standing on the Word of God. That is important to this church.”
