Act Locally: Waco » Page 'Lake Shore Baptist Church'
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Lake Shore Baptist Church

Lake Shore Baptist Church
www.lakeshorewaco.org
5801 Bishop Drive, Waco, Texas 76710
254-772-2910, lbaptistchurch@hot.rr.com

Affiliations: Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Baptist World Alliance, Alliance of Baptists, Baptist General Convention of Texas, Waco Regional Baptist Network, Interfaith Alliance, North American Baptist Peace Fellowship

What regular ministries or activities does your church participate in that you consider to be a part of helping to prevent and heal poverty in Waco? Who organizes and orchestrates these activities?

  • Lake Shore Children’s Center – There is a Children’s Center board made up of church members and a children’s center committee. Children who live in poverty are funded in part by Workforce Solutions for the Heart of Texas.
  • Food pantry – Thursday mornings from 9-12 families can come to the church to select non-perishable items to help meet their families’ food needs. Paper goods, bread and fresh vegetables are sometimes available. Most Thursdays there is breakfast available (starting at 8:30) for the people who are waiting for their turn to select food from the pantry. We also use this as an opportunity to give away children’s books that have been donated to the church. Most Thursdays each child present receives a book. Currently, the food pantry serves from 25 to sometimes over 50 families. We cooperate with the Capital Area Food Bank on this project. This project is carried out by a core group of volunteers. The youth minister and associate pastor are also heavily involved.
  • Meals on Wheels – The Lake Shore kitchen is a Meals on Wheels preparation kitchen. Church members and other friends help to prepare and deliver meals.
  • Self – Sufficiency Suppers – Waco Housing Authority offers a monthly meeting at Lake Shore as part of a program to help families move from welfare to self-sustaining jobs. The program provides counseling, mentoring, Medicaid, childcare, education, and housing. LSBC offers a meal and childcare for program participants.
  • Case Against Hunger – Lake Shore’s annual drive to help replenish the shelves at Caritas’s food pantry. Members of the Missions Committee work with Caritas and HEB to choose various cases of food, (For example, canned meats, boxes of cereal, canned vegetables, and macaroni ‘n cheese). The cases are priced and stacked in the hall outside the church office. Members choose what cases they want to “purchase” to be donated to Caritas. This project is organized by the missions committee.
  • Habitat for Humanity Lunches – Lake Shore Sunday School classes provide lunch for Habitat for Humanity work crews about once a month, usually for the days when the women from the Gatesville prison unit are working. One of our members who is heavily involved in Habitat does the organizing.
  • Bridge Builders/Helping Hands – Each summer our children have the opportunity to learn about during our week long Bridge Builders/Helping Hands programs. Children participate in learning and fun activities and then go out into the community to do missions work such as helping to package food at Caritas. Our children’s director organizes this.
  • Missions Tree – Every Christmas Lake Shore puts up a “missions tree.” The associate pastor and other volunteers call community agencies, schools and other charitable organizations to gather a list of Christmas wishes to hang on the tree. People in the congregation pick wishes from the tree to fulfill during the Christmas season.
  • Christmas food baskets – Each year Lake Shore prepares several food baskets to be distributed to families in need during the holiday season.
  • The Gathering – The first Sunday of each month church members bring non-perishable food for “The Gathering.” The baskets of food sit at the altar during church service as a reminder of our gratitude for the food we have to share and our responsibility to those who are less fortunate. Food collected during the gathering is added to the Lake Shore Food Pantry.
  • Palm Sunday Soup Supper – Each year on the evening of Palm Sunday Lake Shore holds its annual soup supper. Local potters donate hand-made bowls. Soup Supper attendees purchase a beautiful bowl (usually $10) for their soup. The money from the bowls is donated to a worthy cause alternating from year to year between local needs and international needs. The missions committee organizes this event with lots of involvement from the Associate Pastor.
  • Bread for the World Offering of Letters – Lake Shore is a Bread for the World covenant church. Each year church members are encouraged to participate in the “offering of letters” in which letters are collected to send to our elected officials to encourage them to support legislation of benefit to people in need in the United States and the world.
  • Other events – Throughout the years Lake Shore has also organized and participated in various events such as “11 on 11″ in which members participated in eleven different mission projects to commemorate September Eleventh.

What ministries and organizations do you support through your church budget that you consider to be a part of preventing and healing poverty in Waco?

  • Caritas
  • Lake Shore Food pantry 
  • Gospel Café
  • Waco Habitat for Humanity
  • Mission Waco
  • Family Abuse Center
  • Advocacy Center for Crime Victims and Children
  • Family Self-Sufficiency
  • Talitha Koum Nurture Center
  • Central Texas Senior Ministry
  • Friends for Life
  • Freeman Center
  • Planned Parenthood
  • Community Cancer Association

How does benevolence work at your church?

(Awaiting information)

How do you educate your church community (children, youth, adults) about preventing and healing poverty, especially in the Waco community?

Staff and lay leaders model acts of service. Information and concern for those in need is woven into Sunday school curriculum, youth activities, children’s sermons and the Wednesday night seminar schedule. Mission trips and missions activities throughout the year also serve as educational opportunities.

Do you integrate concern for preventing and healing poverty into your worship? What does that look like?

We integrate concern for those in need into prayers, sermons, and other parts of the worship service such as brief meditations delivered by church members. We also use symbolism and art to reinforce the message of caring: pictures in the worship bulletin, bringing the baskets of donated food forward during the processional, setting up the communion table artistically to be a focus point, etc.

Anything else you want to tell us about how your church is engaging with preventing and healing poverty in Waco?

(Awaiting information)

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