Lakeside Church, also known as Lakeside Bible Church, is a evangelical, nondenominational church, in Guelph, close to Toronto, Canada. As of 2015, it has about 2,300 regular attendees who worship in two campuses, one in downtown Guelph and one in Guelph's north end, just on the outskirts of town.
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History of Lakeside
Lakeside Church was founded by David Booker, along with forty families, in 1989. The church conducted its first service on 24 October that year. Booker retired as Pastor in 1998 and was succeeded the following year by David Ralph, who still occupies the position as of 2017. The church continued to grow and a one-thousand seat auditorium was built in 2007. In 2013, the church opened its second campus at Lakeside Downtown.
Outreach and charitable work
Lakeside Church runs Lakeside HOPE House. HOPE is an acronym for Helping Overcome Poverty Everywhere. From the premises of the Lakeside Downtown campus, it operates a major food bank, a gymnasium, a café, two kitchens, offices and classrooms, and a 400-seat auditorium.
Lakeside Church has ministries targeted towards children, students, and young adults, and also runs recovery programs to assist people suffering from grief, divorce, and drug addiction.
Lakeside Church has an extensive missionary program and is involved in ministries in Africa, Central America, and Haiti. The church is partnering with PACE Africa to build Lakeside High School in Nyahururu, Kenya.
Church relationships and leadership
Lakeside has no official denominational affiliations, but it networks with other Evangelical churches of various denominations.
Lakeside holds two services on Sunday at its Lakeside Central campus, and one at its Lakeside Downtown campus.
The church is governed by a board of elders. Currently, David Ralph is the lead pastor over all Lakeside ministries, and Justin Sytsma is the pastor over Lakeside Downtown.
Notable people associated with Lakeside Church
Lakeside Church member Cam Guthrie has served as Mayor of Guelph since 2014. Frank Valeriote, the Liberal Party Member of Parliament for the riding of Guelph, also attends Lakeside Church, even though he identifies as Roman Catholic.