Lakeview Church of Christ is a diverse community seeking to serve God in Uptown Chicago. We are a warm and inviting Church sincerely committed to ministry among all of God’s people. Lakeview offers the opportunity to use your gifts to the fullest and is a place where you can belong and grow in Christ.
LVCC Mission
To know Christ and make Christ known. We know Christ through worship, study of the Scriptures and prayer. We make Christ known through sharing the love and good news of Jesus Christ and through loving service in the city of Chicago, particularly the neighborhood of Uptown.
Vision:
We are a loving church.
Matthew 22:37-40
We strive to love God and our neighbors, both in our city and throughout the world. We strive to love God by worshipping, obeying his commands and cultivating our relationships with him through spiritual disciplines like prayer. We strive to love our neighbors by practicing justice and seeking our neighbors’ welfare. We strive to love one another by sharing our lives throughout the week to grow in our love.
We are an inclusive church.
1 Corinthians 12:12-13
We strive to reflect the inclusion and diversity of the kingdom of God and our city. We believe, as Jesus did, that all are welcomed into the body of Christ, . We believe the body of Christ is enhanced by the inclusion of people from a wide variety of backgrounds and identities. As an inclusive church, we also believe that God has gifted all of his children, male and female, with the Holy Spirit for the benefit of the entire body of Christ. We strive to be, as the apostle Paul wrote, “one body (in Christ) with many members.”
We are a serving church.
Matthew 25:31-46
We strive to spread the love of Christ through service to others. In Jesus ,we see service to others take the form of helping to meet physical needs like food and clothing. In Jesus, we also see service to others take the form of helping to meet spiritual needs like forgiveness, community, and salvation. We also encourage one another to serve every day in our homes, our schools or our workplaces.
We are an urban church.
Jeremiah 29:7
We are shaped by our location in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago, a global city with urban blessings, like vibrant and diverse culture, and urban challenges, like stark inequalities in access to opportunity. We love Chicago and we believe God is at work in Chicago and other urban environments like it. We are committed to being faithful followers of Jesus Christ as he moves in Uptown Chicago.
While we hope reading this mission statement helps explain who we strive to be as a church family, we are ultimately best known through experience. Please come pay us a visit and consider joining us as we strive to live up to our mission and vision.
Statement of Belief
At Lakeview we believe in unity in essentials and diversity in non-essentials. We believe Christians can unite around a core of common beliefs while maintaining a diversity of opinions on other issues.
Our beliefs in common are:
We acknowledge Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life; through His death, burial, resurrection, and enthronement, God acted for His people in fulfillment of His promises. We have publicly proclaimed our acceptance of that grace through water baptism by immersion and we have been raised up to walk through life as a new people, empowered by God’s Holy Spirit. We are committed to seeking a deeper relationship with God, we recognize the Bible as God’s authoritative word, and we look forward to the day of Jesus’ return. Though redeemed as a result of God’s action for us through His Son, we are not perfect. In obedient response to God’s grace, we lead lives of service by actively engaging in fellowship with the family and working in the city of Chicago to influence all people of every background for God’s Kingdom.
Racial Justice Statement
Expectations
What is expected of a member at Lakeview?
- Worship – Worship God with other Christians
- Service – Serve others as Jesus served
- Purity – Commit to personal purity for the glory and honor of God
- Spiritual growth – Seek Spirit-led growth through personal and corporate devotion, study, and prayer
- Love – Be gracious to one another and be accountable to one another
- Encouragement – Support and build-up those around you
- Proclamation – Share the good news in word and deed
- Stewardship – Be a good steward of God-given talents and resources
Acts of Worship
Our weekly Sunday morning worship services blend traditional acts of worship such as corporate prayer, singing, communion, and preaching with elements that are unique to Lakeview, such as Praise Time, a time of mutual encouragement when we pass the microphone around in order for people to share publicly the ways in which God has blessed them throughout the week. We also have a weekly communion service during which we try to inject depth and intentionality into our celebration around the Lord’s table.
Fellowship and Dress
Lakeview cherishes members and visitors from a variety of ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds, and our worship services are correspondingly diverse. Dress is casual at our family-friendly church, and we consider the time leading up to and following our service an opportunity to meet visitors and fellowship.
Worship Participants
We are a gender-inclusive church, so you can expect that women will be active participants in our worship service, just as they are in our leadership. The best way to get a sense of who we are, of course, is to simply come and worship God with us. We look forward to meeting and worshiping with you.