About Us
Our community is made up of skeptics, spiritual explorers, and longtime followers of Jesus, so no matter where you are in your faith journey, there is a place for you here.
We are a welcoming and open church that encourages people to come as they are, and share in the love of Jesus. Come join our community and grow in your faith alongside others who have the same beliefs and values.
Who We Are
Our mission is to love people, as they discover and live out their role in God’s story.
We are a members of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) denomination:
“In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity.”
At Lake Forest Church, we refer to our “values” as our “passions.” The below passions represent what God has called our church to strive for with excellence and tenacity.
Welcome Who Jesus Welcomed
We welcome people who may have given up on church, but NOT on God.
- Inviting people to belong with us before they believe, in friendship and at church.
- Never mocking or belittling those with whom we disagree.
- Clarity in Christian essentials; freedom in cultural, political and Biblical matters; and ultimately, love in all things.
Love Like Jesus
We love with Grace and Truth.
- Through worship, teaching and small group communities that reflect Biblical grace and truth.
- Cultivating a culture of grace and understanding where it’s safe to reveal woundedness without a risk of rejection, in order to create space for God’s healing.
- Growing in our passion for scripture by studying it individually and together.
Live Like Jesus
Always on the missio Dei (Mission of God)
- Rejecting “consumer Christianity” and rather spending ourselves for the sake of others.
- Setting goals for 100% of Ministry Partners to have a short-term, cross-cultural mission experience.
- Traveling near and far, to serve people who are like us, and not like us, people who are hungry for God or hungry for food.
Journey Like Jesus
We believe we were called to do life together.
- Leading every child, student and adult to belong in a Christ-centered small group community.
- Partnering with parents in the spiritual and character development of their children and youth.
- “Doing a few things well” as a life-giving principle for personal, family and church schedules.
Lead Like Jesus
By creating more and better disciples.
- Influencing others through personal relationships.
- Utilizing creative influence through relevant subject matter, engaging art forms and compelling personal stories.
- Creating strategic opportunities to raise up one more disciple, leader and church at a time.
Our Beliefs
At Lake Forest Church, everything points to Jesus. We invite you to explore our beliefs and essentials of our faith below.
The Bible
The Bible is the final authority on all matters to which it speaks. It is God’s completely true story about who he is, what he has done, what he is doing and what He will do. It was given by God to human writers, and this is reflected through their backgrounds, styles and language.
God
There is one God, who exists as three persons living in perfect community – Father, Son and Spirit. God created everything and sustains everything with his life. He is holy, all-powerful, all-knowing, unchanging and full of mercy and grace.
Jesus
Jesus Christ, God’s only son, was born to the Virgin Mary fully human and fully God. He lived a perfect life in place of our imperfect ones, and died the death we deserved because of our sin as our substitute; his resurrection provided us full life. When Jesus Christ physically rose from the dead, He ascended into heaven. Today He serves as our representative, intercessor and advocate with God the Father.
The Holy Spirit
We experience the full life and presence of God in our relationship with God the Spirit, who convicts us of sin, points us to Christ and applies Christ’s work in our lives. He gives gifts and power to the church, creates biblical community within the church, reveals the truth and guides our lives, both individually and together.
Salvation
There is only one way to connect with God – by choosing to accept the offer of forgiveness and reconciliation God offers to us through Jesus Christ’s life, death and resurrection. God will treat us like Christ, because He treated Christ like us – all we have to do is ask. God’s gift of grace makes us His adopted sons and daughters. There is nothing we do to deserve this life; it is all a gift from God. Our job is simply to receive the gift of life and when we do, God begins the process of changing our hearts and minds from the inside out to transform our character to be more like Jesus. Just as we have been reconciled to God, we also have hope in becoming fully reconciled to others.
Christ’s Return
In His own time and way, God will bring the world as we know it to an end. According to His promise, Christ will return personally and visibly to judge the living and the dead to begin the new era of God’s universally visible reign which will last forever, which the Bible calls “the new heavens and new earth.”
The Church
If we are in a relationship with Christ, we are part of the church. Although the church is universal, it is always expressed locally. The church is the visible and local demonstration of the new community Christ came to create. Our community life is led by the Spirit and is devoted to:
- Worshipping God
- Understanding and Applying The Bible to Our Lives
- Offering Connections to Others and Living Life Together
- Serving our Community and using our Spirit-given gifts to Serve Christ and Others
The church celebrates the Sacraments of Baptism and Communion, which are gifts from Christ that represent the experiences of His promise and presence with us. The church is made up of imperfect people who are responding day by day in all of their relationships to God’s stunning grace. The main responsibility of the church is to offer connections to people who do not have a relationship with Christ by offering Christ’s full life and helping those who respond to become whole-hearted Christ-followers.