As we look back on our accomplishments of the past year, we are humbled and grateful for how God has been working in and through our church. Together, we have experienced remarkable spiritual growth, deepened our commitment to missions, and strengthened our sense of community. Here are some of the key highlights that have shaped our journey:
Congregational Life
God is powerfully at work in the ministries of Congregational Life! Our Connect Ministry has grown from a team of 12 volunteers to 90! The Connect Ministry provides our congregation with cheerful greeters, new-member connections, ushering, parking lot hosts, and helps congregants get plugged-in to discipleship and service opportunities. The Care Ministries department has organized a group of 60 lay leaders into a Pastoral Extension Team. This team provides specialized forms of care, support, and ministry to our congregation—on campus, in homes, and during hospital visits. During the January fires, our staff and Care Ministries team provided care, benevolence, and support to over 300 individuals (and that work continues today). This team powerfully reflects the heart of Jesus by ensuring that no one suffers alone.
Our Children’s and Young Family Ministry has seen significant growth. The Children’s Ministry has doubled in size over the last year, and it continues to see 1-2 new families each week. Our amazing volunteers and teachers continue to provide excellent biblical instruction with a new curriculum called The Gospel Project. Our Children’s Ministry team also hosted a large VBS this summer. At VBS we hosted 300 students, and were supported by 200 volunteers. The NextGen Ministries team continues to offer dynamic programs of discipleship and spiritual growth for Middle School, High School, College, and Young Adults. Over the last year, we have seen nearly 25 young people baptized! God is raising up a vibrant generation of young people at Lake to become committed followers of Jesus. Our prayer ministry has seen salvations and miraculous encounters in the prayer room during worship services. The Vets Ministry has developed a new leadership team to support Vets at Lake and beyond. The Marriage Ministry continues to provide deep, careful support to couples in all seasons of life. The Grandparenting Ministry is preparing to host a Visionary Family Ministries Conference at Lake in 2026 that will focus on developing the family as the key site of discipleship and formation. Many of our Adult Fellowships have been growing in number and we were particularly excited to see the launch of a new Adult Fellowship comprised of older young adults (OYA), which meets twice a month. Our staff ministers have been asked to focus on developing relational connections with congregants on Sundays (with our new coffee carts) and have booked thousands of hours with congregants through ministry activities and personal appointments during the year. God is doing amazing things at Lake Avenue Church (too much to write here), and we are thrilled to be a part of it!
Worship & the Arts
This year we saw a number of powerful opportunities to gather and grow as a family of God that worships together. The Fall of 2024 brought to us the hiring of Next-Gen Worship Leader, Benjie Baer, and his leadership not only of key Sunday morning worship services, but also student and family worship gatherings and the mentoring of student and young adult worship leaders and musicians. We had our Week of Worship at the end of October, the Dwelling Place, Living Room, and Abide worship gatherings, as well as our New Year’s Eve Worship Night and Block Party, a new Lenten Service leading up to our Good Friday and Easter celebrations. We also saw a new and continuing collaboration with worship teams at Azusa Pacific University. New compositions of orchestral works by Duane Funderburk included “Like A River Glorious” and “The Beatitudes” (composed with Melody Hung). Pastor Jeremy brought us a new song of worship he wrote called, “Who You Are.” We also had a Fall Chamber Concert featuring Natalie Boberg, Duane Funderburk, Matt Daley, and David Catalan; An Evening with C.S. Lewis performed by Phil Crowley; the Messiah Sing-Along; both the Fire Relief Orchestra Concert led by Esther Kim and Duane Funderburk, and the Night of Hope Benefit Concert in partnership with Eight Days of Hope. Our children’s choir participated in worship services and recorded a project with Ed Willmington and the Brehm Center of Worship, Theology, and the Arts at Fuller Theological Seminary. They also performed a musical in May called, “Holy Moses.” Lastly, our year ended with the Expressions of Faith and Hope Concert featuring soloists from the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra, Moscow.
Missional Outreach
As our community faced the sorrow and loss caused by the Eaton Fire, we were given meaningful opportunities to extend love and care to those impacted by the tragedy. We partnered with organizations such as Samaritan’s Purse, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Christian Legal Aid of Los Angeles, Eight Days of Hope, and churches from across the nation to offer physical, emotional, legal, and spiritual support to those who lost homes, loved ones, and entire communities. Our Fire Relief and Benevolence Funds have been actively disbursed to assist in recovery efforts. Recognizing the anxiety faced by undocumented individuals in our community during this season of intensified immigration enforcement, we offered legal resources and pastoral care as a tangible expression of Christ’s compassion. And year after year, Community Meals continue to be served faithfully through Testimony Ministries, demonstrating the ongoing love of Christ to our unhoused neighbors. To further deepen our engagement with seven local ministry partners in our immediate area, we launched the “Love in Action” grant, a new initiative designed to partner with them in community service. We also created the “First Commission Initiative” grant to support a range of local evangelism projects that aim to introduce the gospel to people of other religions or no religion in our neighborhood.
The Global Outreach (GO) Team worked with exceptional diligence to evaluate and revise our list of Global Partners and is working on creating new policies, processes, and selection criteria that align with our broader vision and mission. We commissioned a new global partner couple to serve in Germany. A passionate and dedicated team of our members traveled to Thailand and India on short-term mission trips, serving and learning alongside our global partners in those regions. One of the most exciting accomplishments of the year is the publication of the LAC Global Partner Booklet. This compact and accessible resource introduces our actively supported global partners to the Lake Avenue Church family. We encourage you to keep this booklet with you, use it as a prayer guide, and join our global partners in fulfilling the Great Commission. We praise God for all that has been accomplished through our Missional Outreach Team this year. As we continue to respond to the call to both “Come and See,” and "Go and Tell," we remain committed to equipping one another to serve both our neighborhood and the nations with the gospel of Christ.