We sometimes read the Bible and think, “Why don’t amazing things like that happen today?” Our story shows that God is doing amazing things in Polk City today!
On a beautiful Sunday morning in the fall of 2005, 25 adults and a few kids met in a small room above a garage just outside of Polk City. It had been a service in the making for a number of months and was now a reality. The energy was high, and everyone was excited to finally hold our first service. God had blessed Lakeside in multiple ways already, but none was more evident than when our first visitor showed up on that Sunday morning. We had adopted the motto “Come as you are, leave different,” and for this one individual this would never ring more true, as she entered into a personal relationship with Jesus after the service concluded.
In just a couple months, we outgrew the room over the garage and moved into the cafeteria at West Elementary. During these early months, we eagerly reached out to the community by knocking on every door in town. God blessed this tremendously as we saw new faces every week and more souls being saved.
Eventually, we moved out of the cafeteria and into the gym as God brought more than 150 people on a regular basis to worship together. Even as we grew, we remained focused on the fact that there were still many more in the community that God wanted to reach.
In 2009, the E-Free church in Polk City chose to transfer its building and some assets to Lakeside. Many members of the E-Free church applied for membership and became part of the Lakeside congregation, which grew our outreach and energized both old and new members.
In 2017, we were blessed with a building of our own, which God allowed us to build debt-free through generous financial giving. With this, we are able to minister to our community through the use of our gym, soccer fields and more. We look forward to serving here for many years to come.
As part of the Engage Network, which is committed to planting more gospel-centered churches around central Iowa, we were excited to send 17 families from our congregation to our new daughter church, New City in Ankeny, in 2019.