At the night of 18 August, members from the worship ministry in Lakeside Church in Yinchuan City gathered to learn about worship tradition and its relevance to the modern worship. The guest speaker of the programme shared insights on certain modern worship practices in China with their roots traced back from both the Old and New Testament tradition as well as the church history, thus explaining the importance of worship traditions in our modern churches.
From the start, the speaker emphasized again the importance of Sunday worship for the church body. He shared that," We need to firstly see ourselves as a Christian , then a member of the worship ministry."
The worship team in Lakeside Church not only serves in its own church, but also worships in other churches in Ningchuan and nearby sister churches. Amongst those churches, Cedar Church has the greatest number of youths members and has also started to host worship in nearby churches in Qingtongxia.
As Lakeside Church gradually expands its membership scale, it has established another 2 branches for service and fellowship. Worship is still lead by the church's core worship team.
Introduction of Lakeside Church:
Situated in 153 Lakeside Street in Yinchuan, Lakeside Gospel Church has been the main church site in the city. Apart from the main sanctuary, the church is also equipped with two chapels namely, Holy Light Chapel and Grace Chapel. There are roughly 3000 believers worshipping in the church, which includes ministries such as youth fellowship, Sunday school etc.
Lakeside Gospel Church was known as Yinchuan Gospel Church in 1894 as established by a British Missionery known as Pastor Wu Linde. Initially, there were only 10 members attending the church service. The church building was previously located in 20 Yuhuangge North Street, occupying 319.02 square meters laid up simply by bricks. However, the church had later on ceased its activities due to various uncontrollable factors.
In 1980 upon the Religious Reform brought forth by the state, the church managed to resume its activities. In 2000, due to a road broadening project, the church was re-located to 153 Lakeside East Street and took up space of 1314 square meters. In the site, the church occupies 738.34 square meters and the office building occupies another 641 square meters. The church was renamed as Lakeside Church since the re-location.
As the church membership gradually expands, the church has decided to establish four other branches centered around the Lakeside Church. As the main church overseas its branches, it serves to better safeguard the entire church body against the harmful influence of cult groups in the region so as to stabilize the church growth. Also, the church will not need to rely too heavily on house churches for fellowship and service activities, thus lessening burden laid upon the house church hosts. Moreover, more church locations lead to more accessible worship destinations for many believers. From 5th May in 2008, the church has started to organize Daily Watchman Prayer Session in the new site.
In year 2012, Lakeside Church bought unit 89-13 and unit 15 of a 2-storey commercial site of 400 square meters. Upon renovation, a cross was fixated at house entrance. The new building, which has capacity to accommodate 300 pax, was then named as Holy Light Chapel. On 14tg April 2012, the church organized a Church Dedication and Thanksgiving Service to mark the beginning of worship service there.
In 2014, the church bought another commercial site along the street in 174 Yangchengxiang. The site is 350 square meters big comprising 2 storeys and capacity of 300 pax. Its Church Dedication and Thanksgiving service happened on 13th September 2014 and was named as Grace Chapel since then.
