Purpose Statement​

The Purpose Statement for LCS is that we build a Biblical Ministry patterned after what the Lord God asked of the Nation of Israel as they begin their exile in Babylon as found in Jeremiah 29.

• God asked the Israelites to blend into their Babylonian communities and participate in the benefits it offered. They were to plant, work to sustain themselves, and increase their numbers through marriage and the starting of families. They were not to isolate themselves in any way. They were to participate in the activity and commerce of that city. Lakeside Christian is a corporate entity that planted itself in the city of Clearwater in 1975 as a K-12 educational and evangelical ministry serving the children within the reach of our location. Our school staff is a spiritual body of New Testament believers planted to serve the citizens of Clearwater and to be God’s people in its midst. We provide fruitful work to about 25 staff annually with an annual payroll of 1.6 million and growing.

• A key component of the mandate God gave his exiled people was that they spend their 70 years in exile with a specific purpose, seeking the welfare of that great city and praying for them. They were to focus on prospering the Babylonians with their time and talents. In so doing, God promised He would prosper them. We are pleased that God would continue to see LCS through another year of fruitful ministry. We served 240 students in the past school year. Eighty percent of our students were from families whose income allowed them access to Florida state scholarships. Without that scholarship, 192 students’ families could not have afforded the high cost of private school tuition. Lakeside Christian only asks those students’ parents to contribute a small amount to help cover educational costs for each student. The average scholarship value falls short of the break-even cost of education by nearly $400. We need and rely on generous donors to help us cover the annual gap in the costs to provide their educational services.  The school employed 2 additional staff during the past school year that worked in small-group learning and after-school tutoring to help many students accelerate toward grade-level learning. Your generous donations helped Lakeside cover the unfunded costs of parents who could not afford to pay for tuition, books, and technology.

• The prospering mandate of Jeremiah 29 comes with an expectation of hard and difficult work on behalf of our community. The community of children we serve often does not share in many of the benefits provided to our own families. Two parents at home, a livable income, and quality early learning is often not the norm with many school families. We can expect that at least 40% of students enrolled after grade 4 will have discernable gaps in the mastery of prior grade-level learning. If a student is enrolled after grade 7, that grows to 80%. The Lord has given us a ministry of recovery for those students so that their lives might be prospered by any gains we can achieve while they are students with us. We know that we are citizens and neighbors who hope to see them in the future with sustainable employment, godly marriages, and growing families. Lakeside exists as well to prosper our neighbors spiritually because of our love for Christ. Many of our families are unchurched and students come with no background knowledge of the Word of God. We purpose to plant ourselves in this ministry and community endeavoring to grow the Body of Christ through the mandate given us in the New Testament of Evangelizing the World by and through witnessing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This makes Evangelism a priority of our work as Missionaries to the unsaved students in our midst. Daily, all of our staff purposefully integrate God’s Word into their daily instruction such that pre-evangelism is sustained grade by grade, class by class. Weekly chapels and Bible camps are produced by our Youth Ministry Staff seeing about 100 students a year participating in deeper learning about their Creator and Savior. In those environments, we most often see the Lord at work calling and drawing students to Himself resulting in professions of faith.

The school’s spiritual prosperity of students benefits greatly from the integration of the Lakeside Chapel Youth Staff providing camps and Discipleship opportunities for all the Lord is calling in our midst. Corporately, the body of Christ from Lakeside Church and Lakeside School work as a team to continue to evangelize and disciple students outside of the school day. With the cost of camps exceeding $300 per student, many of our students rely on donations to cover their camp costs. We do not want to hinder the spread of the gospel due to their lack of funds. 

We call on you to prayerfully consider an additional donation to Lakeside Christian School earmarked to LCC Youth Ministries Camp Scholarships.