If you had been driving south on US 1 in the early 1950s you would have driven through the sleepy little town of West Palm Beach. As you drove through the southern part of town, you might have caught a glimpse of a young pastor knocking on the doors of all the homes going up. The young man was the founding pastor, Rev. Richard Neumann.
Many of you know Richard who, after three years at Lakeside, left in 1955 to accept the call to serve on the staff of First Presbyterian Church in
Ft. Lauderdale where he has had a distinguished career for over 50 years.
With a great vision for the future, the founding fathers and mothers of Lakeside chose to build on one of the most beautiful pieces of land in the world, on the intracoastal waterway overlooking Palm Beach.
A group of people were gathered who believed in the primacy of mission, i.e. the mission of serving Jesus Christ. The generations that followed have always tried to carry out that mission by: (1) remembering that we were once a new church and we need to always be about the task of starting new churches; (2) emphasizing the importance of our ministry to young people; and (3) we have been blessed and we need to be a blessing.
As the southern part of West Palm Beach was built out, Rev. Donald Scott led us in one of the longest pastorates at Lakeside. He served Lakeside from 1958 - 1970. Members of our presbytery knew Don who served other churches in our presbytery including First Presbyterian Church, Boca Raton.
If you drive into Lakeside’s parking lot in the summer, you will find our youth loading vans to head out for Montreat, Fun in the Sun, or M-Fuge. Because of this ministry, a number of young men and women have entered the ministry, the last being Kyle Erickson who has recently accepted the call of a yoked parish in Virginia.
If you would like to learn more about how to set up a mission trip for your youth, call pastor Bob Collins. He has lead mission trips to Merida, the Yucatan, Mexico, to the Bahamas, to the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona and the church is planning a mission trip to the Nez Percé Indian Reservation in northern Idaho in 2006.
Believing in the importance of starting new churches, Lakeside has played a vital role in starting Palms West Presbyterian Church in Royal Palm Beach, and All Villages Presbyterian Church in St. Lucie West.
We believe that Jesus Christ is leading us onward to a great future.
