Traditionally, membership has been known to represent joining a church, calling it your church home, and/or taking the first step toward involvement and volunteering. Yet the word “membership” has also carried a lot of baggage and has become an unnecessary barrier to involvement for some of our attendees.
Over the years, this has caused some misunderstandings and feelings of exclusivity, which conflicts with our desire to be a church where anyone can get involved and grow.
That being said, we’re glad you’re interested in engaging in the life of our church. As of January 1, 2016 we no longer have traditional membership in the sense that you “join the church,” but we’d love to help you get connected. Our hope is for Great Lakes Church to be a place where you can walk through the doors, call it your church home, and begin to get connected, no title needed. Those who are fully engaged with us are considered our members. We describe full engagement as:
Taking Responsibility for Your Spiritual Journey
Wherever you are in life, whatever is going on, you will always have a next step to take as you grow. Nobody can force you to do this. Those who are fully engaged in the Great Lakes Church community understand that spiritual growth is the responsibility of each individual. The church’s responsibility is to provide an atmosphere that is conducive to growth and learning.
Connecting in a Group
We believe God uses relationships to change each of us for the better, and the reality is that we don’t experience relationships when we’re sitting in rows. Learning together is an important first step, but it’s not the only step. When you’re fully involved in the life of a church, God uses other people to help you grow, and he uses you to help grow other people.
Serving Strategically
We believe when people engage in service, it leads to life change. Whether you serve on a ministry team in our church, in our community, or in the world, God calls us to serve one another.
It takes hundreds of volunteers to make Great Lakes Church happen. Our needs, time commitments, and days for serving are as diverse as the people who attend our services.
Inviting Others
Jesus doesn’t want the church to be an exclusive club. He wants everyone to know him and follow him. So we think it’s vital that as we become fully engaged in church, we invest in the people who live in our world (neighbors, co-workers, family, etc.). That doesn’t mean that we treat them as projects. It means that we genuinely care about them, get to know what’s happening in their lives, and, when the time is right, invite them to take an appropriate next step toward Jesus.
Giving Systematically
God uses the collective resources of the people who are part of the Great Lakes Church family to create environments both locally and globally that make it easy for people to find and follow Jesus Christ.
- Meets every Wednesday, from 7:00-7:50pm, at the Great Lakes Church Operations Center (Kenosha).
- This is a small, relaxed venue (approx. 50-75 adults).
- Since we do not have the space to offer dynamic kid’s programs at our Operations Center, this is an adult only service.
- Communion is served on a regular basis.
- We offer acoustic music, instead of a full band, at this service.
- The talk for the upcoming weekend is filmed at our W.O.W. service, which means that the talk is almost always given “live”.
- W.O.W. is a great option for those who cannot attend on Sunday mornings. It is the EXACT same talk that’s given on the upcoming Sunday.
- We close W.O.W. services, each week, with some good ol’ fashioned snake handling! Just kidding, but that would be exciting.
SUNDAY MORNINGS – KENOSHA CAMPUS
- Meets every Sunday morning, at both 9 and 10:30am, at Tinseltown Movie Theater in Kenosha.
- This is a large, energetic venue (approx. 1400 people on the weekends).
- We offer four adult auditoriums and one family auditorium (for those who prefer to keep their kids with them).
- We offer dynamic KID’S PROGRAMS that take place at the same time as the adult service, so that your child can enjoy learning about God at their level of understanding.
- Our adult auditoriums offer different music styles and volume levels (we’d try to explain it here, but it would only confuse you)!
- Most of the time, the talk is given “live” by one of the pastors. However, with multiple auditoriums, the majority of the church watches the talk on the big screen (which is being simulcast from the “live” auditorium). Believe it or not, many people prefer this!
- Sometimes the entire talk is on video, which was filmed earlier in the week at our W.O.W. service. If this sounds super confusing… that’s because it is! However, we’ve been doing this for awhile and it’s definitely working.
SUNDAY MORNINGS – RACINE CAMPUS
- Meets every Sunday morning, at both 9:30am and 11am, at our building (9605 Spring Street in Racine).
- We offer dynamic KID’S PROGRAMS that take place at the same time as the adult service, so that your child can enjoy learning about God at their level of understanding.
- Our adult auditorium offers a full band and loud music!
- Most of the time, the talk is shown on video. This is the exact same message that is given at other campuses, and was filmed earlier in the week at our W.O.W. service. If this sounds super confusing… that’s because it is! However, we’ve been doing this for awhile and it’s definitely working.
Yes! We believe that being baptized is an important first step for a Christian. It is an outward symbol of the inner commitment to Jesus. Because of this, we think a celebration is in order whenever a part of the Great Lakes Church family makes this public declaration.
In the last 50 years, video has changed the way Americans and the world receive information. With the invention of the television, people suddenly began receiving the majority of their information through a “virtual” person in their living room. We all grew up watching our parents and grandparents huddle around the TV to watch a news anchor bring us the day’s stories on the Evening News.
Today, with the advent of the Internet, computers and smart phones, receiving information and content through video is an expected norm. In fact, we prefer it. Video gives us the ability to see angles on things we otherwise couldn’t see (think watching a football game from the stands or from your couch…) and be closer to communicators then we otherwise could be.
Of course the logic makes sense as it relates to our TV’s or Videos on our computers, but what about the use of video in a church enviornment? The answer is… we’ve seen it work!
Thankfully, because our world is so video savvy, our minds have become accustomed to receiving from someone on a video screen. Video is simply a medium of communication, just like paper and ink are, or an mp3 is. It’s merely a platform for communication, and therefore we’ve found it to be a non-factor.
Ultimately, the reason we decided to do so much teaching on video is because it allowed us to expand geogropahically. We have three campuses that receive the exact same talk each week and this seemed to be the best way for us to do it.
If you have a question about something not covered on this page, please contact us.