A West Loop Congregation with an Assemblies of God Heart
Lake Shore Church gathers in the heart of downtown Chicago, in a second-floor room of the Merit School of Music on South Peoria Street. From that West Loop location each Sunday, a small but devoted congregation opens its Bibles, lifts its voice in worship, and listens to expository teaching from Lead Pastor Craig Brian Larson. The church describes itself as "Scripture-teaching, Jesus-following, Spirit-filled" and openly identifies with the Assemblies of God, pointing visitors to the fellowship's full statement of faith for additional detail.
What distinguishes Lake Shore Church is the combination of three things rarely found together: a downtown Chicago address, a longtime pastor-scholar who is also a published author, and a warmly Pentecostal welcome that takes worship seriously without becoming rigid. The congregation meets for Sunday worship, gathers in members' homes on Wednesdays, prays together on Saturday evenings over Zoom, and runs a steady stream of ministries for children, men, women, and the streets of Chicago.
Sunday Mornings at Merit School of Music
The Sunday service begins at 10:00 a.m. in room 210 of the Merit School of Music, 38 S. Peoria Street, on the second floor. Doors open at 9:30 a.m., and the half hour before the service is itself a gathering: members of the church meet in the sanctuary to pray together for the worship that is about to begin. Visitors who arrive a few minutes early are greeted at the door, welcomed into the room, and invited to join prayer, worship, and Bible teaching. After the service there is time for coffee and conversation.
The service itself centers on Scripture. Pastor Brian opens with a worship segment, then teaches through a passage of Scripture verse by verse. Recent Sunday messages have walked through the Gospel of John - sermons titled "Sunday Bible Sermon" on John 2 and the wedding at Cana, "Sunday Worship" on Psalm 119:105, and a service on John 1 titled "Following Jesus as a Discile." A second Sunday message is also posted most weeks, often with a complementary passage, so the Sunday gathering typically produces both a Bible-sermon entry and a worship entry in the archive.
Street parking and public transit are available in the West Loop, and the church suggests planning extra time on Sunday mornings. The Sunday gathering is also livestreamed on the church's website and simulcast on YouTube, so members traveling, sick, or living elsewhere can join in real time. Past services remain in the sermon archive for later viewing and listening.
Scripture-Based Teaching from Pastor Brian Larson
Craig Brian Larson - known to the church as Pastor Brian - has served Lake Shore Church in Chicago since 1995, making him one of the longer-tenured downtown pastors in the city. He is also one of the better known in broader Christian circles. Pastor Brian holds a master's degree in theology from Wheaton Graduate School and a bachelor's from Illinois State University, and he spent fifteen years serving in editorial roles for Christianity Today's Leadership Journal and PreachingToday.com, where he read and listened to thousands of sermons by preachers from many backgrounds.
That editorial work left its mark on the church's pulpit. Pastor Brian's published books include Preaching That Connects and The Art and Craft of Biblical Preaching (both from Zondervan), The Preacher's Toolbox (Hendrickson), Running the Midnight Marathon (Revell), Pastoral Grit (Bethany House), and the more recent Know - Gaining Wisdom from God About Everything. He has also written over 100 articles for Christian magazines. His preaching is expository: a passage is opened, the grammar is honored, the context is explained, and the text is applied.
Outside of Sunday mornings, Pastor Brian publishes a separate audio teaching podcast called "Knowing God and His Ways," hosted on Libsyn and synced to the church's podcast page twice a week. Episodes typically walk through a short passage from John - recent titles include "Jesus Changes Water to Wine," "Following Jesus as a Discile," "What Jesus's Title 'The Son of God' Means," "Jesus and the Holy Spirit," and "Jesus the Lamb of God Who Takes Away Your Sins." He also keeps a blog on his personal site, writes a weekly letter from the Pastor's Desk that appears on the church's homepage, and shares daily encouragement on Facebook.
Wednesday Prayer and Fellowship
The midweek gathering is a defining rhythm of Lake Shore Church. Wednesday evenings at 6:15 p.m. CT the congregation meets for prayer, worship, Bible study, and a shared meal - typically a "providence dinner" hosted in a member's home. The gathering rotates among host homes across the city, and the exact address is announced each week; anyone interested can call or email the church to receive the week's location and the Zoom Meeting ID for those who cannot attend in person.
Midweek teaching has its own series flavor. Recent Wednesday studies have included "God's Covenant with King David" on 2 Samuel 7:1 - 17 and "The New Covenant (continued) - New Age to Come" on 2 Corinthians 1:21, part of a long-running walk through the six major covenants of Scripture. The same Zoom room is used for the Wednesday gathering, the Saturday prayer meeting, and occasional online Sunday services, so joining is as simple as a single tap from the church's app or website.
Saturdays on Zoom, Sundays in the Sanctuary
One of the quieter but more distinctive rhythms at Lake Shore Church is the Saturday evening prayer call. At 6:30 p.m. Central on Saturdays the church gathers on Zoom for fifteen minutes of focused prayer for the next morning's worship - the message, the people who will attend, and the move of the Holy Spirit among them. The Zoom link is the same one used throughout the week. Sunday morning then layers in-person prayer on top: at 9:30 a.m., half an hour before doors open, anyone who has arrived early meets in the sanctuary to pray for the service together.
The church takes prayer seriously in other ways too. Anyone can submit a prayer request through a form on the prayer page; submissions are read only by the church staff and are never posted publicly on the website, livestream, or screens. The same privacy boundary covers the feedback form, which allows anyone in the church family to share thoughts about Sunday service, worship, teaching, or the Wednesday gathering - by name or anonymously.
What Lake Shore Church Believes
The beliefs page lays out eleven foundational doctrines in the language of Scripture. The Bible, Lake Shore teaches, is the inspired, inerrant Word of God and the authoritative rule of faith and conduct. The one true God has revealed Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - one God in three persons. Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God: born of a virgin, sinless in life, crucified for the forgiveness of sins, raised bodily from the dead, ascended to heaven, and coming again in power and glory.
Salvation is received by grace through repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The church practices water baptism by immersion as an outward expression of that faith and regularly observes communion, the Lord's Supper, in remembrance of Christ's sacrificial death. The Holy Spirit equips believers with spiritual gifts for the building up of the body, and the church teaches that, after salvation, every believer may receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit - a distinct empowering for service, the same gift poured out at Pentecost.
Lake Shore Church looks for the Second Coming of Christ, which it describes in classic Pentecostal terms: the rapture of the saints as the blessed hope, followed by the visible return of Christ with his saints to reign on earth for one thousand years. Those who have trusted in Christ will spend eternity in God's presence; those who have rejected him will be eternally separated from him. For the fuller denominational statement, the church points visitors to the Assemblies of God's published beliefs.
Children, Men, Women, and Street Ministry
The church's ministries are organized around three movements - Connect, Serve, and Watch and Listen - but the shape of daily life shows up most clearly in a handful of named ministries.
Sunday school offers Bible teaching for children before and alongside Sunday worship, using age-appropriate curriculum rooted in Scripture. Men's ministry gathers brothers for prayer, accountability, and practical teaching on walking honestly before God as husbands, fathers, and witnesses at work. Women's ministry brings sisters together to study the Word, intercede, and share Christ in neighborhoods, workplaces, and gyms. A weekly Men's Bible Study is also listed in the events archive, with all men welcome and a Bible to bring.
The Levites ministry is the church's name for its team of ushers, communion preparers, altar-ministry coordinators, and weekly setup volunteers - the people who make Sunday run smoothly. The technology team handles the livestream, sound, slides, and digital tools for both in-person and online church; experience with audio, video, or ProPresenter is welcome, though willing hearts are what the church emphasizes.
The street ministry takes the gospel to public spaces in Chicago, with teams going out with prayer, literature, and invitations to church. Training emphasizes love, respect, and bold witness. Periodic Providence Lunches follow selected Sunday services, sharing a meal as family and giving thanks for God's provision; the church also runs a Worldwide Missions program that tithes into missionaries in America and around the world through the regular giving channels.
Worship, Sacraments, and the Sunday Flow
Worship at Lake Shore Church is described as contemporary in style, centered on the Word and the work of the Spirit. Communion is observed on the Sundays when the church prepares for it, and the Levites team handles the elements. Water baptism is offered to anyone who has professed faith in Christ and wants to follow him publicly; the testimonies page includes a story from a recent baptism Sunday that the church calls "a public yes to Jesus." Testimonies of healing, salvation, and workplace witness are shared on the testimonies page, and the church invites others to submit their own stories for publication.
Giving and the Wider Mission
Lake Shore Church is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. The fastest way to give is through Zelle, sent directly from a bank app to (312) 464-1834; giving online is also available through Zeffy, which does not take a platform cut from church gifts. Giving categories include Tithe/Offering (general weekly ministry and worship), Building Fund, Missions, Mercy Fund, and Other. Checks can be mailed to the church's P.O. Box, and cash gifts can be placed during Sunday worship at Merit School of Music. The church's missions giving supports missionaries in America and abroad through the Worldwide Missions fund.
Joining the Church Family
Anyone who has put faith in Christ is welcome at the Lord's table and at the church. The salvation page walks new believers through a simple three-step prayer of acknowledgment, belief, and confession, then points to next steps: tell someone at Lake Shore Church, begin reading the Gospel of John, pray daily, and consider believer's baptism and the baptism in the Holy Spirit. The church's app - available for iPhone and Android - gives a single tap to the livestream, the Zoom room, the sermon archive, and the giving form.
A Church with a Long Memory and a Short Distance to the Front Door
Lake Shore Church has been part of Chicago's downtown spiritual landscape since 1995, and its longevity shows up in the texture of its life. Members who joined in the early years still attend; some have brought grown children, who in turn bring friends. The church's two-and-a-half-decade run also explains why the music, the teaching style, and the patterns of hospitality feel settled rather than improvised. In a city where downtown congregations often come and go, Lake Shore has stayed - meeting in a school on Peoria Street on Sunday mornings, in living rooms across the city on Wednesday evenings, and over Zoom on Saturday nights - and has done so by keeping its focus on the same things week after week: the Bible read aloud, the name of Jesus spoken plainly, and the table set for whoever walks in.