Lakeview Baptist Church stands at 107 Mauldin Lake Road in Pickens, South Carolina, under a motto that sums up its commitments: God-Exalting, Gospel-Centered, and Grace-Motivated. The congregation is known for rich expositional preaching and teaching, for a Sunday rhythm that starts with Bible classes at 10:00 a.m. and moves into worship at 11:00 a.m., and for a deliberately Reformed and confessional approach to Baptist faith. Services are livestreamed on YouTube, and an extensive sermon archive can be sorted by series, book of Scripture, topic, speaker, and date.
Sunday School at Ten, Worship at Eleven
Lakeview's Sunday begins with teaching. Adult and children's Sunday school classes meet at 10:00 a.m., with morning worship following at 11:00 a.m. and an evening service at 6:00 p.m. On Wednesday, worship and youth meet together at 7:00 p.m. Visitors can find service times and directions for the church on Mauldin Lake Road.
Adults have two classes during the Sunday school hour. One meets in the sanctuary, and the other is a dedicated men's class that meets alongside it. Families with children also have two options: a "littles" class for toddlers and younger, and a second class that welcomes kindergartners through sixth graders. That means a toddler and a sixth-grader each have a class of their own while their parents are in an adult class.
What the Bible Regulates
Lakeview holds that the Bible governs its own worship. Because the church believes the Gospel is truly life-changing, it says, the Scriptures regulate what happens when the congregation gathers. Visitors can expect expository preaching and singing that are God-exalting, gospel-centered, and grace-motivated. The church describes that three-part commitment in specific terms:
- God-Exalting. Exalting God over all, holding His word to be the only guidebook for gathering for worship and pursuing holiness, believing in the sovereignty of God, and holding to the historic Christian beliefs found in the Baptist forefathers.
- Gospel-Centered. Proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ without apology, carrying it out in Pickens and to the uttermost parts of the world through local evangelism and through supporting missionaries worldwide.
- Grace-Motivated. Living the truths of Scripture without compromise while motivated by grace, shown in fostering authentic Biblical fellowship within the church and in striving to serve Pickens with the grace of Christ.
Nine Articles of Faith
The church holds to a doctrinal statement in nine parts, each anchored in Scripture. In brief:
- The Holy Scriptures. Their authority rests fully upon God as their author rather than on the testimony of any man or church, so they are to be submitted to as the very word of God. Both the Old and New Testaments are inspired, inerrant, infallible, and all-sufficient in the original writings, and God has preserved His word through history as final authority for the faith and conduct of the Christian.
- God and the Holy Trinity. There is only one God, who shares His glory with no one, creates and sustains all things, and is sovereign over all things. God exists eternally in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each distinct but in perfect unity and one in essence.
- The Fall of Man. Man was created in the image of God and in perfect harmony with God, but rebelled against the one true and Holy God, bringing physical and spiritual death upon all humanity and leaving people totally depraved before God.
- The Person and Work of Christ. Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, truly God and truly man, one person with two natures. He died voluntarily to satisfy the wrath of God in our place, and those who believe on Him are saved. The church also professes His physical and literal resurrection, His ascension, and His being seated at the right hand of the Father as chief cornerstone and head of His church.
- Regeneration. A transformation from being spiritually dead to being made spiritually alive, brought by the Holy Spirit, enlightening the mind to understand the Word of God and renewing the whole nature so that people love and practice holiness, a work of God's free and special grace alone.
- Election. Before the foundation of the world, and for His own glory, God elected a great host of men and women who cannot be counted to eternal life as an act of free and sovereign grace, in no way dependent on His foresight of human faith, decision, works, or merit.
- The Church. Christ is the head of the church, which is composed of all His true disciples and is called to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the nations. All believers are duty-bound to join a local church as members whenever possible. Christ appointed two positions of leadership in the church, elders (pastors) and deacons, and both roles are reserved for men according to the Scriptures.
- The End Times. God will bring the world to its appropriate end in His own time and way. Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth, the dead will be raised, Christ will judge all men in righteousness, the unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, and the righteous will receive their reward and dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.
- Ordinances. Only those truly born again are considered for baptism, which is held to be the God-ordained sign of a person's union with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection, and the door of entrance into the visible community of the people of God. Baptism is administered by immersion. The Lord's Supper is a God-ordained act of worship observed frequently in the church, with the bread and cup remaining only symbols of the broken body and shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and only true believers and members in good standing admitted to the Table.
The Covenant the Congregation Renews
Lakeview's members renew a written church covenant together. It opens with the confession that members have been brought by divine grace to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, to give themselves up to Him, and to have been baptized upon their profession of faith in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
From that starting point, the promises are concrete. Members work and pray for the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, walk together in brotherly love, exercise affectionate care and watchfulness over one another, and faithfully admonish and entreat one another as occasion requires. They do not forsake the assembling of themselves together, nor neglect to pray for themselves and others. They endeavor to bring up those under their care in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and, by a pure and loving example, to seek the salvation of their family and friends. They rejoice at one another's happiness and bear one another's burdens and sorrows with tenderness and sympathy. They seek by divine aid to live carefully in the world, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, remembering that as they have been buried by baptism and raised again from the symbolic grave, there rests on them a special obligation to lead a new and holy life.
The covenant also commits members to work together for the continuance of a faithful evangelical ministry, sustaining its worship, ordinances, discipline, and doctrines, and to contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of the ministry, the expenses of the church, the relief of the poor, and the spread of the Gospel through all nations. Members who move are asked to unite as soon as possible with another church where they can carry on the spirit of the covenant and the principles of God's Word. Members also have a private members' area with the church directory and member resources.
Pastor Jonathan Turner and the Deacons
Pastor Jonathan Turner has shepherded God's people for 17 years in Virginia, North Carolina, Montana, and now in Pickens. He studied at Liberty University, Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and most recently Master's Seminary, although he was not able to finish there. He says those years of training led him to embrace and cherish the Doctrines of Grace and Reformed Theology, and he names the reading of Martyn Lloyd Jones, John Bunyan, Thomas Watson, Charles Spurgeon, and R.C. Sproul as formative influences. He and his wife Chelsea are settled in Pickens, and he describes his spare time as time with Chelsea, lifting weights, drinking good coffee, watching sports, and enjoying the best food Pickens County has to offer.
Six deacons serve alongside him: Brian Ellison, Dan Johnson, Jack Hanson, Jason Dalton, Justin Belcher, and Roger Kelley. Their presence reflects the church's conviction that Christ appointed two positions of leadership in local churches, elders (pastors) and deacons, and that both are reserved for men according to Scripture.
Bro-ology Breakfasts and Thursday Study
Two gatherings give the church calendar a monthly rhythm. "Bro-ology," the men's breakfast, meets on the second Saturday of each month at 9:00 a.m. for what the church calls great food, fellowship, and a time in God's Word. The Ladies Bible Study meets on the third Thursday of each month from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. The men's class that meets during the Sunday school hour provides one more steady setting for men to study and talk together.
Reading is treated as part of discipleship here. The featured book is Donald Whitney's "Praying the Bible," chosen because it addresses a familiar struggle: people who are truly born-again Christians often do not pray simply because they do not feel like it, and the repetition in their prayers can leave them assuming their prayers are meaningless and without effect. The pastor's recommended reading list spans theology, the Christian life, church life, spiritual disciplines, church history, counseling, and social and cultural issues, with titles by John Calvin, Martyn Lloyd Jones, R.C. Sproul, Sinclair Ferguson, Joel Beeke, Paul Tripp, and many others. Titles on biblical eldership, deacons, church membership, public worship, family worship, prayer, and counseling sit alongside theology and historical works, which gives families a wide shelf to work from together.
Sharing the Gospel in Pickens and Beyond
The mission statement calls the church to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ faithfully in Pickens, its state, its country, and to the uttermost parts of the world. It names the means plainly: local evangelism, prayer, sending out missionaries, and supporting missionaries. Lakeview maintains missionary partnerships and local partnerships, and it points families toward other faithful ministries it recommends, including Answers In Genesis, Ligonier, Founders Ministries, Truth for Life, G3, HeartCry Missionary Society, the Biblical Counseling Coalition, and ACBC Biblical Counseling.
Its "one-anothers" emphasis is close to home as well. The church describes itself as devoted to practicing the one-anothers of Scripture by fostering authentic Biblical fellowship within Christ's church in Pickens, and it names the city repeatedly in its own purposes: the Gospel is to be carried out in Pickens, and the church strives to serve Pickens with the grace of Christ.
Lakeview Christian School
Lakeview Christian School is the church's own school, serving students from kindergarten through ninth grade. The school offers a nurturing environment that fosters academic excellence and spiritual growth, with a dedicated staff committed to providing a well-rounded education that prepares students for the future. Families can reach the school office at (864) 878-6959.
All of it comes back to the four commitments Lakeview names for itself: theology committed to the whole counsel of God, a focus on knowing God through His all-sufficient word, a mission to share the Gospel faithfully in Pickens and beyond, and a community devoted to practicing the one-anothers. Lakeview Baptist Church, at 107 Mauldin Lake Road in Pickens, gathers for Sunday school at 10:00 a.m., morning worship at 11:00 a.m., evening worship at 6:00 p.m., and Wednesday worship and youth at 7:00 p.m.