Lakeshore Community Church hosted their 15th Roc Services on Sunday, August 26, 2021. This service brings together churches with diversity to worship as one. Pastor Vince DiPaola, of Lakeshore Community Church, met Bishop Dave Singleton, of Ark of Jesus Ministries, in 1997. Ark of Jesus Ministries is a Christian church located in the city of Rochester. The friendship between Pastor Vince and Bishop Singleton grew into helping one another with small projects eventually leading to having a service together. Over the past 15 years, ROC Services has grown to include other city churches and a Messianic Jewish congregation. “By and large people have loved it. There is a beauty in diversity and that is attractive to many and yet, we all share a common faith in Jesus Christ and that is what really causes a powerful response to the services. There are always people who will say to me, or the other Pastors, that they have learned how to better relate to and love people who look different than themselves. In fact, at times, people acknowledge that they struggle with racial stereotypes and the service is a part of the journey to overcome them. That’s so cool to hear,” Pastor Vince said.
This year ROC Services had over 500 people in attendance from Lakeshore and the three guest churches, Ark of Jesus Ministries, Bishop David Singleton; Victorious Living Church, Dr. Barbara Thomas and Pastor Warren Meeks Congregation; and Shema Yisrael, Rabbi Jim Appel. The service opened with the blowing of a Shofar which is a horn of a ram and used for important Jewish occasions. Each church shared in their own unique worship music with their worship team as well as a message from their leader. The service wrapped up with a dynamic closing as all four church leaders and the worship teams came together for the closing worship song.
According to Pastor Vince, Lakeshore Community Church has been committed to racial reconciliation well before it garnered national media attention. “We have been committed to modeling unity so that others will be inspired by positive modeling as opposed to the negative responses we can sometimes see throughout the county,” he said.
The church is active in many other initiatives to help continue role modeling love, including outreach programs that help with Flower City Work Camp, each year helping with home repair projects, Greece Schools to distribute food to their needy families at Thanksgiving and Christmas, and the annual Love Week ministry who help with projects throughout Rochester free of charge showing love and kindness to the homeless, first responders and area nursing homes.
Pastor Vince hopes to expand future ROC Services.
For more information on Lakeshore Community Church visit http://www.lakeshorechurch.org/
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