FROM STOREFRONT TO REGIONAL IMPACT
By RaeAnn Slaybaugh
Guided by careful analysis, collaborative construction leadership, and unwavering stewardship, Lakeshore Church created room for the future without compromising mission or budget.
After 30 years and 22 years, respectively, at Lakeshore Church, Lead Pastor Brad Howard and Executive Pastor Nick Dekold have navigated through many seasons. Howard has been with Lakeshore since its early days, joining the team in 1994 when it was still a 1,000-square-foot storefront church in downtown Rowlett, Texas. Dekold came onboard in 2004 when one of his Bible school professors was hired as a pastor at the church.“ They allowed him to bring an assistant,” Dekold says.“ I’ ve been on the team here, in different roles, ever since.” Suffice it to say, these two gentlemen have been instrumental in Lakeshore’ s growth over the years. When Howard and his team decided to expand beyond the storefront space in 1996, they bought a small church in downtown Rockwall that needed renovation. In 2001, the church began to acquire other properties in the area to house dedicated ministries, including Sunday School, youth group gatherings, and so on. For a few more years, Lakeshore Church made this decentralized approach to ministry work— and well: by 2003, expansion was again in order.“ We were doing four services on a Sunday,” Howard explains This time, a consultant was brought in to do an expert assessment of the smartest path forward for Lakeshore. First and foremost, the consultant recommended hiring an executive pastor to help Howard manage the church’ s rampant growth.“ He knew I needed someone to handle the business, the day-to-day, the detail stuff,” Howard recalls. Next, the consultant advised buying more property, but not downtown— the church needed to relocate. On his advice, Lakeshore leaders recalibrated big-time and bought 50 acres of land south of Rockwall off Highway 205. On it, they built a
45,000-square-foot church building— their first new church home— which was finished in 2004. Growth continued until, in 2019, the need for even more space became evident. Because Howard Nick Dekold and Brad Howard knew firsthand the value of getting an expert opinion before making big moves like this, Lakeshore commissioned a feasibility study by Richardson, Texasbased Goff Companies. That proprietary SAFE assessment( Strategic Assessment for Facility Expansion) provided a clear, comprehensive roadmap for using objective data, demographics, regional search analysis and— maybe most importantly— vast experience helping growing churches make room for more ministry.“ That’ s what got the ball rolling,” Howard recalls.“ That’ s how we got off dead-center and began moving forward.”
But not so fast … If“ 2019” strikes fear in a pastor’ s heart, it’ s no doubt because of one thing: COVID. At the time— gameplan in hand— Lakeshore leaders were on the verge of solidifying the expansion project with Goff Companies. Instead, they pushed“ pause” on just about everything, including the building project. Fast-forward five years and the church was once again ready to build. When Howard and Dekold( now serving as Executive Pastor) re-engaged Goff Companies to build the expansion— including a new, larger, more modern Worship Center— it was already designed. The architect incorporated findings from the 2019 SAFE assessment into his work.“ Personally, that assessment gave me comfort that the final verdict was, yes, the building is limiting our growth,” Dekold explains.“[ Goff ] did internal assessments, external assessments, looked at every factor
16 CHURCH EXECUTIVE | JAN / FEB 2026