LAKELAND–Preparing to celebrate its 140th anniversary in May, Lakes Church in Lakeland has experienced significant change through the years, but the church’s DNA remains unchanged.
“We’re celebrating 140 years in May, and I remind the church often that we exist because we were planted. Our DNA is to help people see the importance of what we do—gathering around God’s word, evangelism, missions and discipleship,” said Aaron Burgner, Lakeland native and senior pastor since 2017.
Through the years, the church in Lakeland has changed its name and its meeting place numerous times—from its original name, First Baptist Church of Lakeland, which met first in a store, and then in a small frame structure and then in a traditional downtown church building and even in a theater … to First Baptist Church at the Mall, which was shortened to Church at the Mall in the late 1990s, when the church bought and renovated an abandoned mall for its new worship center … to Lakes Church in 2020, when the congregation became a multisite church with three campuses: downtown Lakeland, Auburndale and south Lakeland.
Today, Lakes Church is using all 400,000 square feet of the former mall to “be a gospel-centered beehive” of ministry activity, Burgner said, and it has six campuses, with another Spanish-speaking campus on the horizon. Desiring to be a “multiplying church,” with a long-term church planting strategy and neighborhood church model, Burgner constantly reminds the church that it wouldn’t have existed without a sending church.
The multi-campus church is laser-focused on several things—preaching God’s word, prayer, international missions, church planting and evangelism.
Desiring to “not exist for ourselves” and to “not have any sacred spaces,” Burgner said the church has turned every square inch of the downtown Lakeland space into reaching, discipling and equipping people in the word.
In 2022, the church launched a Christian school—Lakes Church Academy—with the purpose of “building champions for Christ by providing a biblical worldview education in a Christ-centered environment,” he said.
“We desire for our space to be a training ground for kids to know how to be contributing members in the body of Christ,” said Burgner.
The campus has been undergoing a major renovation at the downtown Lakeland location in order to mobilize the church to be more effective and better serve the growing number of people moving into the community. The church hosts a neighborhood food market and café every week, with the sole purpose of intentional, everyday evangelism.
Reaching families with special-needs children
Also included in this recent renovation is what Burgner is “most excited about today”—a new, specific ministry space for children with special needs. Recognizing that one in six families in central Florida has a child with special needs, the church seeks to minister to this highly underserved and unreached demographic of families in the community. In February, the church completed its “first-class facility” for children and teenagers. Taking a cue from Psalm 139:14, the “Wonderfully Made” special needs ministry area has allowed the church to continue its mission of “Christ-centered care,” Burgner said.
“In this dedicated space, we celebrate the unique way each child is crafted by our Creator,” he said. “Every sensory area, calming corner and adaptive learning station has been designed with thoughtful care to honor the beautiful diversity of God’s children.”
Equipped with certified staff and volunteers, this new space has tripled the number of special needs families now attending the church, most of whom have never been able to attend a local church due to the unique challenges and spaces required for their children.
Focused on the Bible
On any given Sunday, Burgner delights in seeing people walking into the church building with “notepads and Bibles” in hand, prepared to study the word, and he prays for the Lord to “stir their affections towards” God.
“We want to be a word-centered church,” Burgner said. “Everything else we do is a reaction to that central focus.”
Over the past several years, the church has become more intentional and strategic about developing international mission partnerships around the world, as well as being a “going church,” said Burgner.
“We’re attempting to get people out the door, asking them to go,” he said. “My objective in preaching is to turn every member into a missionary, wherever God has called them.”
‘Be faithful’
Burgner is encouraged not only by what he sees God doing in his own local church, but as the president of the State Board of Missions for the Florida Baptist Convention, he has also been given a unique perspective of what God is doing across the Sunshine State.
“People are coming to faith in Christ in the state of Florida, and we’re all a part of that; we’re all a team in that. God is always working and saving people, and people are getting baptized every Sunday,” he said.
“Keep at it pastors. Be found faithful in preaching the word and equipping people for the work of ministry. Just be faithful.”