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 knew firsthand the value of getting an expert opinion before making big moves like this, Lakeshore commissioned a feasibility study by Richardson, Texas-based 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 surrounding us — even did a heat map to identify where our people were coming from.”
These insights revealed something pivotal: Lakeshore Church wasn’t just a local church — it was regional. “Feeling confident that we would continue to reach people in the community was key,” Dekold adds. “The assessment helped us know that expanding our footprint right here on our existing campus was the right decision.”
The plans spoke to this community-centric commitment. For one thing, worship seating would be increased from 600 to 1,200.
“The SAFE assessment deemed that was our ‘sweet spot,’” Dekold says. “Essentially, we wanted to double everything we had. We knew that doubling the Worship Center space would do that for us.”
Additionally, an expanded two-story Commons area would connect the two buildings, merging old and new. A café and integrated gathering areas would foster better people-flow, relationship-building, and multi-use ministry.
“There’s a separation there between floors, but it doesn’t feel separate,” Howard points out. “And the café, with its glass roll-up doors, allows people to gather and commune inside and out.”
Also part of the plan: a remodel/reimagining/rededication of the original Worship Center as children’s ministry space and — surprisingly — fewer entry doors into and out of the building and Worship Center.
For Howard, this last directive was personal (and pretty funny).
“When we built our first building back in 2004, we put an insane number of entry and exit doors in our new worship center. I think it was close to 15 or 16…”
Dekold clarifies: “Yeah, I think we had 10 different entrances just on the front of the building. Once you got into the lobby, there was another 12 or 15 going into our Worship Center.”
This time would be different: Howard and Dekold opted for fewer doors in the new Worship Center. The decision wasn’t purely personal — it was also practical.
“As our church culture got more defined, we realized that we wanted to have a very high-touch environment. We wanted to make sure people were cared for and greeted well,” Howard explains. “For the size of building, we still have a good number of entrances. But now, we’re making sure everybody is greeted, everybody gets a smile, everybody gets talked to as they’re walking in.”
Last but not least, the new Worship Center plans called for a more modern, attractive exterior. To this end, it would be situated on the site in a way that provides a beautiful view from the road. Aside from drive-up appeal, this approach also hid most of the existing building’s former front facade.
Partnership through every obstacle
With a clear path forward, work began. Goff Companies served as the Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR) for the project. Along the way, issues naturally arose — namely, water.
First, a local water shortage posed a significant challenge, as it’s a necessary component for preparing the site for paving and foundation.
“So, we had to come up with a strategy to keep the cost down by bringing in our own water,” Howard explains. “We had a great big pond in front of our church. We ended up pulling water out of there, and that saved us some money.”
“It was actually a Goff superintendent who came up with that idea,” Dekold adds. “They got a submersible pump working. It wasn’t as fast as having a construction meter, but it kept the project moving forward.”
Then it started raining. A lot.
Record-breaking rainfall during construction of the foundation posed potential havoc. Here again, the Goff Companies team got creative by reordering how they set the foundation of the new Worship Center.
Either of these hurdles (among others) might have thrown another building project off-course. But not Lakeshore’s.
To this end, Howard offers high praise and credit to Dekold. From the beginning, Dekold oversaw the project from a staff position, instead of bringing in someone from the outside.
“In working with Goff and the architect, what [Dekold] brought to the equation was way beyond what we ever imagined,” Howard shares. “He’s like Superman when it comes to such things. I really believe he’s one of the best executive pastors in America.”
Case in point: zero budget overruns
“Now, I did lose my Buc-ee’s-style bathrooms,” Howard clarifies, laughing. “And I wanted some fountains and water features like Disney World, but we had to cut those, too. After that, [Dekold] kept everything under budget and moving along.”
Apparently, the Goff team agrees with Howard about Dekold’s value-add to the project.
“I recently ran into them, and they were saying that they’ve never worked with a church representative like him,” Howard adds. “Again, he’s incredibly intelligent. He’s good with people. In itself, that’s a lot. But stepping in and overseeing [this project] was a big win.”
For Dekold, it seems the admiration is mutual.
“I was told once that every construction project has problems,” he says. “The thing that sets Goff apart is how they solve those problems and their willingness to be the solution.”
This was evident, he says, when language in documents wasn’t clear enough, or if duties and functions weren’t defined as well as necessary.
“So many times, they came to the table — even with their own finances — to say, ‘I can see how that was confusing. We’ll take care of it,’” Dekold points out. “Even in moments of disagreement, there was never tension because they were generous and went above and beyond with things like that.”
Howard agrees: “The Goff guys are so amazing to work with. It just made the experience, for me, the best of all worlds.”
Room to reach more
It has only been a handful of months since Lakeshore Church began holding services in its new, 1,200-seat, state-of-the-art Worship Center. Already, the added space has exceeded expectations in multiple ways — first, in terms of cost.
“When we decided to move forward with this project, we wanted to make sure we had enough money in the bank to complete it even if our budget allocation didn’t grow at all,” Howard explains. “To date, we have retired half of the debt on the building. And we’ve only been in it since late June.”
Likewise, attendance has jumped in a meaningful way.
“The day we opened the doors, we grew significantly and have kept growing since,” Dekold shares. “It was a full circle that confirmed: yes, more space would allow us to reach and serve more people.”
Howard, too, says the new Worship Center turned out even better than he’d hoped.
“Although the new auditorium is bigger, we wanted it to still feel intimate,” he explains. “And Goff dialed it in; it’s so warm and welcoming. Every time I walk through, I think, this is a dream come true.”
