Our Story

Lakeview Church has had a few different names and called a few different parts of Saskatoon home. It has met in a storefront, a school, several church buildings and, today, on Glazier Road.

But the story actually begins with a teenage girl who believed Saskatoon needed a church.

It Started With Sarah

In the early 1900s, Free Methodist churches were beginning to appear across the Canadian Prairies. Many started simply. Families gathered in homes for Sunday school, laypeople provided leadership and travelling evangelists held revival meetings in small communities. By 1920, more than a dozen Free Methodist churches had been established across Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

One of the people caught up in that movement was Sarah Radke, a 17-year-old girl who had attended Free Methodist evangelistic meetings and become convinced that a church should be established in Saskatoon.

Sarah wrote to district leader R.H. Hamilton asking when the Free Methodists were going to begin work in the city. When the response was less than enthusiastic, she wrote again. This time she had something to offer: she had found a brick storefront on Broadway Avenue that could be used rent-free for two months.

Her message was straightforward: God wanted a Free Methodist church in Saskatoon.

Hamilton came.

A three-week campaign was held in early 1921. By its conclusion, a group of 21 people had formed and a mission hall was being regularly rented at 725 Broadway Avenue.

Lakeview's story had begun.

Putting Down Roots

The young congregation's first pastors were also noteworthy. Hazel Smith and Ethel Fletcher, two young women serving under Superintendent W.O. Bradley, provided pastoral leadership during the church's first two years.

The Broadway mission eventually gave way to something more permanent. In 1928, the congregation built a church at Eastlake Avenue and Main Street at a cost of approximately $8,000. A stained-glass window from that building survives today, a physical reminder of those early years.

For the next several decades, the church became home to generations of Saskatoon families.

There were Sunday schools and prayer meetings, children's programs and youth groups. There was music from the piano and organ. Young people participated in Bible quizzing and gathered in people's homes following Sunday evening services. Children grew up in the congregation, married and raised children of their own.

The church was small, but the memories recorded by those who were part of it describe something significant: a deeply committed, intergenerational community where people were known and cared for.

That sense of community would remain an important part of Lakeview's identity even as the congregation became much larger.

Following Saskatoon as the City Grew

By the early 1960s, Saskatoon was changing.

New neighbourhoods were appearing and the congregation at Eastlake and Main was growing. Under Pastor Paul Buffum, church leaders began looking toward Greystone Heights, a developing neighbourhood that did not yet have a church.

Rather than waiting for people to come to them, they went to the neighbourhood.

Beginning in 1961, Sunday school and morning worship were held at Greystone Heights School, while evening services and weekly activities continued at Eastlake and Main.

In 1963, property became available at Bateman Crescent and Main Street. Plans were drawn up and members of the congregation supplied much of the labour themselves. The new building was completed in late 1964 and the congregation took a new name: Greystone Heights Free Methodist Church.

It wouldn't be the last time the church followed Saskatoon into a new neighbourhood.

From Greystone Heights to Lakeview

In 1975, Les and Peggy Krober arrived from St. Louis, Missouri, to lead the congregation.

The years that followed brought an increased emphasis on discipleship and community. Adult classes and small groups, then known as koinonia cells, were established. Wednesday evenings became family nights, beginning with a shared meal followed by activities for children and choir rehearsals that sometimes included 30 or 40 adults.

Once again, the congregation began asking where it should go next.

This time, attention turned toward the new community of Lakeview.

It was an ambitious idea. The congregation numbered only about 175 people, yet plans called for a church capable of holding approximately 350.

They went ahead.

The new building opened in the early 1980s, tripling the congregation's available space. With the move came another new name:

Lakeview Free Methodist Church.

The congregation that had started in a borrowed storefront on Broadway had now moved for the third time in an effort to meet Saskatoon where the city was growing.

A Church Willing to Try Something Different

Another major chapter began with the arrival of Glenn and Nancy Teal.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, Lakeview began experimenting with new ways of connecting with people who might never consider attending a traditional church.

Music became more contemporary. Drama became a regular part of Sunday services. Messages were designed to connect biblical teaching with everyday life. Small groups continued to grow, while youth rallies, mission trips and expanded children's ministries introduced another generation to the church.

Sometimes the congregation's willingness to experiment led to some fairly audacious ideas.

On one occasion, Lakeview rented Centennial Auditorium for four consecutive Sundays and left its own church building empty.

It was a risk, but it worked. According to recollections recorded for Lakeview's centennial, attendance grew from approximately 600 to 720 during that period.

Lakeview had developed a reputation as a church where you didn't necessarily know what was going to happen when you walked through the doors on Sunday morning.

That was intentional.

The methods were changing, but the reason behind them was familiar: reach people who weren't already being reached.

Growing Faster Than the Building

When Glenn and Nancy Teal left in 1995, Dean Angell became Lakeview's lead pastor after having served as youth pastor since 1988.

The church's outreach focus continued.

Lakeview described its mission at the time this way: We reach out to seeking friends as we become committed followers of Jesus Christ.

The congregation grew rapidly.

Music and drama continued. Small groups provided community and biblical teaching throughout the week. Staff expanded and large numbers of volunteers served in children's, junior high, senior high and college ministries.

Eventually there simply wasn't enough room.

Lakeview reached the point of holding five services every week: one on Saturday evening, three on Sunday morning and another worship service on Wednesday evening.

At times, the music and drama teams would begin one service in the sanctuary, then move to the gymnasium while the sermon was being preached so they could begin another service.

Attendance climbed from around 400 to 600, then 800, then 1,000 and eventually approximately 1,200 people.

All of this was happening at the Lakeview building on Kingsmere.

Something had to change.

Another Big Step of Faith

By 2001, Lakeview had begun seriously planning for another facility.

Over the next few years, more than 1,200 people were attending weekend services. More than 500 were participating in small groups and support groups. The children's ministry alone was approaching 300 children each week, while junior and senior high ministries continued to flourish.

The scale of the proposed move was unlike anything Lakeview had attempted before.

Administrative Pastor Claudio Priolo played a significant role in securing financing and working with construction management to bring the project together.

In 2006, Lakeview moved into its new home on Glazier Road.

The approximately 60,000-square-foot facility provided dedicated children's and youth spaces, a café, bookstore and an auditorium with theatre seating for more than 700 people. Instead of squeezing five services into the previous building, the new auditorium allowed the congregation to gather in two.

But there was an interesting twist.

Lakeview had spent much of its history moving into Saskatoon's developing neighbourhoods. Now it had moved beyond the city limits of the day, to a location without public transit.

Once again, the church had to adapt.

Going Out Instead of Waiting for People to Come In

The Glazier Road move prompted Lakeview to think differently about serving its city.

Care ministries grew. The church partnered with an inner-city congregation for clothing exchanges and delivered food hampers at Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving. Prayer became an increasingly important emphasis, including 24/7 prayer initiatives, extended seasons of prayer, prayer labyrinths and ministries focused on listening and prayer.

The years that followed also brought significant leadership transitions.

After Dean Angell left in 2008, Lakeview entered a transitional period. David Barbour and Randy Miller subsequently served together in leadership, followed by another transition before Mark Leppington became lead pastor in 2013.

Those years brought a renewed emphasis on caring for people who were vulnerable, hurting or exploring faith. Former leaders remembered Lakeview as a place that could feel like family and where people could ask questions and discover Jesus among people who genuinely cared for them.

Joe Manafo later joined the staff as teaching pastor, working alongside Mark Leppington. When Mark concluded his ministry at Lakeview in 2018, Joe moved into the lead pastor role, with Curtis Anderson serving as executive pastor.

The names, programs and approaches continued to change, just as they had throughout Lakeview's history.

The larger story did not.

More Than a Century Later

Today, Lakeview Church remains part of the Free Methodist Church in Canada and gathers at 19 Glazier Road.

Its current mission is expressed as “Joining God in the Renewal of all Things.”

Lakeview describes that mission through four postures: looking backward and locating ourselves in God's story; inward, creating space to encounter God; forward, anticipating God's movement; and outward, collaborating with God locally and globally.

That outward posture includes welcoming spiritual seekers and skeptics, serving people on the margins, pursuing justice and restoration, and committing to the work of truth and reconciliation.

In many ways, it sounds very different from a three-week revival campaign held in Saskatoon in 1921.

In another way, it doesn't.

A 17-year-old named Sarah Radke looked at her city and believed there should be a community where people could encounter Jesus.

People gathered in a storefront.

When that wasn't enough, they built.

When Saskatoon grew, they moved.

When traditional approaches stopped connecting with people, they tried new ones.

When their buildings became too small, they made room.

And when their location made it harder for some people to come to them, they found new ways to go out and serve.

More than a century later, Lakeview's story is still being written.

The buildings have changed. The neighbourhoods have changed. Generations of pastors, staff members, volunteers and families have come and gone. The methods have changed many times.

But perhaps that willingness to keep moving, while remaining rooted in Jesus, is one of the threads that has been there from the beginning.

From a teenage girl's vision and a storefront on Broadway Avenue to a church community serving Saskatoon more than 100 years later, Lakeview's history is ultimately a story of ordinary people repeatedly asking the same question:

Where is God at work, and how can we join in?