Lakeside Presbyterian Church (LPC) is focused on community outreach through service and education. Senior Pastor Dr. Wayne Cook says, “Our church is intent on growing in serving the community in every way possible and we have been wonderfully blessed with the resources and people to meet our mission. Our leadership has recently expanded in both its depth and breadth.”

On Saturday, August 31, Pastor Guillermo Banuet and Victoria Banuet (pictured below) each received their Doctorates of Theology from San Diego Christian University. Dr. Banuet is the pastor of LPC’s Spanish-speaking congregation. His wife Dr. Victoria Banuet was also recently ordained as the Associate Pastor of Families & Children.

Just a week later, on September 8, the Lakeside Institute of Theology (LIT) achieved a major milestone with the certification of the first two graduates of its master’s degree program: Carolyn Hansen and Marvin Golden (pictured below).

Born in 2012 out of LPC’s mission statement which makes a special call to train Christian leaders, LIT was created by then Pastor Ross Arnold, a gifted theologian and professor.

Pastor Arnold built and taught in this educational program that now offers 24 theological seminary-level courses. The Institute is licensed and registered by the Mexican government and is also certified to license ministers. All classroom and online courses are tuition free as a service to the community and can lead to a specific certification or a Master of Theology Degree.

In addition to this maturation of its LIT program, LPC was pleased to ordain Carolyn Hansen as Associate Pastor of Discipleship at the same service. The newly minted Pastor Hansen says she has been happily studying for many years and was actually a bit surprised to realize that she had finally finished the program.

She also beamed at her new title, saying, “This is a wonderful day for me and I look forward to being part of the talented and grace-filled Pastoral Leadership Team at Lakeside Presbyterian for many years to come.”