Four Blocks South of the Southern Boulevard Bridge
Lakeside Presbyterian Church sits at 4601 South Flagler Drive in West Palm Beach, four blocks south of the Southern Boulevard bridge where Flagler drops down to follow the Intracoastal Waterway past Palm Beach island. The sanctuary, with its stained glass cross rising above the chancel, has looked out across that waterway since 1952, the year the congregation was organized. More than seventy years later, the building is still the gathering point for a PC(USA) family that stretches from Jupiter to Boynton Beach and from Palm Beach to Royal Palm Beach.
The setting matters at Lakeside. Paved parking sits behind the church, with unpaved parking along the north side for extra capacity. From I-95 or the Florida Turnpike, the route is direct: take the Southern Boulevard exit east toward the ocean, turn right onto Flagler Drive at the Intracoastal, and watch for the sanctuary on the right. From Palm Beach island, the directions are almost a mirror image: cross the Southern Boulevard bridge and make the immediate left onto Flagler. Drivers coming up from the south simply follow the waterway road north. The location places Lakeside just a couple of miles south of the Palm Beach Atlantic University campus, a relationship that shows up every Sunday morning in the choir loft.
A Letter from the Pastor
Rev. Dr. Roger P. Richardson writes the way he preaches, in a voice that welcomes before it instructs. A native of Ohio, Dr. Richardson holds degrees and graduate studies from seminaries in Pittsburgh, Princeton, the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, and McCormick in Chicago. He has served Presbyterian congregations in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Illinois, Florida, Scotland, and Brazil, and has also worked as a middle governing body executive with Central Florida Presbytery. He currently works alongside Knox Fellowship, an evangelism-centered organization, and he is married to Debora, with three children.
His pastoral letter to the congregation, posted on the church's Pastor's Welcome page, captures the tone of the place. He tells visitors that they will always be welcome, always respected, and always considered honored guests. He prays that anyone who walks through the doors will find themselves inspired, engaged, and fulfilled in a way that spiritually sustains their best life. He closes with a prayer asking God to hold the people of Lakeside in a place of tender awareness, to be tangible and merciful, and to draw them into a deeper relationship with one another and with Him.
Sunday Worship at 10:30 a.m.
Lakeside gathers for worship every Sunday morning at 10:30 a.m. The service is streamed live on the church's YouTube channel so that members who are traveling, homebound, or simply unable to attend in person can worship alongside those in the pews. The order of worship follows the pattern familiar to Presbyterians across the country, with readings, prayers, a sermon, choral music, and the celebration of communion on regular Sundays.
The music at Lakeside is genuinely blended. Director of Music Ministries Mark Aliapoulios, who has held the position since the fall of 2006, brings a versatility that allows the choir and congregation to move easily between traditional hymnody and more contemporary settings. On a typical Sunday the bulletin includes a choral prelude, a choir anthem, a congregational hymn, an offertory solo or duet, and a postlude, often with guest instrumentalists joining the choir on trumpet, flute, cello, violin, or French horn.
A look back through recent services shows the range. On a single recent Sunday the choir sang "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing" arranged by Sally DeFord while the trumpet played "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty." On another, the Pops Youth Orchestra filled the chancel for special music that included "Amazing Grace" and "Be Still My Soul." The Pops, an ensemble drawn from young musicians in the community, has become a regular presence in summer services. Communion is observed on the first Sunday of each month, and on World Communion Sunday in October the congregation shares an international-cuisine potluck after the service.
The Lakeside Choir and the Chancel
Music is a defining ministry at Lakeside. Mark Aliapoulios directs the chancel choir with his wife, Kimberlee Aliapoulios, who serves as Assistant Music Director and leads the children's choir and bell choir. Kimberlee's life verse is Exodus 15:2: "The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation." Mark often quotes Martin Luther in writing about the program: "Beautiful music is the art of the prophets that can calm the agitations of the soul; it is one of the most magnificent and delightful presents God has given us."
The chancel choir is intergenerational. Its members include professional musicians, college students from Palm Beach Atlantic University, and faithful volunteers who simply love to sing. Rehearsals are held before the service at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday mornings, and the loft is open to anyone who wants to lend their voice. Soloists who have sung with the choir in recent services include Emily Puentes, a voice major at Palm Beach Atlantic University who won the 2025 Young Vocal Arts of the Palm Beaches Competition; Sebastien Krupa; Daynah Ridgley; Marianna Rodrigues; Joseph Yuen; and Robert Barrett. Instrumentalists who have served in recent months include trumpeter Benjamin Berman, flutists Kimberlee Aliapoulios and Teri Hughs, and violinist Marc-Anthony Verdieu.
Feeding the Hungry Across Palm Beach County
One of Lakeside's most visible partnerships in the wider community is its work feeding the food insecure of Palm Beach County. The congregation hosts the headquarters of Palm Beach Harvest, a nonprofit that distributes food to families across the region. Each month on the fourth Monday, Lakeside members and Palm Beach Harvest volunteers meet at First Presbyterian Church of West Palm Beach to prepare a hot meal for the homeless and to assemble bags of necessary toiletries. About seventy-five homeless neighbors are served each time the meal is set out downtown.
The food mission also includes Meals of Hope, a newer project in which volunteers package dry ingredients into complete meals ready for a family to prepare at home. The congregation supports C.R.O.S. (Christians Reaching Out to Society), and each fall fills shoeboxes for Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child, a project that ships gift-filled boxes to children around the world. The church also reaches out locally at Christmas to students at the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind, hosting a holiday party complete with a blind Santa Claus for children who are often left out of seasonal celebrations.
Children, Youth, and the College Crowd
Children are always welcome in worship at Lakeside. Sunday School is led by Alexis and Lauren Wilt, who began volunteering with the church at Vacation Bible School in 2018, right after high school. In the years since, they have watched their original students grow into teenagers while welcoming new toddlers into the classrooms. Their shared verse is Philippians 4:13: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
The middle and high school students meet as the Lakeside Axios youth group, directed by Sherwayne Bell. Bell, who is described by the church as an exceptional young man dedicated to his Savior, leads the teens through retreats and weekly gatherings. Emily Puentes, a Palm Beach Atlantic voice major and choir soloist, serves as Youth Advisor, walking alongside the teens as they learn to live as Christians in a secular and conflicted world. During the Christmas season the Axios youth join the Sunday School classes for a presentation of carols and scripture that tells the story of the first Christmas.
College ministry at Lakeside grows naturally out of geography. Palm Beach Atlantic University is just a couple of miles north on Flagler Drive, and many of its students have made Lakeside their church home while in school. A number of them sing in the chancel choir. The congregation is in the early stages of building a more comprehensive college ministry program.
Weddings by the Intracoastal
Lakeside's sanctuary has been the venue for weddings since the church was founded in 1952. The breath-taking stained glass cross behind the chancel is a focal point for ceremonies, and the property is spacious enough to host the entire wedding party on site. Various rooms are available for the bridal party and family to gather and prepare, and the Fellowship Hall can be reserved for the reception. Pastors at Lakeside also offer marriage preparation for couples.
A Diverse Family of Faith
Lakeside's own description of its congregation reads like a cross-section of south Florida. The members include cradle Presbyterians and newcomers from other Christian traditions, charter families and new believers, nonagenarians and newborn infants. The church is home to retired residents, families with school-aged children, and singles. Professions represented in the pews range from plumbing and accounting to homeschooling, teaching, professoring, paramedicine, and business. The congregation is drawn from a wide geographic area as well: members live and work in the south end of West Palm Beach but also commute from Jupiter, Boynton Beach, Palm Beach, and Royal Palm Beach. Native Floridians sit beside transplants from almost every state, alongside members who have come from Norway, Argentina, Cuba, Colombia, Trinidad, Lithuania, Sweden, Thailand, Spain, Scotland, and beyond.
Governance reflects the Presbyterian tradition. The Session, the church's governing body of elders, is supported by a board of Deacons. The church is connected to the Presbyterian Church (USA) and partners with other PC(USA) congregations across the presbytery and the country in proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The mission statement that guides every decision at Lakeside is straightforward: the church exists "to fulfill Christ's commandment to love others as He loves us and to make disciples of all people," and the congregation has boiled that down to the aim of seeing "everyone transformed and mobilized by Jesus as disciples." Every program, budget, and proposal is filtered through that lens.
Throughout the Year at Lakeside
The church year at Lakeside has its own character. Christmas in July is an annual worship and luncheon that pushes back against the commercial version of the holiday by remembering that every day is a day to celebrate the birth of Christ. Thanksgiving in June similarly reframes the holiday, calling worshipers to give thanks in every season, with a turkey luncheon and a choral guest appearance by the Choral Society of the Palm Beaches. The Blessing of the Animals in early October draws the wider community to the church grounds in a tradition tied to St. Francis of Assisi's love of creation.
Holy Week is observed in full. Palm Sunday opens the week with the procession of palms, Maundy Thursday includes communion and a tenebrae service, Easter sunrise greets worshipers at the break of day, and Easter morning brings lilies to honor loved ones and an Easter brunch for the whole congregation. The Easter Eggstravaganza is a community event for the children of the wider neighborhood, featuring egg hunts, a bounce house, a petting zoo, crafts, and games. Christmas week brings a candlelight service on Christmas Eve with "Silent Night" passed from candle to candle, a chili cookoff luncheon, and a Tinsel Town photo opportunity with Santa on Christmas Eve. In between, the Beacon newsletter goes out every two months to update the congregation on ministry reports, committee goals, and upcoming events, and a series called Messages in a Bottle shares weekly devotional reflections.
All of this is held together by a simple conviction that runs through the church's own writing: "Jesus began to teach at the lake side," and today He is still calling disciples and teaching at Lakeside.