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Our Mission

To glorify God, share the good news of Jesus Christ, reflect His light in our lives, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, heal a hurting world.

Our Vision

At Good Shepherd, you and your family are welcome to celebrate, love and serve God in a Christ-centered, Bible-based, Spirit-led community.

Our Values

We're about family, faith, authenticity, accountability, transformation, healing, learning, creativity and fun!

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Disappointed with “church?”

Come and see what God is doing here!

Most churches spend a lot of time on their website telling you what they believe. Certainly our beliefs are important — based on the authority of the Bible, centered in Christ, and led by his Spirit. What we believe and value are summed up by the Nicene Creed, the Sermon on the Mount, 1 Corinthians 13, Ephesians 4-6, and the Book of James.

But we invite you to look beyond our stated beliefs. Come and see if how we live our lives together matches up with what we claim to believe. We think that is the real test of any faith community. Don’t you?

If you are hungry for more transparent and authentic relationships at church — visit us. If you are feeling the need of God’s help in some area of your life — join us. We’ve been there — we are there. But God has changed us, and He’s still changing us. Our hearts are being healed, obsessions of body and mind lifted, finances restored, broken relationships reconciled. We have a practical program for spiritual living that really works. We love to share it with others. Come learn, be blessed and grow with us.

Prayer

  • Scripture — Our lives are built on the Word of God. It is our food and primary means of revelation from Him. We spend time each day in Scripture, seeking God’s face, dwelling in His presence and praying out of His Word.
  • Silence & Solitude — We seek to build silence and solitude into our daily routines. Time alone with God each day allows us to better hear His voice.
  • Daily Office — Nothing is to be preferred to the work of God (Rule of St. Benedict). We pause to be with God two to three times a day to remember Him, spending time in communion with Him, preferably with Scripture, silence, meditation and prayer – even if this is only for a few minutes.
  • Study — We are continually growing and taking steps to keep learning about Jesus, as well as our unique values: emotional health, practicing the Six Principles of Spiritual Living in all areas of our lives, humbly seeking counsel and providing counsel, and reconciliation.

Rest

  • Sabbath — Each week, we set aside a 24-hour period to keep Sabbath to the Lord, structuring our time around the following characteristics of biblical Sabbaths – Stop, Rest, and Worship. We trust God to build His church while we respect Sabbath-keeping as an essential formation discipline in our lives.
  • Simplicity — We model percentage giving (using the tithe as a guideline) in giving to God’s work at Good Shepherd. We manage our material resources in a manner that honors God and avoids the traps and enticements of a materialistic culture (e.g. bad debt, gambling, etc.) as we live out the basic principles of planning, giving, saving, budgeting, and balancing a spending plan.
  • Play & Recreation — We have a life outside of our community for balance and health. We build healthy “fun” into our discipleship and take vacations each year to allow our lives to be replenished and refreshed.

Work

  • Service & Mission — Our primary means to serve Christ is being present for others, within and without our community, by steadfastly attending and participating in Sunday service and small group activities, by sharing the way of life we practice with others, by volunteering for and fulfilling service commitments, by sponsoring and being sponsored.
  • Healing — We are committed to the work of healing, both of ourselves and of others. The work of healing is an ongoing journey.
  • Working with Others — For own spiritual health we must work with and help others; we recognize this as vital to our spiritual health. Unless we continue to enlarge our spiritual life through this service we will backslide. Experience has been our surest and severest teacher in this matter.

Relationships

  • Mental & Emotional Health — We are committed to a spiritual formation model that embraces our whole person, including the emotional component of who we are as image bearers of God. In all our relationships we seek to speak clearly, directly, respectfully and honestly. We aim to incarnate like Christ and listen well. We must remain accountable in general, and specifically to our sponsors/mentors.
  • Family — We believe in the equal value of God’s call to both singleness and marriage. We affirm with Scripture the gift of singleness for leadership (1 Corinthians 7:25-40). Both Jesus and Paul were single. At the same time, we understand the limits and great potentials of the marriage covenant for our work and our personal choices. We desire high-quality marriages, out of which we are able to minister to others. If we are married, our spouses make their own choices and have their own needs and desires apart from us. We affirm this. Our expectation is for honesty and transparency regarding our marriages and family life with those whom God has placed in authority over us.
  • Ongoing Contact & Support — We commit to staying in touch with fellow members in the same spirit of the church described in Acts did. We commit to talking to meeting with our sponsors and sponsees on a regular basis, and talking to at least one other member on the phone during the work week.