WHY I LOVE GOOD SHEPHERDThis article is the third in a series presented by the 2011 Stewardship Committee. If you are interested in submitting an article for the series, please contact Father Matt, we’d love to print your submission! This month we continue the series with a note from Sally Stevens:
I love the fact that we are a family… we look after each other in good times and bad. We laugh together, we cry together, we pray together and we work together to make Good Shepherd what it is…a warm and inviting place to worship and where church isn’t just a Sunday event. While we come from many towns, we have created our own community here without town boundaries or rivalries. We share our stories and our advice and when needed we all pitch in without having to be asked. We respect each other. We care for each other. We love our church.
I love the way every one counts at Good Shepherd. Each one of us has a particular self determined niche which we fulfill here that makes it all work. It might be as a member of the Choir or Altar Guild, or the Sunday School or as an Acolyte. It might be as an usher, crucifer, torch bearer, lay reader, or a chalice bearer. It might be as a vestry member, or officer of the church. It might be as a committee head or a committee member. It might be as the sexton, the organist, the babysitter or the rector. It might be as one who has so much experience in life that the accumulated wisdom is the gift you have to give others. It may be that your hobby or your vocation is the gift that you share with us. It is in the giving of the best of ourselves that Good Shepherd grows and becomes enriched.
I love the way everyone belongs here in every sense of the word. Anyone can join any organization to which they wish to belong. Everyone is welcome… we are an all inclusive church. We are a diverse bunch and best of all everyone can take communion… no matter what age, no matter what religion or denomination you came from or still belong to, if you’ve been baptized by water, you belong with us at the rail.
I love our great coffee hours. Where else do people linger over coffee for hours after church exchanging news, giving and receiving advice, laughing and showing off grandchildren’s or children’s pictures or planning the next church project?
I love the clean up days…when we come together to polish up Good Shepherd and make her shine. The crisp fall air or early spring air when rakes, leaf blowers, pruning shears, shovels, and tarps are pulled out and we work side by side and joke with each other, partake of pizza and head back outside to work some more.
I love the beautiful simplicity of our building with its soaring ceiling, its brilliant stained glass window, its beautifully carved wooden altar and its simple cross. Nothing fancy, nothing to distract from the purpose for which we are here—to pray and to glorify God.
I love our service – written out now and easier to follow (thank you Father Matt) so that we know when and how to stand, kneel, respond. Our hymns, old and new always leave me with a joyful heart as we end our services and take our mission out into the world for another week. Let me not forget to mention the Peace. The warmth between parishioners is most tangible during the Peace. Even the shyest children or the newest members eventually realize we sincerely mean “peace be with you”.
I love watching our children grow up, leave and come back with their children to continue our many traditions... the Easter Vigils, stewardship vigils, sunrise services, annual meetings, vestry meetings, Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve services, chili and chowder cook offs, Octoberfest, brunches by the Brotherhood, Christmas pageants and twelfth night celebrations, birthday cards on our birthday, the Carpenter’s Kids. Ours is a full church life.
People make our church what it is. We are “The Fun Bunch, The Seniors in Denial, The Seniors, The Youth Group, the Sunday School children, the nursery children, we are all children of God. We are the Church Of The Good Shepherd. This is my home.
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