Church of the Good Shepherd United Methodist

The Church of The Good Shepherd United Methodist Church has been a vital part of the Northland community for over 40 years. It began on August 3, 1969 when 88 people gathered at Walden Elementary School in Forest Park East to hold the first service. On that day 22 people joined the new congregation at the close of the service. A church school for all ages was added on September 7. When the congregation was officially chartered on November 2, 1969, the congregation had grown to 118 members. For the next five years the church services were held at Walden with the exception of one year when the congregation moved to Devonshire Elementary School in the Devonshire subdivision. On March 26, 1972, a special Charge Conference was called to elect a building committee for the growing congregation that now numbered 200. Construction of the church facility on Sharon Woods Blvd. was completed with the first service in the new building taking place on August 11, 1974. With the growing needs of the congregation, another building committee was formed and the next phase of expansion, our education wing with the versatile multi - purpose room, was dedicated in March, 1987. Due to the charitable gifts and hard work of many, the “old” multi-purpose room was remodeled to serve primarily as a sanctuary for worship in 1988. Our church has two achievements of which we are quite proud. Our first is our ability to always pay 100% of our apportionments, which enables us to reach out beyond our church to help others to further Christ’s kingdom. Our second is the fact that 10 members of our laity have answered God’s call to the ordained ministry. We are small in numbers when compared to the mega-churches, but we are large when it comes to fellowship and outreach.

The Church of The Good Shepherd is a friendly, caring family and welcomes friends and visitors at its current location at 6176 Sharon Woods Blvd. Our worship service is at 9:30 a.m., fellowship at 10:40 a.m. and Sunday School from pre-school children through adults at 11:00 a.m. Nursery service is provided for infants through age three. Warm fellowship, service and commitment to spiritual growth have been and will always continue to be a hallmark of this church.

In the last three years, we have studied the changes occurring in the Sharon Woods neighborhood, worked hard to reconnect with what is happening in our community, and considered the implications of being in a multiracial and multicultural neighborhood.  At the end of that process, we adopted a new mission/vision statement to carry our ministry into the future.  You can see the text of that statement on the "Our Vision" tab at the top right of this page.