Good Shepherd Umc

Join us in June, July and into August as we do a countdown of the songs that sing to our souls. Every week we will reveal one Top 7 favorite hymn of all time. And almost every week a different preacher including Jared, Rick, Louise, Davis, and maybe others will be telling the story of that song and sharing why it is their favorite. Will it be yours?

Pentecost, fifty days following Passover, was the celebration of God’s law given to Moses on Mount Sinai. Here we move from the promise of the Spirit as Advocate and Comforter that Jesus gave last week in John in his farewell, to the powerful birth of a Spirit-filled community that is about to be empowered to live its mission in the world.

This week it is about being SENT by a loving God. Our God is a sending God. Throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus notes that he has been “sent” by the Father just like he tells the disciples in John 14:24 part of our scripture this week. The Father (and the Son) send the Spirit (14:26). As a witness of the grace we’ve experienced through the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we too are sent.

Jesus offers a new commandment to the disciples in his final hours as Judas leaves to betray him. He calls them back to the mission to love one another and be known as Jesus’ disciples. This “marking” is the way we are known and has direct connections with our baptism into Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

People gather around Jesus and demand that he tell them, plainly if he is the Messiah. The problem, of course, is that regardless of what Jesus says or does, the debate does not end. How would you answer that question? And how are you listening to God in your life?

This week we are focused on the story of the 3rd post-resurrection appearance of Jesus to the disciples including Peter, James, and John. But this is really Peter's moment and Follow Me. It is one of the most dramatic of the post-Resurrection appearances.

Love One Another and Be Kind!

Easter is more than just a day. It is a 50-day season that marks the new beginning for all of us and the ways we live into our “resurrection” reality, just as Jesus’ disciples had to do. How do believing, following, and listening, cross to form a way for fully devoted followers where resurrection is a daily reality?

How has Easter, the resurrection of Jesus, made a worthwhile difference in your life? What do you believe? The story of our resurrected hearts and new life every year begins early in the morning, just before dawn. BELIEVING is the one thing we can’t live without

We emerge this week from our wilderness wanderings and find ourselves caught up in a parade, a big party, a procession of palms! It has been a long journey to arrive at the gates of Jerusalem where Jesus will make his great and grand entry into the very center of political power and all the religious authority

(Isaiah 40-55). These 15 chapters are written as a reminder that God is still practicing resurrection even when (especially when) life is at is darkest and it seems like hope is lost. There is so much that can hold our hearts in death. There is only one thing that can compel those same hearts to open to new life. Find out what that is.

We have journeyed now almost 20 days so we are halfway there with 20 days to go. We continue to remember Jesus’s journey. From his being led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit where for forty days he was tempted by the devil to all the way to the empty tomb at the end of our journey.

This week we are asked to leave our chosen pathways, repent, and turn back to a God who always has “plenty good room” at the Table for us.

Abram has begun to question whether this promise of land and offspring will ever come to pass. Four hundred years is a long time to keep trusting, keep moving, keep following God through a land that is not our own. But this is what this long season of Lent is about. We are given time in the wilderness to ask the tough questions and learn to trust our heart to God’s heart, our steps to God’s pathway.

Today is the first Sunday of Lent. And we find ourselves at a border with the ancient Israelites in our reading from Deuteronomy 26. We are standing on the edge of the wilderness, looking with great anticipation toward the Promised Land.

Join us as we start the Lenten season with a service of reflection of who we are and where God is calling us to be.

Today we finish to See All The People and asking the question: Are we ready to go & meet the crowds and “see all the people”? We have seen the Pressing Crowd, experienced the Expectant Crowd, faced the Questioning Crowd, and now have last the Astounded Crowd

Today we continue to See All The People and asking the question: Are we ready to go & meet the crowds and “see all the people”? We have seen the Pressing Crowd, experienced the Expectant Crowd, and now we are facing the Questioning Crowd

We continue our new series called See All The People and asking the question: Are we ready to go & meet the crowds and “see all the people”? Now we are experiencing the Expectant Crowd.

The story in Luke 5:1-11 is about the beginning of a life-changing journey for Jesus and all his future disciples, including you and me.