Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
This summer we are blessed to be having one worship service outdoors to celebrate the Lord’s goodness. This will take place on Sunday, July 15 at 9:00 a.m. Instead of the usual two worship services, all of God’s people will be together as a congregation.
Why the celebration? If you are not up on Good Shepherd’s history, here is a synopsis. Good Shepherd was started as a mission in 1993. The congregation was chartered as a congregation of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod on February 19, 1995. In her early history the congregation worshipped at varied locations from Wittenberg Lutheran Center on the campus of Illinois State to Eastland Suites. By the time I arrived as the 2nd called Pastor of Good Shepherd in January of 1999, we had an office and worship space at the McLean County Farm Bureau Building.
I like to tell the continued story this way: in the summer of 1999 the building committee representing about 150 church mice (members) asked the District Church Extension Fund for $1.8 million . . . and they said yes! We broke ground, had a mild winter and were able to dedicate our building in August of 2000. We have been paying on the mortgage ever since. We have refinanced, I believe twice, and we are faithful in our on-time payments. We had cost overruns of $200,000 that we paid off directly to the contractor – thank you Lord! That is why we are celebrating; we have paid off half of the cost of our beautiful building. The mortgage in July will be at $1 million.
As a congregation of the Central Illinois District, we are blessed that the district has its own Church Extension Fund that loaned us the money. We began working with Dave Goldhammer and have worked with Dave Rohe now for a number of years. Dave Rohe is retiring at the end of May and I thanked him personally by phone for all of his and the board’s support over the years. The new leader of the fund will take over in June and Dave assured me of her support going forward. We have been blessed.
But then those of you who have been at Good Shepherd from the beginning or any time past that, know of which I speak. The blessings we have received from God’s gracious hand have been innumerable. From having pews that we didn’t expect, paying off our pipe organ in short order and completing projects and paying for them over the years.
These are only temporary gifts that we enjoy while inhabitants of earth. God’s greater gifts to each one of us would be: His Son’s death and resurrection for our forgiveness and salvation. We look forward to that heavenly mansion but until then let’s enjoy our Lord’s Blessings and celebrate them!
In Christ,
Pastor