Dear friends,
As your Vestry wardens, we want to thank you for your faithfulness and support of Good Shepherd. We both have always been grateful to be part of this community, but in our current season of transition following Fr. Robert’s retirement, we have been in awe of your kindness, generosity, and love of our parish.
We write to you today as we begin Good Shepherd’s stewardship campaign for 2025. You’ll be hearing more from fellow parishioners in the coming weeks, and we invite you to join us in prayerfully considering your pledge for 2025. Your pledged support for the parish enables the Vestry to set an annual budget that ensures Good Shepherd’s worship, ministries, and programs are able to continue serving God and feeding us and our wider community spiritually, and, sometimes, quite literally.
This year’s stewardship campaign is also important because in 2025 prospective rectors will begin reviewing Good Shepherd’s “search profile” and taking a close look at our community. The strength of a parish’s giving – i.e. the number of community members who give to the parish’s support – is one excellent indicator of the health of a church community. This is a year for us, as the people of Good Shepherd, to be bold in our giving and our dreaming for the future of our parish!
Your pledge amount and how you determine your pledge is a very personal decision and conversation between you, your family, and God. We encourage you to have that conversation and to make your pledge to the church for 2025 as soon as you can, so that your Vestry can begin putting together the 2025 budget.
We are both here to answer any questions you might have, and you can also reach out to Good Shepherd’s Treasurer, Keith Sanford. You’ll receive a pledge card in the mail soon, will be able to make your pledge online if you prefer, or you can call or email Nicole in the church office at 423-821-1583 or nicole@gslookout.com.
Faithfully,
Jeffery Wiese, Senior Warden
Elizabeth Jones, Junior Warden
Dear Good Shepherd Community,
Starting with the first time we visited The Church of the Good Shepherd, you have made us feel welcome and over 15 years later the feeling has not changed. We decided to join Good Shepherd and have been rewarded with being a part of a loving and vibrant faith community. We have been supported and encouraged during times of struggle and grief and have developed lifelong friendships. Participating in Sunday services, bible studies, youth group, Shepherd’s Night Out, movie nights, Parish Camp and other activities has provided us the opportunities to have deeper faith-filled relationships at Good Shepherd. Because we receive so much love and support from Good Shepherd, it is an honor to get the chance to serve the church as well as a choir member, an acolyte, a Lay Eucharistic Minister, a lector, an usher and Verger. Each one of these things enriches us as a family and a married couple, and we are deeply grateful for Good Shepherd.
Each year when the stewardship campaign begins, we prayerfully consider our pledges for the coming year, and we invite you to do the same. We give out of appreciation for the Church of Good Shepherd and all it accomplishes in our lives and other lives. All pledges, whatever their size, help Good Shepherd’s staff and Vestry develop the coming year’s budget, ensuring that we continue to be good stewards of your gifts. Your pledge makes Good Shepherd’s many ministries, programs, events, and outreach efforts possible. Please consider returning your pledge card or pledging online via the QR code listed below as soon as possible.
Thank you again for your generosity and for being part of the Good Shepherd church community. God Bless.
Faithfully,
Dusty Kent, Anna Kent, Fletcher Kent
The Kent family shares with us how they are nurtured and loved at Good Shepherd.