Shepherd's Heart 9/19/25

I am strongly considering creating a petition encouraging the City of Naperville to rebrand its end-of-summer event from “The Last Fling” to “The First Fling!” At least that’s what it has felt like here at Good Shepherd … a “first fling” kicking off the fall season of ministry like we never have before! I’ve always been proud of the big ways we do things here, but I never imagined launching into a new season with an outdoor worship service in our community, followed by a live worship music float in a parade! Seriously … who does that? We do … for God’s glory!

While the regular, weekly rhythms of worship, and family life, and other ministries continue, Community Groups have begun, the Cafe is reopening, and Cohorts will be starting soon. And throughout it all, our FORWARD Building Team, our staff, and other lay members have been hard at work planning and preparing for our upcoming building project to begin. 

There are many pieces that will all come together to make this project a success:

• In alignment with what was agreed to at our annual Congregational Meeting in May, we’ve been working with our financial partner, Thrivent, to secure funding to move the project forward. 
• Design work continues with our building partner, Aspen, to maximize the ideas shared with you in the spring, sticking to the core priorities (transforming both worship spaces, creating a more welcoming and accessible front entrance, and refreshing the aesthetics of our main floor common spaces) at or below our target budget of $4.5M.
• We’ve worked with nearly a dozen contractors and will begin some key maintenance items in the coming weeks (replacing the shingled roofs over the Sanctuary and Cafe).
• A sub-team from our congregation continues to dream about the design of the new stained glass windows that will go into the new traditional worship space.
• You continue with your generosity, giving to God through Good Shepherd, supporting not only this building project, but the missional work we do For our Neighbors and For the World.

I know you are eager to learn more details about construction … What will it look like? When will we start? and maybe most importantly, When will we be done? I love the fact that you care and are asking those questions!

There are a lot of people working hard toward finalizing the details of the project, and those details are changing almost on a daily basis. We’re just as excited to share them with you, so we’re working with Ross Cochran to develop the best channels with which to share information with you on a regular basis. We will also archive all of our communication at gshepchurch.org/forward, so look there first! I hope you’ll plan to join us the evening of October 22nd for our next Good Shepherd Summit, when we’ll share the latest design images, timelines, and other project details. In addition to that, we’ll spend some reflective and worshipful time experiencing a “Liturgy of the Spaces” together.

I appreciate you, Good Shepherd! Thank you, Good Shepherd, for moving forward in faith together.

-tom