Shepherd's Heart 9/26/25
Hebrews 13:8 reminds us that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. God has blessed Good Shepherd all throughout our history, and I truly believe that the best is yet to come. However, it’s good to look back and be reminded of how God has moved in the life of this church. The hymn “Come Thou Fount” has a lyric that says, “Here I raise my ebenezer, hither by Thy help I’ve come.” An ‘ebenezer’ is a stone monument that was set up to commemorate the moment of God’s deliverance and assistance to the Israelites. I believe Good Shepherd has many ebenezer-moments throughout our history.
One such moment occurred back in October of 2005, when a new worship service called ‘11:11’ was launched down in our Activity Center. I vividly remember the excitement and anticipation of what God was going to accomplish through the new worship expression. After a few years of finding its feet, 11:11 (and 9:29) steadily grew to the point where we needed to build a dedicated worship space to become the new home for these expanding services. Amidst the crippling recession of 2008, Good Shepherd trusted that God would lead and provide as we moved forward in faith, not fear. Construction on the Worship Center began in 2009.
Midway through the construction, congregants were invited into the unfinished Worship Center to write prayers on the concrete slab. Hundreds of people passionately poured their hearts out to God. Perhaps you remember exactly where you wrote your prayers. Carpet was then laid over the concrete, and since that date, thousands of people have stood on the sacred and holy ground within the Worship Center. God has done miraculous and marvelous work within those four walls.
The very first words ever lifted in worship within the Worship Center were from the song “Amazing Grace.” You can check the actual video out here (notice LJ jamming on the djembe with her broken foot! LOL!). This Sunday, September 28, we turn the page on the first chapter of the Worship Center, and the last words that will be sung will be those same declarations of “Amazing Grace.” One of the things I’m most proud of is that many of the band members who were there for that first service in 2010 will also be serving this week, including Chris and Kelly Yonke, Laura Jean Martin, Patrick Bitautas, and Tadd Wenman. We may all be 15 years older, but our love for Jesus has only grown stronger through the amazing grace of Jesus.
We have much to do in preparation for the imminent start of construction, so starting Sunday, October 5, Worship Center services will return to the Activity Center, where they originated. As God did great things there before, we know greater things are to come! We’ll see you this Sunday for the last week in the Worship Center, and then we’ll see you again on October 5 for our first time back in the Activity Center!
And be sure to join us on Wednesday, October 22, for our next Good Shepherd Summit from 5:30-7:00PM where we’ll be able to share much more about construction timelines and plans!
-Ryan Hammer
Creative Arts Executive Minister
***A few weeks ago, Connie Schaible, a long-time vocalist in the Worship Center, penned this incredible reflection after her last Wednesday evening band rehearsal. It remarkably captures a testimony of God’s favor and goodness! I know it’ll bless you, as it did to me when I read it!
_______________________________________________________________________
We linger, after prayer, breaking off into duets and trios of chatter: some light and whimsical, tossing heads back and laughing, placing playful hands on shoulders...others stare deeply, speak softly, settle into chairs close together. And all at once, the thought rears its head that I've been trying so very hard to swallow down all night.
This is the last Wednesday night rehearsal I will spend in the Worship Center. In THIS Worship Center. I walk back up to the front of the room wordlessly, pretending to check to see if perhaps I left something (anything) on the platform, pretending to mutter to myself about checking for...see if...
But the truth is, I go and lay my palms to the stubbly black floor of the platform. These boards I stepped on perhaps a thousand times...placing travel mugs, folded up cheatsheets of lyrics, clunky bottles of water, my little binder. This wooden platform, Holy Ground it has quietly been for each of us for all this time. The murky, humid energy of worship still in the grain, I press my hands on it and think with all my might: Thank you. Thank you for Wednesday.
Because, sure: there's Sunday. But let's be honest: the Burning Bush was always brightest on Wednesday night, wasn't it?
People will say: "It's just a room....the church is the people." And that's a good answer. It's a correct answer.
But "From Him and through Him and to Him are all things" (Rom 11:36)...I am just as much His living creature as the sapling that gave itself to be boards for our platform, the fibers grown and woven to be the carpet, the rolling moving waters that were used in the concrete poured beneath the ground we stood and danced and stomped the rhythm out upon. I don't feel one bit foolish for loving the living things that composed the raw materials that were built into the Living thing that was our ribcage, our lighthouse, our burning fire, our manger, our umbrella, our hospital, our empty grave and open door to the Holy of Holies.
It's never, ever, ever been "just a room."
At one point or another, we each entered that space on a Wednesday for the first time. Some having been part of the family for a long time, that first time in that space on a Wednesday feeling like long answered prayer and the cusp of the next chapter in their story. And for others of us, shyly we stepped in like a child on their first day of school, not having one single idea of how it would change us. Crossing the threshold into that Space on a Wednesday has changed each of us in its time. When we stop for a moment, really looking around at the space-letting the Spirit remove the quilt-print carpet, turning off the lights, draining the brown from the walls, the black from the floor, so we can see it not with mortal eyes but with the eyes of the God who sees it as an offering:
It's MADE of Worship: the scripture, the lyrics, the bleats of prayer requests, the agony of goodbyes we spoke, all knit together with music and sound and light and laughter:
"In Your unfailing love You will lead the people You have redeemed. In Your strength You will guide them to Your Holy Dwelling"(Exodus 15:13) - "God of Creation, there at the start, before the beginning of time...with no point of reference You spoke to the dark and fleshed out the wonder of light..." "Guys, my Dad is sick." "I have set the Lord always before me. Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken..." (Psalm 16:8). "I am who I am because the I Am tells me who I am..." "Yeah, I have a prayer request. I have a job interview next week. I'm pretty excited about it..." "They asked each other, "were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures to us?" (Luke 24:32). "May His favor be upon You for a thousand generations, and your family, and your children, and their children, and their children..." "Guys, I have big news: we're going to have to change things around here while this virus gets sorted out. It's going to ask us to lean even more on each other. I love you guys. We are a family-we can get through this, too, right?"
And so on, and so on...weaving together into a pulsing, shaping, changing, breathing being we made with our worship and our love for one another as a worship family.
Yes, there's more coming. Yes. There will be rehearsals, there will be Sundays, we will worship and pray and celebrate and cheer and weep and grieve and shift and see what God has up His Sleeve for us in the next space, the next chapter of us as Us. But I was told by someone a while ago that grief is critical to receive new chapters with joy. God is calling the Worship Center as we have loved it back to Himself. The purpose He had for it has been fulfilled-of course it has: look how different we are because of what He did to and through and for us in that space? I know for me personally, it has held some of my most triumphant moments and been the place that caught me when my world fell apart. He met me in that space every time-through the space, through all of you.
"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and you WILL find me when you seek Me with all of your heart." Jeremiah 29:11-13
I'm grateful for this space. These Wednesdays just as they are. Whatever to come is absolutely, of course going to be Good. The members of our family we haven't even met yet will meet us there! The songs not yet written will be sung there! The answered prayers, the laughter and revelation we haven't seen yet are waiting for us in the next chapter. Spirit is already in that space that hasn't even been finished yet, with wonder in her wings.
But...in this space, in the nearing close of this chapter, my prayers will just be Thank You. Thank You, God, for this space, for our band family and the Grace of Wednesday nights in a space we loved to the bones, when the rest of the flock wasn't there-when we were preparing to take care of them, to serve them and love them as we were called to do: Wednesdays we serve and nurture each other, and we did that so very well in this Worship Center. Some day, when Kingdom comes and I'm called back home, this particular chapter that He let me have in this particular space will be one of the first things I thank Him for.
-Connie Schaible
One such moment occurred back in October of 2005, when a new worship service called ‘11:11’ was launched down in our Activity Center. I vividly remember the excitement and anticipation of what God was going to accomplish through the new worship expression. After a few years of finding its feet, 11:11 (and 9:29) steadily grew to the point where we needed to build a dedicated worship space to become the new home for these expanding services. Amidst the crippling recession of 2008, Good Shepherd trusted that God would lead and provide as we moved forward in faith, not fear. Construction on the Worship Center began in 2009.
Midway through the construction, congregants were invited into the unfinished Worship Center to write prayers on the concrete slab. Hundreds of people passionately poured their hearts out to God. Perhaps you remember exactly where you wrote your prayers. Carpet was then laid over the concrete, and since that date, thousands of people have stood on the sacred and holy ground within the Worship Center. God has done miraculous and marvelous work within those four walls.
The very first words ever lifted in worship within the Worship Center were from the song “Amazing Grace.” You can check the actual video out here (notice LJ jamming on the djembe with her broken foot! LOL!). This Sunday, September 28, we turn the page on the first chapter of the Worship Center, and the last words that will be sung will be those same declarations of “Amazing Grace.” One of the things I’m most proud of is that many of the band members who were there for that first service in 2010 will also be serving this week, including Chris and Kelly Yonke, Laura Jean Martin, Patrick Bitautas, and Tadd Wenman. We may all be 15 years older, but our love for Jesus has only grown stronger through the amazing grace of Jesus.
We have much to do in preparation for the imminent start of construction, so starting Sunday, October 5, Worship Center services will return to the Activity Center, where they originated. As God did great things there before, we know greater things are to come! We’ll see you this Sunday for the last week in the Worship Center, and then we’ll see you again on October 5 for our first time back in the Activity Center!
And be sure to join us on Wednesday, October 22, for our next Good Shepherd Summit from 5:30-7:00PM where we’ll be able to share much more about construction timelines and plans!
-Ryan Hammer
Creative Arts Executive Minister
***A few weeks ago, Connie Schaible, a long-time vocalist in the Worship Center, penned this incredible reflection after her last Wednesday evening band rehearsal. It remarkably captures a testimony of God’s favor and goodness! I know it’ll bless you, as it did to me when I read it!
_______________________________________________________________________
We linger, after prayer, breaking off into duets and trios of chatter: some light and whimsical, tossing heads back and laughing, placing playful hands on shoulders...others stare deeply, speak softly, settle into chairs close together. And all at once, the thought rears its head that I've been trying so very hard to swallow down all night.
This is the last Wednesday night rehearsal I will spend in the Worship Center. In THIS Worship Center. I walk back up to the front of the room wordlessly, pretending to check to see if perhaps I left something (anything) on the platform, pretending to mutter to myself about checking for...see if...
But the truth is, I go and lay my palms to the stubbly black floor of the platform. These boards I stepped on perhaps a thousand times...placing travel mugs, folded up cheatsheets of lyrics, clunky bottles of water, my little binder. This wooden platform, Holy Ground it has quietly been for each of us for all this time. The murky, humid energy of worship still in the grain, I press my hands on it and think with all my might: Thank you. Thank you for Wednesday.
Because, sure: there's Sunday. But let's be honest: the Burning Bush was always brightest on Wednesday night, wasn't it?
People will say: "It's just a room....the church is the people." And that's a good answer. It's a correct answer.
But "From Him and through Him and to Him are all things" (Rom 11:36)...I am just as much His living creature as the sapling that gave itself to be boards for our platform, the fibers grown and woven to be the carpet, the rolling moving waters that were used in the concrete poured beneath the ground we stood and danced and stomped the rhythm out upon. I don't feel one bit foolish for loving the living things that composed the raw materials that were built into the Living thing that was our ribcage, our lighthouse, our burning fire, our manger, our umbrella, our hospital, our empty grave and open door to the Holy of Holies.
It's never, ever, ever been "just a room."
At one point or another, we each entered that space on a Wednesday for the first time. Some having been part of the family for a long time, that first time in that space on a Wednesday feeling like long answered prayer and the cusp of the next chapter in their story. And for others of us, shyly we stepped in like a child on their first day of school, not having one single idea of how it would change us. Crossing the threshold into that Space on a Wednesday has changed each of us in its time. When we stop for a moment, really looking around at the space-letting the Spirit remove the quilt-print carpet, turning off the lights, draining the brown from the walls, the black from the floor, so we can see it not with mortal eyes but with the eyes of the God who sees it as an offering:
It's MADE of Worship: the scripture, the lyrics, the bleats of prayer requests, the agony of goodbyes we spoke, all knit together with music and sound and light and laughter:
"In Your unfailing love You will lead the people You have redeemed. In Your strength You will guide them to Your Holy Dwelling"(Exodus 15:13) - "God of Creation, there at the start, before the beginning of time...with no point of reference You spoke to the dark and fleshed out the wonder of light..." "Guys, my Dad is sick." "I have set the Lord always before me. Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken..." (Psalm 16:8). "I am who I am because the I Am tells me who I am..." "Yeah, I have a prayer request. I have a job interview next week. I'm pretty excited about it..." "They asked each other, "were not our hearts burning within us while He talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures to us?" (Luke 24:32). "May His favor be upon You for a thousand generations, and your family, and your children, and their children, and their children..." "Guys, I have big news: we're going to have to change things around here while this virus gets sorted out. It's going to ask us to lean even more on each other. I love you guys. We are a family-we can get through this, too, right?"
And so on, and so on...weaving together into a pulsing, shaping, changing, breathing being we made with our worship and our love for one another as a worship family.
Yes, there's more coming. Yes. There will be rehearsals, there will be Sundays, we will worship and pray and celebrate and cheer and weep and grieve and shift and see what God has up His Sleeve for us in the next space, the next chapter of us as Us. But I was told by someone a while ago that grief is critical to receive new chapters with joy. God is calling the Worship Center as we have loved it back to Himself. The purpose He had for it has been fulfilled-of course it has: look how different we are because of what He did to and through and for us in that space? I know for me personally, it has held some of my most triumphant moments and been the place that caught me when my world fell apart. He met me in that space every time-through the space, through all of you.
"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you. You will seek me and you WILL find me when you seek Me with all of your heart." Jeremiah 29:11-13
I'm grateful for this space. These Wednesdays just as they are. Whatever to come is absolutely, of course going to be Good. The members of our family we haven't even met yet will meet us there! The songs not yet written will be sung there! The answered prayers, the laughter and revelation we haven't seen yet are waiting for us in the next chapter. Spirit is already in that space that hasn't even been finished yet, with wonder in her wings.
But...in this space, in the nearing close of this chapter, my prayers will just be Thank You. Thank You, God, for this space, for our band family and the Grace of Wednesday nights in a space we loved to the bones, when the rest of the flock wasn't there-when we were preparing to take care of them, to serve them and love them as we were called to do: Wednesdays we serve and nurture each other, and we did that so very well in this Worship Center. Some day, when Kingdom comes and I'm called back home, this particular chapter that He let me have in this particular space will be one of the first things I thank Him for.
-Connie Schaible
Posted in Shepherds Heart