Our Core Values

Both the biblical and church traditions have always found our people longing for the arrival of one we can call, Lord. That one is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the concrete manifestation of the living God in flesh and blood. Jesus has given us a love ethic to live by in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus has died on the cross and risen on Easter for our salvation, and Jesus remains in our midst by the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit. Everything we do in the church is founded on our belief that Jesus is Lord, and that his love is the most powerful force in the universe. After the resurrection, the first disciples proclaimed, Jesus is Lord! We proclaim the same!

The bible states clearly that God is love and Jesus is the image of the invisible God, therefore Jesus is God’s love showing up in our midst in human form. Jesus teaches us that to love God and each other is the very meaning of life. He gives us a love ethic to live by, and he invites us to follow him to learn how to love each other and the entire created world. Love is the only thing that truly matters, lasts, and saves. Love should finally inform everything that we do and say, so that no corner of our lives is untouched by love. The author of the New Testament book of Philippians puts it this way, “this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full insight to help you to determine what is best.”

Jesus took the doors off the hinges of the church, so that everyone can come in. We are a fundamentally welcoming church. Everyone is welcome here, no matter the things you’ve done or left undone; no matter what you are or what you’re not; all are welcome at Good Shepherd!

We are a church built on tradition. We seek to preserve all the best parts of our biblical and liturgical tradition and continue to build the church by integrating our own unique practices with the principled practices of our ancestors. When we change something we don’t do it arbitrarily. We determine how the change can be traced back to our core values. All of our practices have an undergirding principle that supports and informs them.

The church is a school that seeks to teach her members how to spread God’s love. All that we do should aim at Equipping, Empowering, and Enabling the people of the church to carry out the mission of the church, which is to “restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.” Our unity is found in the love God shares with us and that we share with each other and the wider world.