Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd

In the winter of 1957, our founders bought a white frame house and three acres on Jacksboro Pike for $25,250. On November 25, 1957 sixty-five people gathered for our first congregational meeting. They signed the petition for a charter and chose a name for the new mission church, the “Church of the Good Shepherd.”

Good Shepherd got off the ground in a hurry. In January, 1958 our founders chose an architect, approved the plans for a new building and allocated $73,000 to build it. By June our founders called our first priest in charge, Sidney Sanders, later to become Bishop Sanders, and bought a vicarage on Gaineswood Road for $12,800. On July 13th, Sidney Sanders conducted his first service in “the chapel”, two rooms that had been set aside in the house for worship services. That same day each member and guest used a small shovel to begin groundbreaking. And by Christmas Eve, 1958, even though there was no glass in the windows and the new boiler had just been installed, the first service in our new church building was a Choral Eucharist attended by 142 grateful people.

Many of our founders and near founders are still with us. We are right to remember what they did because what they did continues to affect us today. In little more than a year our founders bought two houses, approved plans, began construction, called a priest and started services in the new church. And they agreed to pay some $110,000 to do so, no small sum in 1958.

What this says to me is that we began with a bang because our founders were united by a common vision—to found a new Episcopal church in Fountain City and to found it in a hurry. They did it and they did it well.

So as we approach the 50th anniversary of our founding, where do we at Good Shepherd go from here? At our best, we still have the energy and the daring of our founders. But what is our common vision for why God has called us together? Are we to continue to be a quiet Episcopal presence in an increasingly noisy secular world. Or are we called to become something more, something more bold and dramatic, daring greatly for the Christ we seek to serve?

These are basic questions. My hope for all of us is that we will approach our 50th year together with a common desire to do the hard work of finding our next driving vision.
When we discern that vision, then we can celebrate not just our past but our future, rejoicing in the presence of the Holy Spirit at Good Shepherd, yesterday, today and tomorrow.

In peace,

Charles