Joy in Generosity

Last weekend, we featured Kali, who started giving financially at a very young age by sponsoring a child in Africa. Her story truly reveals God's call to a generous life and the joy in generosity.  Thanks for inspiring us to go beyond Kali!

 

Transformed by Jesus

Here's a powerful story of the incredible things God can do when his people go beyond! The FUSION special needs ministry brought this family to Good Shepherd. See how that first step into our church transformed their lives.

Above & Beyond begins

Join us as we take the next step in our beyond journey. We are celebrating all that God has done through the generosity of Good Shepherd and are so excited for what God is calling us to do in the next two-year season of ministry.  Here are a few resources to help you take the journey with us:

1. Read this BOOKLET to learn more about Above & Beyond.
2. Do this 20-day DEVOTION with us as we grow in making generosity a way of life.
3. Help us live God's vision for our church by making your COMMITMENT.

Blessing Bags

Going beyond can be a lot of fun. 10 families recently gathered together to experience the joy of generosity. Items were donated to make blessing bags for kids at Hesed House. Not only will this be a special Valentines gift, but it will also provide for some basic needs.  To see the fun, watch the video below...

Show Stopper

The ministry we do inside our church building goes way beyond our church building. Here is one example from the FUSION ministry...

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Just wanted to thank you for giving my son the opportunity to work with the Fusion kids when his schedule allows. I wanted to share with you a bit of how those seeds grow outside of Good Shepherd.

My son, Reed, is in the choir at Metea Valley High School. Metea hosted a “Guy’s Sing Night” last night inviting the feeder grade schools and middle schools to sing with the men’s choirs. This is intended to build goodwill, male-bonding and help build interest in the program. All the guys came pouring out after rehearsal for pizza and as usual, my Reed was nowhere to be found. Instead he comes straggling behind chatting with someone who looked like a teacher from a different school. 

As they got closer I realized she is someone I recently met at Church and is the Music teacher at Owen Elementary…Sue Boozel. When I go up to say “hi” she proceeds to “introduce” me to this young man who she says took the initiative to pair up with her little student with special needs and what an unbelievable job he is doing. I, of course, helped her draw the connection that he in fact is my son.

At the concert the little boy refused to go on stage. But Reed confidently waited with the boy in the shadows and got him to come out behind the curtain. Reed stood there with such calm confidence and the boy next to him never flinched. When the music started the boy did perfectly, singing all the songs, clapping and even dancing. Reed by his side calm, protective and confident the whole way.

After the concert the boy’s parents were flooded with emotion, thanking Reed for making this such a wonderful experience for them all. As you know this child now has the chance to consider music as a wonderful asset to his life. Reed is still not sure what he really did except for to be himself. 

Thank you, so much for the ministry you lead and your part in helping him see that being the kindhearted Reed he is, is a huge value to this world and will always be more than enough.

Jayne R.

Neighborly Love

We encourage all of our small groups to serve together. This is a great way to bond as a group and live out our value "generosity is a way of life."  Below is a powerful story about how one of our small groups went beyond to make a big impact in their neighborhood...

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Last spring our small group was doing a study entitled Reckless Faith. We talked about stepping out of our comfort zone and helping others by being the hands and feet of Christ. We wanted to make an impact on someone in our local community. My husband and I knew just the right family. They lived two doors down from us and their yard was overgrown and needed a lot of TLC. They keep to themselves and never engage with anyone in our neighborhood. They also have an adult child with cerebral palsy requiring an electric wheelchair and outside caretakers.

The next day I went for a walk and l prayed. How would we approach them? How would our willingness to help them be received? What if they were offended? But the Holy Spirit tugged on my heart and said 'go'. So I went. I walked right up to the door and knocked. The woman who lived at the house would not come to the door but a caretaker gave me her phone number and said I could call her. I took that as a sign and went right home and called her. We talked for a few minutes and I explained that our small group wanted to come and help them with their lawn. She was hesitant at first and couldnt believe that anyone would want to do that. She had to convince her husband and that took a little more coaxing, but he agreed and we picked a date.

It was a beautiful spring day and members of our small group gathered at our house to talk about the job at hand. Their landscape proved to be in rougher shape than we thought. Small trees needed to be chopped down, shrubs removed, weeds pulled, bushes trimmed, debris hauled to the street and they had sub pump drainage issues. When the woman came home that day she was in awe of her lawn and was amazed that strangers would do this for them. It was a days work for us but for them it was so much more.

We were God's hands and feet that day. We did not preach to them, we did not condemn them for not taking care of their lawn, we reached out to serve them with love and respect.

We hope they will let us come back again this spring so we can shower them with God's love once again.

Wendy E.

Preschool Celebration 01-25-16

This past Sunday we had our Preschool students sing in worship.  The Preschool is an incredible ministry of our church that is helping us go beyond our generation.  Here are a few fun facts about the Preschool along with a really fun video they put together.  Enjoy!

Fun facts:

• 104 students 
• Ages Older 2’s –6 years old 
• 2-5 days a week program with extended day options 
• 19 staff which includes a Spanish teacher and a music teacher 
• Our students represent over 30 churches in the community – great outreach to our community 
• Each month we meet in the sanctuary for worship time with the Pastors 
• Monthly we memorize a bible memory verse and learn the sign language to go with it.

Fun video:

Christmas Canes

Two stories touched my heart this Christmas. Both were connected and both were examples of how people can go beyond to make radical generosity a way of life.

One of the collections we had at Christmastime was a project called "Christmas Canes." We collected aluminum, collapsible walking canes to be given to the people we serve in Honduras, many of whom use brooms or tree branches when they have trouble walking around.

A young girl heard about this project to collect Christmas canes and was inspired to help. So when she went to visit Santa Claus this Christmas, can you guessed what she asked for? You guessed it. She asked Santa for an aluminum cane. The girl did end up getting a cane, which she joyfully donated to our drive.

This story was shared during one of our Christmas Eve services. After the service, a man came up to me. He was using a cane to walk. When he got to me, he paused and held up his cane. "Can you use this?" he asked. Before I could really answer, he handed the cane to me and hobbled off.

I love stories like this, especially at Christmas, because they reflect the radical generosity of our God who has given us so much, including his one and only Son. May we all be inspired this year to go beyond by making radical generosity a way of life. Happy New Year!

Behind the Scenes of Christmas

Many people are going beyond to make Christmas Eve a special celebration of Jesus for all. This is a huge opportunity to reach people beyond our church. I bet you didn't know about this awesome serving team!!! They are scraping wax so everyone can have clean candles for Christmas Eve! Seriously, sooooo many serving teams of unsung and unseen people here at Good Shepherd! Let's take a moment to celebrate them!!!

Beyond Update November 2015

Read an update of how God has taken our church beyond through the generosity of our congregation: UPDATE.