Every four years, the world seems to pause for the World Cup. People in different countries, speaking different languages, living very different lives, gather around the same game. They wear their colors. They wave flags. They cheer, groan, hope, celebrate, and sometimes have their hearts broken together. There aren’t many things that can capture the […]

This has been a heavy week in the life of our extended Good Shepherd community. Many of you know Kayla Meredith, who led our Gladstone campus and served on staff at Good Shepherd for many years. On Saturday night, Kayla’s youngest son, Nate, died in an e-bike accident. Many of us are also grieving the […]

A few weeks ago, we celebrated something beautiful together. Through our Easter Offering, we set out with a clear and meaningful goal: to partner with Sleep in Heavenly Peace and provide 50 beds for children in the Northland who need a safe and comfortable place to sleep. That goal mattered because every bed represents more […]

This week we had our yearly staff retreat. There was time for dreaming, planning, and reconnecting as a team. But the moment I haven’t been able to shake wasn’t any of that. It was hearing from some of you. Stories of how serving at Good Shepherd has been meaningful—not just in what you do, but […]

Easter morning always starts a little early and a little chaotic—but this year, there was something different about it. Between services, I found myself having a series of small, almost ordinary conversations. I met a family who hadn’t been to church in years but decided to give it another try. I talked with someone who […]

Lately I’ve been thinking about how easy it is to drift. Not in some dramatic, life-falling-apart kind of way. But in quieter ways. Whether it’s moving my body, my eating habits, connecting with friends—or even things that bring me life—it’s easy to just get busy. Life fills up. Weeks turn into months. And before you […]

Yesterday, millions of people filled out brackets for the NCAA Tournament.  Some carefully researched every matchup. Others just picked based on mascots, colors, or a gut feeling. At our house, my kids mostly picked based on where family lives…or which mascot they thought was the coolest. Which, honestly, might be just as effective. But no […]

One of the things I love most about Good Shepherd is that we’re not a church that only talks about faith—we’re a church that tries to live it. We know that if the love of Jesus is real, it shouldn’t stay contained inside a church for one hour a week. It should show up in […]

The space between Christmas and New Year’s is one of my favorite weeks of the year. And this year was no different. All week, mornings had been slow—soft pants, legos on the floor, reading my book, music playing in the background. Breakfast stretched a little longer than it probably should have. Sometimes the TV stayed […]