What is Important to Good Shepherd?

On the March Vestry Retreat at Kanuga, the Vestry spent some time considering the question: “What is important to Good Shepherd?” While there could be as many responses to the question as there are parishioners, we grouped our various responses around six themes that we’d like to share with you and invite your own comments. We will share a theme each week in the Shepherd’s Fold and on line!

WE ARE A COMMUNITY CENTER

We believe that God has given us fine facilities not only for our own use but for the use of others. We gladly and freely share our facilities with the community to serve a wide range of life giving purposes. We consider Alcoholics Anonymous to be another “congregation” that meets at Good Shepherd.

Our building receives constant use and only occasionally are there circumstances present that justify charging rent. This means that the congregation is underwriting the cost of others' use of the building: utilities, upkeep, wear and tear and the like. Our statement clearly articulates our understanding of why we have the facilities we have and what we are to do with them. Every day of the year and on many days until mid-evening, somebody is at EDS or Good Shepherd. Most of these groups are not parish groups. Drive by most any time and you will see some number of cars in our parking lots. Not only do we share our facilities with others, but we wish to make witness to the God who has blessed us with them and expects us to bless others in return. To that e
nd, this sign makes testimony.

WE PARTNER WITH OTHERS TO SERVE OUR COMMUNITY

Our congregation is blessed with financial resources and the experience of our people that we gladly share with others who are offering service ministries in our community. We magnify our impact in the community through these partnerships which include the giving of significant financial support as well as our parishioners serving as volunteers and as board members of various agencies. We sustain our own “hands on” ministries to complement our financial partnerships.

We are indeed blessed with parishioners growing in their generosity and in the Christian practice of giving. Our budget gives evidence of this growth as it has increased from $535,000 in 1992 to over $1.4 million in 2018. In all of these years Good Shepherd was serious about partnering with others getting God’s work done in the community and in the world by allocating on average 25% of the budget to pass through us on its way to someone doing ministry somewhere. That comes to a total of over 8.3 million dollars of budget and endowment giving, and we will likely add over $500,000 to that total this year.

But we do more than just write checks at Good Shepherd. Our hands-on ministries include being a host church with Augusta Promise, formerly the Interfaith Hospitality Ministry of Augusta. We are a founding member of this effective and successful ministry for homeless families regaining self-sufficiency for two decades now.

The first Saturday of each month can find Good Shepherd volunteers at Christ Church serving lunch for on average 150 Harrisburg neighbors. Most parish events now include a service element and outreach is a regular part of Vacation Bible School, student ministries with our teenagers are service hours and a requirement of EDS students.

WE VALUE CONGREGATIONAL HARMONY

We place a high value on preserving congregational harmony while we live out the inevitable tensions of corporate life and calling in this moment. We have experienced firsthand the wisdom of an Anglican heritage that bids us live together with forbearance, charity and mutual respect while seeking the mind of Christ in our common life and collaboratively building consensus before making decisions for the parish.

All here have their fears and cares, states one old Scottish rhyme about kirk (church), and it is certainly true of Good Shepherd! We all have our own opinions too! About everything from politic to pundits, from hymns to homilies! In today’s culture, differences are almost always the source of deep divisions and animosities. Many are the Christian churches torn asunder by a congregation’s inability to manage its differences.

By God’s grace, Good Shepherd has avoided that sad, destructive and damaging state of affairs and has instead established a culture, a norm of behavior here, that we leave our personal agendas, be they with the world or with the parish, at the church door and focus on making our church life a source of refuge and joy for all of us.

We experience enough of the polarizing, tiring forces at work in our culture so that most don’t want to experience any of that at church. This does not mean, however, that we don’t have disagreements but that we are guided by expressing our love for Jesus in our dealings with each other.

WE BELIEVE BEAUTY IS AN AVENUE TO HOLINESS

We have inherited a much loved, much prayed in church building. For 138 years Good Shepherd parishioners have worshipped God in this place in times of joy and sorrow, of prosperity and adversity. For three quarters of a century students at EDS have learned about God’s love and grace given in Jesus Christ in this same building. Consequently, our church is felt by many to be a possession of the whole community and not just that of the congregation of Good Shepherd. This long history imparts its own “beauty” to the church that draws people into deeper awareness of God’s holiness. An appreciation for the aesthetics of architecture, landscape, music, art and liturgy, all working together in harmony, awaken in parishioners and others a sense of peace and refuge, sanctuary and oasis on this sacred ground. 

It is not unusual for a visitor to Good Shepherd to comment on the beauty of our Church, Churchyard or Parish House. These comments are often accompanied with a follow up observation that the buildings have a nice “feel” about them, or that the grounds are so peaceful. We believe our facilities are a gift from God and given to us not only for our own uses but to be shared with others as well. Life is busy and even frantic for so many people. We are always delighted to be the place of refuge and sanctuary from the fervor of the world. God speaks to us in many ways; beauty is one of them.

WE ARE "THE CHURCH WITH THE SCHOOL"

Good Shepherd is often “placed” in the minds of others by this reference. Episcopal Day School has been an important mission opportunity for the parish for nearly 75 years and constitutes a “signature ministry”, something the congregation is known for, in the wider community.  We hold our canonical responsibility to the school lightly, committed to sustaining and strengthening the mutually beneficial relationship and partnership of Good Shepherd and EDS. Good Shepherd was literally born in a school, meeting at a branch of the Richmond Academy on William Street before a church was built.  Within three years of the founding of the parish, Good Shepherd was operating a school on Battle Row for children of the Hill area.  Providing excellent education for children in the context of Christian Community is deep in our DNA.

Yes we are! And what a blessing to us! We are deeply indebted to Fr. Clarkson for establishing EDS which brings constant, palpable energy to our campus and is a great opportunity to serve the families of our community who are looking for a place that will help their children grow into good and faithful citizens of God’s kingdom, of our community, and of our country.

We are also indebted to Mr. Weed, our first Rector, who as soon as the Parish was started involved us in educational work with the African-American children of the neighborhood. Just three years after the Parish was christened, Mr. Weed opened the Parish and Industrial School, located on Battle Row in 1872.

Can you even begin to imagine all the Augusta lives touched by our school work and the lives that are to be touched in the years to come by the grace of God?

WE ARE "THE CHURCH ON THE HILL"

Historically, Good Shepherd is the first church on the Hill in Summerville and was, until Woodlawn UMC was built, geographically, the first church one encountered coming up the Hill. These facts of our existence, plus our unique “gingerbread” architecture, have created this identity as “the church on the Hill” in the minds of others. The expression may serve as a known reference point or as a perception, perhaps negatively, of a socially exclusive church.  While there are limits to our capacity to manage the perceptions other have of us, there are no limits that preclude others experience of Good Shepherd as an authentic, warm, welcoming and engaged Christian community of faith.

Yes we are! and it is up to each of us and all of us as to what that means to others not part of our Parish. We hope to be a place where any one feels comfortable and everyone feels welcome. The theme presented in the past weeks, “We are a Community Center”, “We are the church with the school” and “ We partner with others to serve our community” are in themselves reflective of our desire to make a difference in the lives of others and not look to only our own benefit. We find that the more we try to do for others the more God blesses us. Go figure!