Welcome
Pastor Julio Peña's August 2021 Message
"The Time Is Now!!! Part One"
Greetings!!! “Grace to you and peace from God and our Savior Jesus Christ.” I also sent you greetings from me; Pastor Julio C. Peña of Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church. I pray that you and your family are well on this day as you are reading this article in our newsletter.
This past February 2021 was the beginning of my 5th year here as Pastor of Good Shepherd in the Garfield Ridge Community. My plan was to strengthen and build relationships within our church family and the community that surrounds the church. Which, I believe was accomplished. With the COVID situation in the past year and a half it has slow us down in moving to the phase of growth in this congregation and community. We are now moving into the next phase of growth.
1st We will continue to grow spiritually in our hearts, minds and spirit by worshipping together, praying together, and studying together.
2nd We will grow in numbers of membership and in commitment of members and friends of the church by being bold in showing and having conversation with the congregation and the community.
3rd We will look at ways to grow financially so that we can maintain the church building and staff by growing in our commitment, spreading the gospel, helping and serving the community and each other.
This will be a three year plan beginning in August 2021 with the theme of “The Time Is Now.” This means that change will happen gradually or quickly, while still maintaining the core of who we are as a congregation.
We will begin by having two target groups, while still welcoming all people to be a part of this beautiful congregation:
Our first target is the Spanish speaking population starting with a Spanish worship service on Sunday, November 28, 2021 at 9am.
Our second target group is from the age of 21 to 40 years of age group with families.
This does not stop us or that we will ignore the growth in our elderly, youth and children. We came with this target growth with the mindset of strengthen now and the future of Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church.
We are still looking into the possibility of changing the English worship service time, beginning on Sunday, September 5th. When the time is official we will announce that change, during the worship and it will be posted on the website. We will continue to have hybrid worship service in English, but our Spanish is still looking into how it will display the worship service. We will combine 5 worship services throughout the year and any special service such as Baptism and new membership. The 5 worship services are World Communion Sunday on the 1st Sunday of October, Christmas Eve Candlelight Service, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter / Resurrection Sunday.
We will continue to grow spiritually by our Thursday night Bible Study, our worship service, our fellowship and our community prayer group that will begin in August and we will have it monthly for 2021 on the 1st Wednesday of each month in hybrid or in-person or zoom). Anyone can participate on any given time. Our 1st one will be outside at 7pm by the Labyrinth.
We will continue to be an inclusive congregation as we strive to be a multi-cultural, multi-generational, and multi-lingual congregation through our fellowship, worship service, and ministry.
We pray that this letter will inspire you to continue to be with us, for others to join us for the first time and for others to return back home.
I will leave you with a question to ask someone, for you to ponder on, to begin the conversation. What are you seeking in a Church /Congregation Community?
“He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord requires of you, but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8
Blessing,
Pastor Julio