The Fellowship Hall will be open again this Sunday, December 6, from 11:00 to 1:00 for pick up and drop off:
This Christmas, we invite you to sing with us!
It’s everyone’s favorite moment – when the lights go down low, we light candles one by one, and we sing together, “Silent night! Holy night!” It might be the most beautiful three minutes of the entire year.
We may not be able to sing together in person this year, but through the power of technology, our worship team is planning to bring all the families of our church together for one verse of this beloved hymn.
It’s easy to join us! Just play back our karaoke-style video below for the words and piano, and record your family using any video camera. When you’ve got the perfect take, you can send it directly to us by clicking this link.
Don’t worry at all about how you sound – when we all sing together, everyone sounds great!
And be sure to have some fun with this! Let your video reflect your personality. Choose clothes and lighting and props and a setting that say something about who you are and what Christmas means to you.
We’ll premiere the video at worship on Christmas Eve, and will share it on our YouTube channel, too.
Ready to go? Here’s the video!
The Fellowship Hall is open today until 2:30 for you to pick up and drop off the following:
From our partners at the Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod of the ELCA:
This year, as we have had to transform our worship, our gatherings, our understanding of church, the one thing that congregations continued to do exceedingly well was minister to one another and to the communities around them.
Your gifts to your congregation, to partner ministries, and to Mission Support have saved and improved lives across the globe.
Pass On the Gratitude
All the blessings we’ve shared happen because we each commit to participating in the Church’s call together. Please share the heartfelt thanks of all within our synod with your congregation, council, and lay leaders for their contributions to Mission Support.
In keeping with our COVID-19 policy, in person events at The Good Shepherd have been suspended as of Friday, November 13, due to a surge in cases in Allegheny County.
We will continue to offer worship online each Sunday at 10:30. It’s easy to join us!
Please visit our COVID-19 Information Center for more information and current status updates.
Remember that we are the Church together – nothing can separate us from Christ’s love for us, the love that makes us family. Stay safe out there!
The 2020 SWPA Synod Assembly will be held online this Saturday, November 14. Please pray for us as we elect leaders, debate the budget, hear from our staff and partners, and more.
Your voting members are:
In addition, Pastor Bob is the chair of the Assembly Planning Committee, and the manager of the online event. He’d appreciate your prayers for a smooth meeting with no glitches!
You can watch the Assembly live beginning at 9:00 on the SWPA Synod Facebook page.
On Sunday, November 15, the Good Shepherd will join congregations from around our synod in a special online worship service honoring the 50th anniversary of the ordination of women in the Lutheran churches of America. The service will be led by women clergy of our synod, and Bishop Kusserow will preach. The service is offered as a way to bring our congregations together on the day after our Synod Assembly.
You can join the service in a several ways:
We’ll be showing the service in the sanctuary for anyone who wants to join us in person. We’ll also be premiering a performance by the Virtual Choir of “O Christ the Same” (to the tune of Londonderry Air, more commonly known as “Danny Boy.”)
We’ll be livestreaming the synod’s service and our Virtual Choir in all of the normal ways.
Pastor Bob is taking a well-earned Sunday of vacation time, after chairing the Synod Assembly planning committee. Our council will be taking over the tech responsibilities in his place.
We think it’ll go just fine, but if something goes wrong, you can always watch the synod’s service live at 10:30 on their YouTube channel. It’ll work no matter what technical difficulties we might encounter on our end.
In late July we sent a letter to all our friends and families to let you know about our upcoming in-person worship services. In that letter, we invited you to share your feedback about several questions regarding in-person gatherings. You can submit your responses using this online form. Thanks for your feedback!
Our first-ever outdoor worship service since the COVID 19 pandemic was held on Sunday, August 2nd. It was a traditional worship service with Holy Communion. We were delighted to gather together with over 40 of our sisters and brothers in Christ, in person, and countless others who participated virtually to share the word, the body and blood of Christ, beautiful music and some much needed fellowship! We were able to enjoy all of that while maintaining appropriate health and safety guidelines. Join us this Sunday and every Sunday thereafter for the foreseeable future at 10:30 Eastern Time. Please note that this is half an hour later than we have met in the past – this is to allow additional time for setup and to make sure the weather will permit outdoor worship. Thanks to Pastor Bob and all of the volunteers who made this possible!
Our services will also be offered live online. Whether you join us in person or online, we can’t wait to worship with you!
Worship will be held at the gazebo in the front yard of the church, weather permitting. You are invited to bring lawn chairs and be seated around the gazebo, or to remain in your car. Ushers will help you to park and practice social distancing while at the church.
Masks must be worn at all times. If you do not have a mask, our ushers will be happy to provide you with one.
Restrooms will be available, but access will be controlled to allow for social distancing.
Although we will not be able to sing together at this time, our church musicians will have musical selections to inspire you each Sunday morning. We will continue to pray and speak the creed together.
Communion will be offered using safe methods of distribution.
You can visit our website, www.goodshepherdlife.org, to see the current status of Sunday’s service and check for any weather or COVID-19 related cancellations.
If you’d like to join us online, please start by going to our website, www.goodshepherdlife.org. You’ll find easy instructions for:
Sunday morning worship will be livestreamed straight to our YouTube channel. You can watch on your phone, tablet, computer, or smart TV. You won’t be able to interact with other worship participants, but you’ll be able to see and hear everything that’s happening, as it happens – it’s like a live TV broadcast from the church.
We’ll be with you every day throughout the COVID-19 emergency. Join Pastor Bob for a daily time of prayer, scripture and a bit of encouragement. You can watch Daily Prayer on our YouTube channel or listen to the Daily Prayer podcast wherever you get your podcasts.
Your council, worship committee and worship leaders have worked hard to get us to the point where we can worship together safely and meaningfully. We know how different all this is, but we’re grateful that no matter how we gather, no matter what means we use, we are the body of Christ together.
See you soon,
Pastor Bob