Good Shepherd turns 50

Fifty years ago Good Shepherd Lutheran Chapel was the new church kid on the block along the Cape Rock Drive and Bel Air hillside. On Sunday, May 7, the congregation will mark its golden anniversary with a friendship banquet at the Osage Centre.

Co-chaired by Weldon and Joann Hilpert, the arrangments committee has sent invitations to area charter members and those residing in Colorado, New York, Kansas, Illinois, Florida, Ohio and Texas.

Actually, 50 is not all that old when it comes to church history. Trinity Church in Egypt Mills is observing its 150th anniversary this year, and Trinity Church at Themis and Frederick was organized as a “town mission” of Hanover Lutheran Church in 1854 by five charter members.

When Good Shepherd’s 209 members signed the charter in 1967, St. Andrew Lutheran Church was already 10 years old, and Westminster Presbyterian Church at nearby Perryville Road opened its doors four years before Good Shepherd.

Space guidelines for TBY columns necessitate condensing a half-century of church history into a capsule of memories. Here I will focus on the earlier years in areas of music and fellowship activities:

Remembering ... the first choir (about a dozen of us) when we sang from the balcony where the organ was installed (not far from the furnace equipment). It was a joyful but heated experience. Alberta Buschmann was our patient director and Carolyn Fiedler our first organist. Other organists include Marty Roth, Dorothy Evans, Joyce Macke and Jim Wunderlich. William (Bill) Suedekum was a fine vocalist.

Remembering ... youth (boys and girls) softball games played on Good Shepherd field along Cape Rock Drive on Sunday afternoons. Teams from Trinity, St. Andrew and Hanover churches participated in the summertime league. Pastors joined in as team players or umpires and moms and dads brought folding chairs to watch and cheer for their sons and daughters.

Remembering ... the competitive inter-church Dart Ball League the Men’s Club supported through many seasons, guided by the efforts of Walter Fiehler, Tex Bruns, Dan Mueller, Brand Bock, H. W. Meyr, Howard Bock, Harold Meyr and dozens of other game enthusiasts.

Remembering ... Ladies Guild, an affiliate of the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League, was organized that first year. Led by Lucille Frank and Alma Ludwig, president and vice president, the 22 charter members began fulfilling their commitment “to foster Christian love and felloship and to assist in congregational activities.” Mighty Mites, a fundraiser for mission needs, has continued to be a popular project of members through 50 years.

Good Shepherd has been led in ministry by five pastors, beginning with the founder, the Rev. Walter C. Loeber, who conducted the first service on New Year’s Day, 1967, in a house across the street from the chapel. Completing the clergy list are the Revs. Alan Bachert, William Matzat, Barry Pfanstiel, and the current pastor, Wesont Wildhauer.

Leaving Trinity Church after 37 years to help launch a sister congregation in Cape’s north side was not an easy decision, but it was the right one for the Bock family. My husband, Howard, was honored to serve as president the first two years. Browsing through the roster of charter members (from Alyea through Windisch), I fondly recall some of the family names: Boren, Boyd, Bryant, Buschmann, Cotner, Evans, Fiehler, Gaither, Gray, Haertling, Huckstep, Kelley, Koch, Ludwig, Meyr, Moore, Newcomer, Prevallet, Pinkston, Polack, Rauh, Reynolds, Schilling, Schuessler, Schack, Schwab, Siebert, Sprenger, Strom, Train, Voges, Ware, Weber and Wenskay.

When I was a teenager, I thought 50-year-olds were ancient history. But when I hit the half-century mark, I changed my mind, more than ready to adopt the popular slogan, “Life begins at 50.” It is my hope and prayer that this saying proves prophetic for Good Shepherd as well.