Local

With our help, Camden Promise turns loss into abundance!

Gethsemane Lutheran Church, with two other north Minneapolis churches, run a food shelf, Camden Promise, 4656 Colfax Ave. North in Minneapolis. (see December InterActs article). The Good Shepherd Foundation donated freezers to this effort at Thanksgiving. They’ve had quite an experience the week before Christmas!

1) 1,500 lbs of food that was to be given to 200 families on Christmas Eve was stolen eight days before Christmas.
2) Their story was sent out… including on our website.
3) Donations came pouring in. They received 15,000 pounds of food.
4) The freezers donated from the Good Shepherd Foundation were vital for all the hams that were donated!

Outreach Through Performing Arts

Good Shepherd has added performing arts as a part of our local outreach. We will be partnering with LSS, PCYC and Oromo Lutheran Church on future performing arts endeavors. Please stay tuned on ways in which you can be involved.

Plymouth Christian Youth Center

Plymouth Christian Youth Center (PCYC) offers a myriad of programs aimed at helping North Minneapolis inner-city youth through an alternative high school, Health and Wellness Program aimed at adolescents, Friendship Groups for elementary children, Rocking Readers who read and converse with younger elementary school children, After School Enrichment and Summer Friends for after school hours, the STEEP parenting program for teen moms, cultural arts programs, community gatherings, and the Wilderness Canoe Base. Over 6000 people, mostly youth, participate each year. Contact Herb Morgenthaler to become involved through Good Shepherd. Visit www.pcyc-mpls.org and the Capri Theater site to learn more about the organization.  Here is a recent MinnPost article on the Capri.

Community Emergency Service

Community Emergency Service (CES) is a nonprofit crisis relief and empowerment ministry located in the Phillips neighborhood. CES provides emergency food, housing, employment, and advocacy services to almost 20,000 people annually. Clients consist of low-income households, single parent families, elderly persons, mentally or emotionally disabled persons, as well as recent immigrant groups. CES works to move these clients beyond the crisis to financial stability, emotional health, personal growth and spiritual strength. Learn more Visit www.cesmn.org for more information.

Loaves and Fishes

Volunteers from Good Shepherd prepare and serve meals to hungry people at St. Stephen’s School on the third Tuesday of every other month. All people, regardless of socio-economic, cultural or ethnic background deserve the basic needs of food, dignity and respect. Only then can individuals move to independence. The congregation’s coordinator for Loaves and Fishes is Debbie Anderson; call the church office to volunteer.

Meals on Wheels

Good Shepherd members deliver noon meals every six weeks with other churches in the southwest Minneapolis and Richfield area to people who are homebound, elderly or disabled, and unable to prepare their own meals. For many, Meals on Wheels is a solution to a temporary situation—an illness, injury or recent hospital stay. For others, the program provides an opportunity to remain independent in their own homes. Want to help? Contact Sylvia Pedersen, Good Shepherd’s volunteer coordinator for Meals on Wheels, at dennispedersen@q.com.

three people families moving forwardFamilies Moving Forward

Good Shepherd hosts homeless families with children three or four weeks each year. We offer dinner and breakfast, beds, and fellowship during the evening hours. During the day families are based out of the Families Moving Forward center; adults work or look for jobs, and children attend school. Contact Connie and Phil Delzer, or Bob Stein, congregational coordinators, to become involved. To learn more about Families Moving Forward, visit www.familiesmovingforward.org. Read their exciting new press release! See a rendering of the new building design.

Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota (LSS)

LSS expresses the love of Christ for all people through acts of service. LSS serves children and youth, families and adults, seniors, and people with disabilities. Services include adoption, youth programs, individual and family counseling, guardianship/conservatorship, housing assistance, drug and alcohol treatment, foster care, refugee services and help for people with developmental disabilities. LSS has a compassionate, metro-wide outreach to homeless youth too. For more information or to get involved, visit www.lssmn.org.

Our Redeemer Oromo Evangelical Church

Beginning in 2005, we began a partnership with Our Redeemer Oromo Evangelical Church, a congregation primarily of Ethiopian immigrants, located at 28th Avenue and 40th Street in Minneapolis. Our ministries together continue to evolve and develop.

Neighborhood outreach

We are committed to becoming a good neighbor in southwest Minneapolis and Edina.
Learn more »

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA)

ELCA LogoThrough the Minneapolis Area Synod and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (www.elca.org), Good Shepherd supports the global outreach of the ELCA through missionaries and companion churches throughout the world, new ministry starts, cooperation with seminaries, colleges and universities, the ELCA’s public voice which speaks to national and international issues, the development of congregational resources, church-wide events, ecumenical relationships and a variety of services offered through the synod and church offices.