Our Story
Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd - A History
On December 31, 1985 Shepherd King Lutheran Church in Calgary, Alberta broke from the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod to join with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. For reasons of conscience this left some Confessional Lutherans with no home to worship in. These Christians chose not to disband to other churches but to come together and plant a Confessional Lutheran Church in the southeast area of Calgary.
December 9, 1986 almost a year after being displaced a representative from the District Mission Services, the local pastors in Calgary, and a group of interested people met in southeast Calgary with Rev. Mel Wolthers and developing a church began. After two years of prayerful planning, Rev. Murv Kentel was called to serve as a Mission Developer he accepted this call on September 15, 1987 and was installed as the Mission Developer by President Ed Lehman on October 25, 1987.
The first worship service held by Lutheran Church of The Good Shepherd was on November 1, 1987 in the gym at Deer Run Elementary School with 32 people in attendance.
April 10, 1988 Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd was officially named a congregation of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, and on January 1, 1989 was received as a member of the newly formed synod Lutheran Church Canada.
The Education Wing of the current building was started in 1989 and saw completion in 1990 when a dedication service was held on May 27, 1990. September 1993 saw Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd begin their planning for the second phase of the building and on October 23, 1994 held the dedication service for the Nave (Worship Area) of the church building.
Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd was led by Rev. Murv Kentel until his retirement in 1997. The congregation received their next pastor Rev. Larry Gajdos in 1997 who continued as the senior pastor until 2005. In 2004 Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd called an Associate Pastor from Concordia Lutheran Seminary in Edmonton, and received Rev. Lorne Manweiler; he served at LCOTGS until 2005. In 2006 Rev. David Dressler took the call to Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd and is currently still serving the congregation.
God continues to bless Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd as we build His church by “Inviting people to know Christ, Building them up in their faith, and Equipping them for lifelong service to Christ.” Eph. 4:12