A Parish Rooted in East Vancouver Since 1968
Church of the Good Shepherd sits on SE Ellsworth Road in East Vancouver, Washington, a neighborhood that still has the fir trees the first members saw when they broke ground in the late 1960s. Twenty-five people with a passion for the Holy Spirit gathered in 1968 as a mission of St. Luke's Episcopal Church, staking a claim on a piece of land where they could sing, pray, and especially honor the needs of young families. Members built the original sanctuary and parish hall with their own hands, and the parish grew in numbers and in scope. By 2001 Good Shepherd was running thirty-two ministries, and in 2014 the congregation began dreaming of the next chapter, a major remodel that closed in June 2021 with a grand reopening the following September.
Today the parish describes itself as "an ancient-future sort of place," rooted in the Episcopal tradition and the wider story of Christian faith while engaging contemporary questions directly. Its mission statement is simple: "We are people of God, committed to acting in love, seeking and serving Christ in the world, one another, and ourselves." The vision that emerged after the remodel is "a world transformed by the love of Jesus Christ." Good Shepherd is also an explicitly welcoming parish. Good Shepherd extends "a particular welcome to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer people and families," affirms that "all people are beloved by God, no exceptions," and joins the Episcopal Churches of Clark County in hosting a booth at Pride in the Park in Esther Short Park.
Sunday Worship: One Episcopal Church, Two Distinct Services
From September through May, Good Shepherd offers two Sunday morning services that share the same liturgy of Holy Eucharist but speak in very different musical languages. At 8:30 am the Good Shepherd Choir leads a traditional service rooted in the Episcopal historical rite, with timeless hymns, sung psalm settings, and a new offertory anthem each week. The 8:30 congregation is supported by printed programs so newcomers can follow the service easily.
At 11:00 am the music shifts to ShepherdSong, the parish's contemporary praise band of singers and instrumentalists. The liturgy is the same; the energy is amplified, with praise songs, contemporary service music, and a weekly offertory selection. Both services include Holy Communion, and a Prayer Team is available during Communion at the left side of the sanctuary for anyone who would like confidential prayer.
During the summer months the parish combines these into a single service at 10:00 am that the staff describes as "the best of our traditional and contemporary worship styles": music, sermon, and Holy Communion in one gathering. Easter Sunday keeps the two-service rhythm, with the 8:30 led by the choir and the 11:00 by ShepherdSong. Christmas Eve offers a 4:00 pm service led by ShepherdSong and a 7:00 pm service led by the choir, both with candle lighting. Christmas Day, by contrast, is a quiet, contemplative 10:00 am Eucharist for those who want a calmer way to mark the holy day.
Services generally run 70 to 90 minutes, and the parish is clear about its dress code: "come as you are." Some people wear their Sunday best; others wear jeans. The only requirement is showing up.
Children and Family: Catechesis of the Good Shepherd
The signature program for children at Good Shepherd is the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (CGS), a Montessori-based, inclusive faith formation program that has been part of the parish for more than thirty years. Rather than a classroom with desks and textbooks, CGS takes place in a specially prepared space called the Atrium, where children encounter the Christian story through hands-on materials, scripture, and the liturgical year. Presentations are given one-on-one or in small groups so that catechists can follow each child's spiritual development.
The Atrium is organized into four levels:
- Level T for toddlers ages 18 to 36 months, accompanied by a parent, where little ones begin to encounter God's love through prayer, practical life, and quiet wonder.
- Level I for ages 3 to 6, where the central image is the Good Shepherd who loves and gives everything for the sheep.
- Level II for grades 1 to 3, centered on Christ as the True Vine and the history of the Kingdom of God, beginning to introduce moral sensitivity and responsibility.
- Level III for grades 4 to 6, where children explore the plan of God as worked out in Scripture and human history, using the paradigm of Creation, Redemption, and Parousia.
Sunday Children's Faith Formation runs from 10:00 am until the Peace at the 11:00 service (about 11:30 am), mid-September through mid-May, in the children's education building behind Founders Hall. A new Mid-Week Catechesis launched in fall 2025, meeting Mondays with Level T and Level I in the morning (9:30 to 11:00 am) and Level II and Level III in the evening (5:30 to 7:00 pm). Registration is $35 per family.
Nursery care is offered during both Sunday services, staffed so parents can drop children off at the start of worship and pick them up after. For parents who prefer to keep younger children close, a "Prayer Ground" on the left side of the sanctuary provides sensory toys, books, and quiet play space so families can participate together.
Youth Ministry: Grades 6 Through 12
Good Shepherd's youth ministry walks with students in grades 6 through 12 through the journey to young adulthood, building what the parish calls a "safe and welcoming space" to grow in faith and serve the community. Three messages are repeated often: "You are made in God's image," "You are loved and accepted exactly as you are," and "You can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens you" (Philippians 4:13).
Sunday mornings from 10:00 to 11:00 am, September through May, students gather in the Youth Building for Alpha Youth, a discussion-based exploration of the Christian faith in a relaxed setting. On the first and third Wednesdays from 7:00 to 8:30 pm, Youth Faith Connection offers a time of prayer, listening, sharing, scripture study, prayer journaling, Taizé music, and Bible trivia. Wednesday evening Youth Group adds ice-breakers, games, guest speakers, and time in the chapel with songs, liturgy, and candle lighting.
Outreach is built into the rhythm. Youth participate in Bags of Hope (homeless support bags), cards of appreciation for veterans, Giving Tree shopping for local families, game and craft nights at Stephen's Place, connections with Open House Ministries, community art nights, and Teen Care Boxes. The parish also sends students to diocesan youth events, including High School Youth Conference (HYC, grades 9 to 12) and Junior High Youth Conference (JYC, grades 6 to 9), gatherings from around the Diocese of Olympia for worship, fellowship, and encouragement. Confirmation is offered in partnership with the bishop's office.
Music: The Choir and ShepherdSong
The music ministry is unusually broad for a parish of this size. Good Shepherd Choir is the traditional choir that supports the 8:30 service, singing music from virtually all periods of church music. The choir leads musical psalm settings and congregational hymn singing, presents a new offertory anthem each week, and sings special music for Communion. Each year they present an Advent Lessons and Carols service and provide additional music during Advent, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost. Membership is open to anyone who can match pitch, regardless of previous experience. The choir rehearses Wednesday evenings from 7:00 to 8:30 pm and Sunday mornings at 8:00 am, September through early June.
ShepherdSong is the contemporary ensemble that leads the 11:00 service. Because of the ensemble nature of the group, prospective singers and instrumentalists are asked to audition. Rehearsals are Monday evenings at 7:00 pm and Sunday mornings at 10:00. Instrumentalists have additional opportunities to offer solos, play in ensembles, or accompany the vocal groups.
Adult Formation and Small Groups
Adult Formation at Good Shepherd is described as an invitation to grow in relationship to God and one another, with options on Sunday mornings between the services and at other times during the week.
- Adult Bible Study meets Wednesday mornings from 11:00 am to noon in the Youth Building, working through Bible books in their entirety.
- Book Study meets between the 8:30 and 11:00 services on Sundays at 10:00 am. No preparation is required; everyone is welcome.
- Sacred Ground is a film- and readings-based dialogue series on race, grounded in faith. Small groups of two to three sessions meet every few weeks, with new groups forming as interest allows.
Other small groups include the Knitting and Crocheting Group, which makes items for Babies-in-Need and the Seafarer's Center and meets on the second and fourth Tuesdays at 1:00 pm in the Youth Building; Prayers and Squares, a prayer quilt ministry that meets Mondays at 1:00 pm and creates quilts for people facing health challenges; the Prayer Wheel, a team committed to praying for submitted concerns; and the Prayer Team, available at both Sunday services during Communion.
The G.R.E.A.T. Group (God loving, Resilient, Enthusiastic, Active, Talented) is the parish's seniors' ministry. Members bring a brown-bag lunch to Founders Hall at noon on the first Monday of the month from October through June, then hear a community speaker or join a round-table discussion. The acronym is intentional: the program takes a holistic approach to aging in physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional balance.
Dinner Circles gather small groups of about eight people for a casual meal (or brunch or lunch) once a month. Circles form twice a year and meet for four months at a time, rotating among homes and restaurants so no single person carries the hosting burden.
Healing Ministry: The Order of St. Luke
Good Shepherd is a charter home for a vibrant local chapter of the Order of St. Luke (OSL), a national and international healing ministry that believes Jesus still heals today. The OSL group studies scripture, reads books on healing, and prays together, and its members are trained in Christian Listening. Locally the Good Shepherd chapter meets in a hybrid format: via Zoom on the first and second Tuesdays from 10:30 am to noon, and in the chapel on the third Tuesday. On the fourth (or last) Tuesday of the month the chapter hosts the Healing Soaking Prayer Service, which is open to the wider community and is livestreamed across the nation and beyond. Healing prayer teams are also available at both Sunday services during Communion.
In 2023 Good Shepherd hosted the OSL "Clothe Me With Joy" North American Conference, which brought more than 200 people from the United States, Canada, South Africa, Kenya, and England to Vancouver for three days of teaching, workshops, worship, and fellowship.
Outreach: Ten Percent, Every Month
Since 1968 the parish has held that service is love in action. Its most concrete expression is a long-standing commitment to send ten percent of every dollar donated directly to outreach partners, every month. The current slate of community partners is:
- YWCA Clark County, supporting a program that serves people who have experienced domestic violence or sexual assault, including the Domestic Violence Hotline and Sexual Assault Response Team.
- Open House Ministries, a faith-based nonprofit that shelters more than a hundred residents each night (half of them children) and provides case management toward permanent housing.
- Rahab's Sisters, a Portland-based community for women, trans, and nonbinary folks experiencing poverty, houselessness, and isolation, serving around 400 meals a week along the 82nd corridor.
- Clark County Food Bank, the regional food bank that serves roughly one in five Clark County residents each year, distributing millions of pounds of food and millions of meals.
- Share Vancouver, which builds relationships and advocates for equitable housing and food stability, including backpack programs that send food home with thousands of students each week.
- Winter Hospitality Overflow (WHO), the cold-weather emergency shelter network that operates at or near its 30-bed capacity each winter night.
Parishioners also serve as tutors and lunch buddies at nearby Ellsworth Elementary, participate in the annual School Supply Drive (for two elementary schools, two middle schools, one high school, and Good Shepherd's own Montessori School), donate Thanksgiving Baskets, contribute to the Giving Tree at Christmas, organize a Red Cross Blood Drive each March in memory of Leah Goforth, and staff the WHO shelter at St. Andrew's Lutheran Church for one week each winter.
Additional outreach partners include Interfaith Treasure House (Camas), Community Kitchen of Vancouver, North County Community Food Bank (Battle Ground), Martha's Pantry, Share, the Council for the Homeless, and the City of Vancouver's resources for the unsheltered.
The Building: A 2021 Reopening
The remodel completed in 2021 addressed three priorities identified by a 2015 building committee: increased gathering space, increased functionality, and improved safety and security. The work was designed by C2K Architecture and built by RSV Construction, and it ran through the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic without interruption, with parishioners kept up to date by photographs and video tours.
What changed during the remodel is most of what a visitor sees today. The Founders (Parish) Hall was enlarged. A new Chapel was created, along with a new Music Room, Conference Room, and Church Offices. The Narthex was enlarged, the restrooms were enlarged, the Kitchen was replaced and enlarged with all new appliances, and the Sacristy was enlarged. A new Nursery was relocated near the Sanctuary. The HVAC system was replaced, the Chair/Table Storage Room was enlarged, the Montessori School was refreshed, and new landscaping went in.
Outside, an outdoor Columbarium was added. Inside, a live-stream system was installed in both the Sanctuary and Founders Hall. And on the safety side: a fire sprinkler system, security fencing, new indoor and outdoor lighting, video surveillance throughout, and a staircase to the Mezzanine.
The grand reopening was celebrated in September 2021. Today the building is paid for but the parish is still carrying the loan, and a capital campaign called All for Jesus 2.0 is working to retire the remaining $1.5 million by Christmas.
The Rhythm of the Year
Beyond weekly worship, the parish keeps a rich calendar of recurring rhythms and seasonal traditions.
- Alpha Course meets on Wednesday evenings (6:30 pm) for ten weeks each fall. Alpha is a relaxed, no-pressure series of conversations about the Christian faith that includes a free meal and small-group discussion. Both adult and youth versions run in parallel.
- The MomCo: Good Company is a monthly gathering for mothers that meets on the second Thursday from 9:30 to 11:00 am, offering conversation, relevant topics, and friendship across stages of motherhood.
- Little Sheep Play Group meets most Thursdays from 9:30 to 11:00 am in the nursery for children ages 3 and under, with a simple craft each week.
- Messy Church is a monthly, intergenerational, Sunday-afternoon gathering from 4:00 to 6:00 pm built around crafts, games, music, Bible stories, prayer, and a shared meal.
- Centering Prayer meets on Tuesdays at 4:14 pm on Zoom and on Wednesdays at 3:30 pm in the chapel.
Seasonal touchstones include Ash Wednesday services at 12:00 pm and 7:00 pm, plus Ashes to Go in the parking lot; Holy Week with Palm Sunday, a contemplative Holy Week Eucharist Monday through Wednesday, the Agape Supper on Thursday evening, Maundy Thursday with foot washing and the stripping of the altar, and Good Friday with the Veneration of the Cross; Easter Sunday with both services plus an Easter Egg Hunt on the playground; Pentecost, when worshipers are invited to wear red; a Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper hosted by the Acolytes; Advent Wreath Making on the first Sunday of Advent; the Advent Lessons and Carols service; the annual Turkey Bowl flag football game (with Fr. Tom as referee); Trunk or Treat with outreach collections; the Cozy Christmas family service; a quiet Blue Christmas Service of Remembrance; and the Epiphany Party with King's Cake and Chalking the Door.
The Annual Meeting is held on the last Sunday of January and includes the election of Vestry members, delegates and alternates to Diocesan Convention, a budget review, and the presentation of the Award for Christian Service.
Beliefs and Episcopal Identity
Good Shepherd identifies its core values as Joyful Worship, Intentional Service, Inclusive Community, and Constructive Engagement. Worship is described as "at once traditional and authentic," with a printed program so visitors can follow along. The parish promises in its baptismal covenant to respect the dignity of every human being, and the staff emphasizes that "we don't have all the answers, and that's okay." What matters, they write, is "acting in love, seeking and serving Christ in the world, one another, and ourselves."
The parish belongs to the Diocese of Olympia (the Episcopal Church in western Washington) and was part of the diocese's recent work around youth conferences and Bishop Philip N. LaBelle's visitations, including a Confirmation Sunday with fourteen youth being confirmed by Bishop LaBelle.
Leadership
The parish staff is small and tight-knit. Fr. Tom Warne serves as Rector. Joel Thoreson leads the Music Ministry (and recently launched a classical piano concert series at the church). Linda leads Children's Ministry. Saran Warne leads Youth Ministry and is also the local convener for the Order of St. Luke. Kate leads the Outreach Ministry. Anna handles Marketing and Communications, and Zac is the IT Manager. Preaching is shared with supply preachers such as Corey Auen and guest speakers from across the diocese and the wider church.
Worship is supported by a deep bench of lay ministry teams organized into nine groups: Worship Gathering Ministries (ushers, greeters, lectors, acolytes, Eucharistic ministers, altar guild), Hospitality Ministries (newcomers' class, newcomer callers, coffee hour, receptions), Outreach Ministries, Community Care Ministries (blood drives, safety committee, knitting, G.R.E.A.T. Group), Prayer Ministries (Prayers and Squares, Prayer Wheel, Centering Prayer, Order of St. Luke), and Grounds and Facilities Ministries.
Joining In
Sunday services are at 8:30 and 11:00 am, September through May, and at 10:00 am during the summer. The church is at 805 SE Ellsworth Road in Vancouver, Washington. The office is open Monday through Thursday from 9:00 am to 3:30 pm and on Sundays from 8:30 am to 1:00 pm. The phone number is (360) 892-7770. Services are livestreamed on the Church of the Good Shepherd YouTube channel, and both one-time and recurring giving can be made online through the parish's secure giving portal, with options to give in person, by mail, by pledge, or through legacy planning by will or trust. Pledges can be made or adjusted at any time.