Updates from congregations around the Church of the Lutheran Confession
Our Shepherd Evangelical Lutheran Church is located about forty miles north of downtown Houston. It is a fairly new church in the CLC, but has a long history within our church body. Many may remember Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church, which was located in Spring, Texas, for many years and then later in Humble. After that group disbanded in 2018, some former members (as well as a few new faces) began meeting in various locations, including a member’s home and a vacant store front. After much discussion and prayer, our group voted to apply for membership in the CLC. This was officially granted in 2021.
Our congregation does not currently have an official call out to any pastor, but we have enjoyed being served monthly by Pastor Matthew Hanel of Saint Matthew’s in Dallas and Pastor Sam Naumann of Resurrection in Corpus Christi, as well as by Allen Durham (a layman of Resurrection). Most services are conducted by laymen, which has been a wonderful opportunity for them to exercise their Christian leadership. Over the years we have been blessed to hear from a number of guest pastors and retired pastors. If any pastors or retirees are ever in the area, we would love to have you lead a service—winter in Houston is pretty nice!
Our Shepherd is currently meeting in a conference room at the Hampton Inn in Conroe, which has worked quite well. Services are currently at 4:30 P.M. on Sunday. We have enjoyed getting to know some of the hotel staff, and have had at least one person at the hotel join us for worship.
Our congregation is small in numbers, but we are very thankful that the Lord has given us a church that is faithful to His Word, as well as beloved Christians to worship with. We currently have twenty members, as well as a handful of nonmembers who attend regularly.
We thoroughly enjoyed hosting the ILC tour choir this past spring. We are very thankful to have heard the Word from them and enjoyed their fellowship!
We pray that God would continue to bless our congregation with the wonderful opportunity to gather together in His name. He is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, and we are eager to see where He will lead our group in the future!
is pastor of St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church in Dallas, Texas. Nathan and Abby Noeldner, members of Our Shepherd, contributed to this article.