Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
The town of Winona Lake is blessed with many good churches, but the oldest is Good Shepherd Church, located immediately behind Westminster Hall with the church entrance on College Avenue.
The church began meeting in 1899 under the name Winona Federated Church. J. Wilbur Chapman and Solomon Dickey supplied the pulpit during summers. Pastoral duties during the year were directed by Dr. Frank N Palmer, Dr. J. C Breckenridge and Dr. E. S. Scott, who were all connected with the Winona Schools.
Envisioned as a church for people of all denominations, the Federated Church was an outgrowth of the Winona Bible Conference movement. It first met in the Miniwanan Inn, then moved to the Daguerre Building in 1904. When the newly-constructed Westminster Hotel opened in 1905, the church began meeting there and continued until constructing its own facility.
The congregation felt the need of becoming affiliated with one of the established denominations and so, by majority vote, it was reorganized as a Presbyterian congregation in June 1913 with 44 charter members. Dr. James A. Gordon, who had been pastor of the Presbyterian church in Van Wert, Ohio, for 22 years, was installed as pastor on Jan. 23, 1914.
For all of his 16 years as pastor, Gordon was a member of the board of directors of the Winona Lake institutions, and served a decade as recording secretary of the board. He was active in local organizations including the Kiwanis Club and the Warsaw Chamber of Commerce.
Realizing it would need a permanent location, the congregation bid on four lots when the bankrupt Winona Bible Conference had a sale on Nov. 4, 1915. After meeting for a decade in the Westminster Hotel, the congregation purchased the lots and paid $576 with a loan from Mrs. Billy “Ma” Sunday, which was reimbursed to her over the next several years from funds raised by the Ladies Aid Society.
A Gothic Revival style building was designed by Dr O. H. Newlin in 1921, and the building was constructed for a total cost of $55,000. The cornerstone was laid June 24, 1923, and the building was dedicated on Aug. 3, 1924. The church recently celebrated its 100th year in the current building.
The building has a traditional feel, and features the typical Gothic square tower and arched windows. Interior features include the vaulted ceiling and folding oak doors in the sanctuary. Numerous stained glass windows surround the building and fill it with color.
The window of the Good Shepherd, for which the congregation was ultimately renamed, was a gift from music mogul Homer Rodeheaver in honor of his half brother Jack, who died in an airplane accident at age 19 in 1921. The Gethsemane window in the main sanctuary was given by the Men’s Bible Class.
The communion table was given to the church by Katherine Carmichael in remembrance of her mother. Carmichael was the primary organist for the Billy Sunday evangelistic crusades and was a frequent keyboardist at the church.
Various other furnishings were memorial gifts. A major bequest from Harriet Gawthrop in the 1990s made it possible to expand the church building, including installing a modern elevator.
The belfry bell, which is rung at 10 a.m. each Sunday, hung for years on the lakefront on Park Avenue and was used as the fire bell and the curfew bell for the town.
Through the years, a number of luminary figures have been affiliated with the church, including composer B. D. Ackley, noted Hoosier poet V. M. Hatfield, Billy Sunday’s songleader Homer Rodeheaver, recording artist Gloria Roe and many more.
Billy Graham’s 1949 tent crusade was launched from an all-night prayer meeting in the Rainbow Room of the Westminster Hotel next door. During the prayer meeting in July 1949, Graham asked for a key to the church, and spent the rest of the night in the church’s sanctuary, praying alone for the upcoming Los Angeles crusade.
Two months later the Los Angeles crusade opened with a tent seating 6,000. A number of well-known individuals became Christian believers in that crusade including Jim Vauss (the Wiretapper), Louis Zamerini (Olympic runner, prisoner of war, star of “Unbroken”) and Stuart Hamblen, a well-known TV singing cowboy and author of the song “It Is No Secret What God Can Do.”
The church’s manse was constructed in 1962, and in August 2009 the congregation changed its name to Church of the Good Shepherd. In 2018 the church voted to once again become an independent congregation.
Pastor Eric Sass became the current pastor of the church in August 2020. He had previously pastored in southern Michigan.
The church has chosen to retain a traditional style of worship, utilizing hymnals and piano and organ for congregational singing. The congregation currently fills the sanctuary on Sunday mornings and the church is characterized by a wide variety of ancillary ministries including a sanctuary choir, a daytime pre-K school for children, Vacation Bible School in the summer, a peanut brittle ministry that over the years has raised more than $100,000 for missions, Sunday School classes for adults and college students and more.
Sunday morning worship services are at 10:30 a.m. The church’s street address is 708 College Ave., Winona Lake. The phone number of 574-267-7595 and the e-mail address is office@goodshepherdwinona.org. Sunday sermons are posted each week on the church’s Facebook page, as well.
