Welcome to Good Shepherd Church!

I am Kevin Pees.  As Pastor at Good Shepherd Church, it is my privilege to work with awesome people to make the influence of Jesus larger in this world.

Jesus became real to me as a child in a weeklong summer event called Vacation Bible School.

Each morning we would gather at the local church for a couple hours to play games, hear Bible lessons, sing songs and eat snacks.  On the last day, the pastor would stand up just before our end of the week sack lunch picnic and tell us about a special relationship each of us could experience.

The pastor explained to us that sin separates us from God and the final consequence of sin is the eternal experience of hell.  I have since learned that sin not only results in hell in the next life it also creates an overwhelming burden of pain and guilt in this life.

After the bad news, we heard THE GOOD NEWS!  Jesus, God’s own Son, came to earth to pave a path for us to be reconciled to God.

Being fully God and fully human, Jesus was able to deal with the consequences of our sin once and for all on an executioner’s cross.  Even though He was perfect and did not deserve to experience the consequences of sin, Jesus went through the agony of an execution on our behalf.  Wow!  This humbling thought is hard to comprehend.

The pastor then invited us to believe that Jesus faced the cross on our behalf.  We were given an opportunity to repeat a prayer similar to the following prayer:  “Jesus, I have sinned and need your help.  I believe you died on the cross to forgive my sins.  Please forgive me.  I believe you were raised to new life.  Please enter into my life as my Savior and lead me as my Lord.  In Your Holy Name I pray, Amen.”

Since that experience I have learned again and again the power of God’s forgiveness and I have learned that God wants to do more than forgive us.  God wants us to experience a certain quality of life that Jesus calls the “abundant life.”  We experience this abundant life when through the guidance of the Holy Spirit we begin to fulfill the amazing plans God has for our lives.

It is my prayer that God’s power to forgive and to transform is being experienced in your life today.

My mission verse is Philippians 1:20:  "I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death."  The Greek word translated as exalted means literally "to make larger."  It is my goal help people experience the powerful reality of Jesus in their lives in larger ways.

If Good Shepherd can help you in the journey of faith, please drop me a note.  And the next time you are in Benton, please join us for worship.

Grace and Peace in Jesus,

Pastor Kevin
pastorkevin@bright.net