Paper for Shepherd of the Lakes Practicum

By Andi Lynch
For the fall 2013 semester I did my practicum at Shepherd of the
Lakes Lutheran Church and School at 2101 South Hacker Road
Brighton, Michigan. My supervisors name was Ann Colley and she is
the director of childrens ministry at the church.
The approximate annual budget for the church is $1,907,415
with $1,301,542 coming from offerings, $575,373 from the school,
$2,000 from other receipts, $8,500 from Food Service, $4,000 from the
Childrens Ministry, and $16,000 from Compassionate Care. The
church currently has a total staff of 55.
Shepherd of the Lakes has been around since 1973 and was
founded by Pastor John Hirsch. The church has been continuing its
growth and has been blessed with a larger and larger congregation
through out its history. The church and school is thriving right now but
that was not always the case. Over the years the church has had a lot
of pastoral changes that has effected the congregation. While some of
the pastoral changes have been positive some have not, and has left
the congregation a little leery about trusting the staff. Currently Good
Shepherd of the Lakes has found a new senior Pastor Mark Milatz (who
was their associative pastor) and the congregation trust, honor, and
respect him and because of this they trust the staff also. Another
problem that Shepherd of the Lakes has overcome is the school itself.
The preschool was started by the founding pastors wife in 1982 and
the school has continued to expand. Three years ago the school was
struggling and the church had a meeting to see if they wanted to
continue the school. The decision was passed to continue the school,
they hired a new principal and the school has had continued growth,
now the school goes up to 7th grade.
Shepherd of the Lakes church has many different goals that they
hope to complete in with their ministries. They have 10 short-term
goals that they are working on through out the year, 6 two to five year
goals, 1 five to seven year goal, and 1 long term goal which is seven to
ten years. The goals are as follows
Short-Term Tactical Goals (2013-2014 Fiscal Year)
Worship
-Review current worship style and times and determine if improvements can
and should be made. Implement in 2014.
Children and Youth
-Fill vacant youth worker position
Create a Wednesday Family Night for children, Jr. and Sr. High, and
parents One fellowship per month for Jr. High...weekly 6:33 for Sr. High

Day School
th
Expand to 7th grade
Small Groups
-Form 3-5 new groups
Place 85% of all new members into a group
Stephen Ministry
-Maintain 20 Stephen Ministers and 20 care receivers
Labor of Love
-Increase number of SOTL volunteers by 15%
Personal Needs Pantry
-Open on a second day and double client base
GENESIS
-Implement program in September 2013
Capital Campaign
Identify new pledges in July 2013
-Seek 100% honored commitments to pledges.
Facilities
-Implement recommendations from Facility Committee (see attached)
-Determine feasibility and timing for new addition of classrooms for Sunday
School, Youth, and School.
2-5 Year Goals
-Ongoing divorce care Ongoing marriage ministry
-Regular Mission Support/Partnership with non-Livingston County ministry,
such as an inner-city school or church
-Fill vacant staff positions
-Complete expansion of school to grade 8
-Completion of all currently identified major maintenance projects and
additional classroom space
Medium Term Goals (5-7 Years)
-Current Debt reduced to under $1m
Long Term Goals (7-10 Years)
-Ground breaking on Family Ministry Center

In my practicum I worked in the childrens department which

focused on families and equipping them to learn about God and the
faith, while trying to equip parents to be the primary faith growers. I
worked mostly in the strategy of Christian Education, which is as
follows
2) Strategy: Christian Education

Objective: We will provide Christian education that will develop a

distinctively Biblical worldview, transforming learners into stronger
parents, spouses, children, and citizens.
Key Tactics = Day School, Sunday School for all ages, Children and
Youth Ministry, Small Groups (including specific Mens and Womens
Ministries), Confirmation, Marriage Training, Financial Training.
I spent a lot of my time teaching classes (mostly Sunday School)
of different ages in the education hour, ran a childrens sermon, ran a
event for the fifth and sixth graders, and also participated in a lot of
classes with parents and children.
Shepherd of the Lakes networks to the Brighton community
through many different means, including community websites, outside
signs, newsletters, and the local newspaper. The church networks to
everybody, they want to welcome everyone to come and worship God
and to learn more about Him. They especially target families because
they have a school attached. There are a lot of programs designed to
help families learn about the faith together. They also want to bring in
people that are hurting and afraid of a normal church service and
they bring in those people through their new program called Genesis.
Genesis is a non-formal church service and support group all in one
and it is a comfortable setting for anyone who is hurting to come in
and be helped.
The church culture is a warm and welcoming atmosphere that is
good at welcoming and supporting families. In their mission statement
it says that they are Brothers and Sisters in Christ Committed to
Transforming Homes! and this is true in the culture of the church and
school. They are very family driven and have a great understanding of
what family life is all about. They truly believe in a home ran church
supported lifestyle and they incorporate the importance of having the
parents bring their child up in the faith every time that they can. Out
of a total of 1,300 members many are made up of families, and are
involved with small bible study groups, Sunday School, or other
programs at the church.
(help on #10
The programs that are offered at Shepherd of the Lakes that
involve the family include
-Family Connect (parent focus group)
-Genesis (non-tradition church service and focus group)
-Small Bible Groups
-Confirmation
-Education Hour (Includes Sunday School, Adult Bible Studies, and
Youth Group)
-56 Degrees (5th and 6th grade group)
-Nursery

In the interviews I learned a lot about the history of the church

and how some of the pastor changes really shaped the church to the
atmosphere it is today. I have learned that Ann Colley the Childrens
Director and Sherri one of the church secretaries have stayed in their
ministries through a lot of the negative changes and have grown to be
even more compassionate and understanding because of the hard
times that they had to go through. Through the interviews I could see
that all of the leaders are have great teamwork and they all work
together under the Senior Pastor Mark Milatz who has an amazing
family life vision. All of the leaders help each other out and support
each other in any way they can, whether its talking about room
reservations, volunteering for each others events, or trying to
encourage each other if one person is having a bad day. All staff
leaders understand that they are a team whose goal is to bring families
to Christ.