Our History
Chapel of the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church began with a neighborhood Bible study rather than a building. After retiring to East Tennessee in June 2013, Pastor Paul Kritsch and his wife, Dorothy, began the Sunset Bay Bible Study in January 2014. By May 2015, the growing fellowship held its first worship service in the gazebo at Sharps Chapel Community Park and then began worshiping at the Sharps Chapel Community Center. The congregation became a member of the Mid-South District of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod in May 2016, and Pastor Kritsch was installed as its first pastor in March 2017.
Those early years required uncommon commitment. In 2015, Sunday worship averaged only eight people. Each week, members cleaned and prepared the community room, created a temporary sanctuary, carried in everything needed for worship and fellowship, and then packed it all away and cleaned again. Even while establishing weekly worship, members found ways to serve their neighbors. Beginning with the first Patriot Day Dinner in September 2015, those early efforts gradually grew into food distributions, holiday baskets, community meals, and collections of needed household and school supplies. An early gift of land, later sold to strengthen the building fund, helped begin the long journey toward a permanent home. Through years of persistence and generosity, this small congregation built its church at 681 Sharps Chapel Road, dedicated in April 2021. A later anonymous gift paid off the remaining mortgage.
Today, Chapel of the Good Shepherd is led by Pastor Laurence “Larry” Keim, a longtime member who was called to ministry from within the congregation and prepared through Concordia Seminary’s Specific Ministry Pastor program. Members and regular visitors—Lutheran and non-Lutheran alike—are welcomed warmly, remembered in prayer, and drawn into the life of the church. Volunteers prepare food, provide flowers, clean the church, care for the grounds, assist during worship, and respond generously when needs arise. Pastor Paul once joked that it was fortunate nobody liked one another, as he waited for all the conversations to quiet before beginning worship. The conversations continue, as does the fellowship after worship and the congregation’s guiding commitment: “Christ leads the way; stay close to Him.”
