‘More than a building,’ Good Shepherd Lutheran Church rising from the ashes

Parishioners of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Downers Grove were tested by a July 2024 fire that destroyed the building that housed the church’s preschool and fellowship hall and left both the attached sanctuary and elementary school uninhabitable.

But like Good Shepherd outreach coordinator Joe Abegg said, “We’re more than a building.”

Last Sunday, more than 160 people attended Good Shepherd’s 50 Years of Grace celebration, a service and luncheon reception at Downers Grove Seventh-day Adventist Church, which has welcomed Good Shepherd to host Sunday services, a children’s ministry program and events.

“It was really, really well attended, it was well done,” said Bill Merchantz, president of the church council.

“A congregation is really its people,” he said.

Good Shepherd’s congregation, which includes members from DuPage, Kane and Will counties, has more good news.

Plans are unfolding to rebuild the church on its current footprint with anticipated occupancy by next Christmas.

The church board will work with Downers Grove officials in plan reviews and permitting in the spring, said Merchantz, of Hinsdale.

Church officials are working with the Wisconsin-based architectural firm, GROTH Design Group.

“I think it’s going to facilitate us tremendously for years to come,” said Jon Bergemann, Good Shepherd’s full-time pastor since November 2018.

“We’re going to have better gathering spaces, group spaces to come together and build relationships with one another in the community,” he said.

“In the end, it’s going to be better, tremendously. We can relaunch into the community and welcome them into the new facility with a message that hasn’t changed,” Bergemann said.

Merchantz said congregants were asked what they’d like to see in the new Good Shepherd. Responses included a modernized sanctuary and a doubling of the size of the fellowship hall.

He said a gathering space within the hall will include a fireside seating area, cafe and “comfortable seating for people to gather and build relationships.”

The wing that held the elementary school will be redeveloped into a ministry center to “better serve different pockets of our community,” Merchantz said. One possible use could be as a study space for students.

The reason for the new construction began early on July 29, 2024, when a vehicle struck a utility pole, which sent a surge of electricity to the church.

Fire broke out in the electrical wiring and gas lines in the roof, said Abegg, of Naperville, and “burned all the way through.”

The fellowship hall and preschool connected Good Shepherd’s sanctuary wing and the Good Shepherd Lutheran Academy. The hall was a total loss, while the sanctuary took damage but can be repaired.

“We were shocked and stunned,” Abegg said. “And we’ve continued to grow. We held services in the parking lot until it got too cold.”

At the time of the fire, the preschool served 28 students, with about 15 more attending kindergarten through eighth grade in the academy.

Bergemann said there are no current plans to reopen the grade school, but Good Shepherd will reopen and enhance the preschool, which had a waiting list for admittance.

Since the fire, in addition to the Seventh-day Adventist church stepping up to help Good Shepherd, Merchantz said Avenue Christian Church in Clarendon Hills and Kingsley Elementary School in Downers Grove have also provided space.

“The response from our community in helping us to continue on has been terrific,” Merchantz said.

This is not the first time Good Shepherd Lutheran has lacked its own facility. For several years, starting with its first service on Nov. 16, 1975, it operated out of the Willowbrook Holiday Inn, now a Delta Marriott.

Good Shepherd broke ground at its current location in 1978, according to church records.

“The good news of God’s love for us doesn’t change regardless of what building we’re in,” Bergemann said.

“Our mission doesn’t change — to grow in the word of God and to go with the word of God, reaching more souls with the gospel. We are a young congregation, so we’re excited to look ahead and build for future generations to come.”