Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

Christ the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church is the result of the 2003 merger of Christ Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd. Christ Lutheran Church was the oldest Lutheran congregation in Salem, founded in 1894. It was a German Lutheran Church of the Ohio Synod. German services were held until 1943. The Ohio Synod merged into the American Lutheran Church (ALC) in 1960. Christ Lutheran Church started the first Kindergarten in Salem in 1953. This ministry continued as a Kindergarten, preschool, latch key, and day care center through the end of the 1990's. Economic pressures and public school Kindergartens brought about the decline and close of the center. Christ Lutheran Church was a mother church to Grace Lutheran Church, now part of Holy Cross Lutheran Church, and Our Savior's Lutheran Church, both of Salem. The Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd was begun in 1950 with the help of St. Mark Lutheran Church. Pastor Homer Berner was the mission developer. The congregation was officially organized under the United Lutheran Church in America (ULCA) in 1951. The ULCA merged into the Lutheran Church of America (LCA) in 1960. The Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd's first permanent worship home was on South Commercial. A new church site on Oakhill Ave in South Salem was dedicated in 1964. That building was uniquely beautiful, designed by a noted architect. When Christ Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd merged in 2003, the Oakhill property was sold to the Sikh community in Salem that continues to use it as a worship site. Christ Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, each and as a combined congregation, have had six of their members enter the ordained ministry, 3 of them in the last decade (2000-2010).