(248) 391-1170 church@gsls.org

History

Good Shepherd Lake Orion started as a mission church to the north Pontiac area. Initially worship was held at Carpenter school starting in 1971.  Ground was broken on the Baldwin Road site on April 8, 1973 and by December the church was ready for worship.  God blessed the church in the following years so that by 1978, ground was broken again for the new education wing.

The church continued to grow and change throughout the next decades.  We were blessed with the addition of a Christian elementary school in 2001.

Throughout the years we have also been blessed with amazing men of God to shepherd us.  Pastor Charles Kosberg was called from seminary to start the church and was with us until 1979.  We were then led by pastor Gary Thur who served as vacancy pastor until Pastor James VanDellen accepted the call and was installed in June of 1980.  As the church grew, a second pastor was added.  Pastor Eric Tritten was installed in June of 1998 as assistant pastor with focus on youth and evangelism ministries.  Pastor VanDellen retired in 2010 and Pastor Tritten accepted a call to another congregation in 2011.  Thanks to Pastor Mackowiak, who served as interim pastor, Terry Baughman, who served as director of youth and family ministry until 2014, and the efforts of our lay staff and visiting pastors, Good Shepherd continued through the many changes, looking forward to what lay ahead.

In 2013 we added a Lutheran trained principal for our day school, calling Mr. Eric Heins.   In 2014, a seminary student was called to serve as pastor.  Pastor Gary Koltz was installed in July of 2014 and served through January 2019.

July 2021 Pastor Ben Oelschlaeger was ordained as Pastor and the church is preparing to celebrate their 50th anniversary in October.