Church of the Good Shepherd Bonita Church Planting Ministry

What does it look like when a small congregation responds to the stirring of the Holy Spirit with bold faith? At the Church of the Good Shepherd in Bonita, the answer is taking shape in a church-planting ministry guided by honest self-reflection and a willingness to ask hard questions about the future.

Faced with an aging congregation, shifting neighborhood demographics, and an upcoming pastoral transition, Good Shepherd chose not to wait for change to happen to them. Instead, it began dreaming about what our church could become and who it could reach. The result is a cross-cultural, bilingual second congregation rooted in the same community and the same family of faith, yet designed to open new doors for young families, unchurched neighbors, and the growing Latino population of Bonita.

The Church of the Good Shepherd in Bonita, under the pastoral leadership of Fr. George Calvert, has been blessed by God with a church planting project that will officially begin in June of this year. Our congregation has titled our project the “New Life in Christ Ministry.” The ministry is the product of several years of planning, stemming from a vision of how we as a community could respond to God’s call to reach new populations with the Good News of the Gospel. We began formulating a vision of how to revitalize and perpetuate our church community, foreseeing the challenges posed by our declining, aging congregation within the changing demographics of our surrounding neighborhoods. Another factor in our planning was the upcoming retirement of our priest, meaning that we would inevitably be searching for a new Rector for our parish in a few years. We recognized that there was a need to re-envision our evangelism and our leadership resources to fulfill our church’s mission, as well as the greater mission of the Episcopal Church.

Fortunately, we in the Diocese of San Diego have the great gift of a model and a blueprint for church planting from Bishop Susan Brown Snook (2015) in her book “God Gave the Growth: Church Planting in the Episcopal Church.” The Bishop’s book describes in detail the rationale and the process for church planting that, in her words, “…provide models that draw from ancient Christian and Episcopal traditions, yet adapt those traditions uniquely to speak in a new way to a particular group of people. (p. 54) The model we envisioned at Good Shepherd is a second congregation within an established church that is cross-cultural and cross-generational to reach out to the people who may choose bilingual worship, yet is an integral part of the church family. Our congregation is open and welcoming to the evolving new congregation that God will give us through our outreach to the non-churched and young families and youth, as well as New Generation Latinos, in our ethnically diverse community.  

There are many reasons why we at Good Shepherd have confidence that our church planting project will be successful. One important reason is that the Episcopal Church has demonstrated a strong commitment to church planting projects throughout the nation. This means that there is much experience and wisdom now documented to identify the elements that bring out successful outcomes in the many different local parish contexts in which church planting is undertaken. For example, one guiding document available to us is the Church Planting in the Episcopal Diocese of Texas Handbook, provided to us by Canon Jason Evans of our Diocese of San Diego. The stated purpose of this document is “… to establish the general expectations of the diocese, planter and new faith community, taking into consideration the strengths and passions of potential church planting candidates.” The Handbook describes in detail the process for selecting the locations for church plants by identifying leaders within a parish to clarify how they are called to participate in God’s mission as sending congregations. These criteria explain why the Church of the Good Shepherd and our surrounding community have been chosen through the grace of God and the leadership of the Diocese of San Diego for this mission.

To fulfill the vision of the New Life in Christ Ministry at Good Shepherd, we put out a call for an Associate Priest for Church Planting in May 2025. Fr. Guillermo Castillo responded to the announcement and accepted the call to begin his ministry on June 1, 2026. Fr. Guillermo, who is a native of El Salvador, is an experienced church planter, having founded congregations in Arkansas and Arizona. We are blessed to have received a seed grant from the Center for Church Innovation in San Francisco to support the Associate Priest for Church Planting. In addition to the financial resources, this foundation supports church planter priests through seminars and networking activities, and guides and informs multiple church planting projects. This funding is a vote of confidence in Fr. Guillermo, as well as in Good Shepherd’s vision for our mission. 

In addition, our fundraising campaign asking the congregation for support for the New Life in Christ met and exceeded its goal. Several silent donors matched the congregation’s pledges ten-to-one, which reflects a strong commitment of our parishioners to the church planting project. His support reflects a commitment of time, talent, and treasure, with leadership from the Vestry and church members, with the knowledge and skills to be part of the “launch team” for evangelistic work necessary to form the new congregation. Further funding is also envisioned through a real estate project that will utilize church property as a source of income to continue supporting our current congregation and the second congregation at Good Shepherd.

Our Church Planting mission is our witnessing to the work of the Holy Spirit in the church community that we share with our family, friends, and neighbors to fulfill the mandate of the Great Commission. Matthew 28:19-20: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. “ Fr. George reminds us that our model for evangelism comes right out of Acts 13: 2 ‘The Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then, after fasting and praying, they laid their hands on them and sent them off.” Just as the Church in Antioch sent them off to plant churches, we will send our Associate for Church Planting into the community. We thank God for the opportunity to fulfill Good Shepherd’s mission “… to be led by the Holy Spirit to expand God’s Kingdom by bringing the love and power of Jesus Christ into the world and developing followers of Jesus.”

Jill Kerper Mora is the Senior Warden of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Bonita, California, and one of the dedicated lay leaders whose tireless commitment helped transform the New Life in Christ Ministry from a shared dream into an unfolding reality.