Meet The Pastor
Founder and Pastor The Rev. Jason W. Crowder
I started my walk in ministry when I was young as a musician playing in various churches and following where the Lord led me. Later on as I grew in the Lord he saw fit to put more responsibilities on my shoulders. He led me to keep doing Music Ministry but also accepting the call to be a ministry of word and sacraments. I started doing small home missions and bible study groups and then became the assistant Rector of St. Matthias Mission in Lenoir City. It was while being the assistant Rector that I started walking in my journey of becoming a local pastor with the UMC, first becoming a lay speaker and working with lay ministry after becoming a member of the Order of St. Luke. It was during this journey that I had to step away from active ministry because of my professional career as a law enforcement officer. I had been out of ministry for close to a year when an opportunity came for me to accept another position so that I would be able to return to active ministry. Unfortunately I wasn't able to return to ministry in the UMC and God led me to a mission church that operates within the First United Methodist Church of Sweetwater. It was while filling in behind the pulpit for the pastor and serving as the music director/minister for the mission that I sought holy orders and unfortunately a non-denominational church cannot issue license or ordination for holy orders. That is when I started to really pray for God to lead me and guide me where he wanted me to minister. God led me to minister in the traditional Methodist traditions and teachings of The Rev. John Wesley. I have kept with my original teachings in the church and Wesleyan teachings as well, for example I still use the Methdist book of Worship as the primary book for my services within the church.
I felt the call to plant/found the Church of the Good Shepherd. The Anglican Orthodox Southern Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd started it's journey in late February of 2016. I was ordained/incarnated into the Anglican Orthodox Southern Episcopal Church, USA in early February of 2016 and started feeling the call to plant a new parish/church in Sweetwater Tennessee. I spent a lot of time in prayer and talking with other pastor friends of mine whom had planted churches in the area. It was nothing to take lightly, and I had to make sure this is what God intended for me to do.
Once I got to the point that I couldn't sleep at night because of the this vision in my head of the church I started checking on local buildings that were for rent, somewhere that we could at least meet and grow. It was while I was sitting in the parking lot of a rental property that I received an email from a furniture company that I had been talking to about pews and they gave me the phone number of a church that was doing away with their pews and purchasing chairs for their church. I called the pastor of the Christian Bible Church in South Pittsburgh Tennessee and they donated their old church pews to us. It was at this moment that I saw God was indeed in control and I let him work. That night we were also given a deal on our church building that we are currently in.
After that night things started to fall into place. A friend of mine asked me if we had hymnals for our church and her church gave us the hymnals that we sing out of. I also had several other people donate Bibles to the church for use in the pews. I also moved an old pulpit that I had refurbished to the church to be used to bring God's word. I then moved my piano and some other instruments down to the church to spread the joy of music to those who would attend. Finally after many hours put in by myself and friends and family we were ready to open the doors of the church.
We opened the doors of the Good Shepherd on Easter Morning 2016. We didn't know how many would be there. We hadn't even talked to anyone about coming to church, we (God, my wife, and myself) planted a church souly on faith. That morning we had thirteen join us for worship and communion, and as the weeks and months went by we had more and more start attending.
After a few years and a major move that we went through, God lead us away from the Southern Episcopal Church to take up the original teachings of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
We are currently an "Independent" Methodist Episcopal Church.