Good Shepherd Lutheran Church began in 2002 with four committed and dedicated Christian couples meeting for Bible study in Pastor Fred and Sue Balke's living room on Paige Lane here in Franklin. The word spread and others joined them and very soon they outgrew the small living room and decided to rent a meeting room at the local Microtel Motel on The Georgia Road. At that same time they decided to add a Sunday morning worship service with Holy Communion to their activities.
Very soon the meeting room in the motel became too small also and they contracted renting space in the Seventh Day Adventist Church on 441 North for their Sunday morning Bible study and Worship services. However, when the need for additional space and times for additional programs became evident, they began looking around for their own building. No church buildings were available at the time and so they settled on a storefront property on Sloan Road West of town. A major renovation project was launched with labor provided entirely by members. Everyone was given a job to do and everyone pitched in. On Good Shepherd Sunday in May of 2004, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church was dedicated and accepted in as a member of The American Association of Lutheran Churches.
In 2008, Pastor Balke and Sue left Franklin to move to Fort Wayne, Indiana to accept a position as Executive Assistant to The AALC at their headquarters on the campus of Concordia Lutheran Seminary. He also helped out at a neighboring AALC congregation in Defiance, Ohio while there. In the meantime Good Shepherd Lutheran Church installed their second pastor, the Rev. Paul Herbert who shepherded the church until our Lord took him home in 2012. Soon thereafter, Rev. John Maynard became the church's third pastor until he also passed away in 2014. The little flock of dedicated Christians struggled along with several retired pastors from the area filling in on Sundays until August, 2015 when Pastor Fred and Sue Balke decided to leave their home in Ohio and move back to their beloved Franklin, North Carolina and resume the pastoral leadership of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church.
Through the years, God has blessed this little flock and kept their dedication and faith in God alive so that they might always be a powerful influence in the Franklin community. Their hope and prayer is that God would bring others to join them in their efforts to minister to the needs around them.
