Join pastors and planters Robert Cunningham and April Murrie for a conversation on hospitality, welcome, and the church. Drawing particularly on the image of the Good Shepherd, Robert and April will share some of the theology of hospitality that has animated their work. They will reflect on the intentional and delightfully surprising unintentional ways that visitors have been welcomed into Church of the Good Shepherd in Charlottesville, VA. While intention goes a long way, the Spirit is the true connector and creator of fellowship. Robert and April look forward to sharing how they are learning to labor with great intentionality towards hospitality while also remembering that ultimately they are not the ones who “make things happen” in the kingdom.

The Rev. Robert Cunningham serves as Vicar and co-planter of Church of the Good Shepherd. He graduated from Auburn University and spent five years on staff with Cru before attending Covenant Theological Seminary for his Master of Divinity. He then spent seven years serving with Reformed University Fellowship before accepting the call from the Diocese of the Mid-Atlantic to plant Church of the Good Shepherd. He is married to Katherine and together they live in the city with two children.

April Murrie serves as Pastor of Formation and co-planter of Church of the Good Shepherd. She earned a Master’s in Education and a Master’s in Christian Spiritual Formation and Leadership, and has spent almost thirty years teaching history, theology, and the Bible with all ages and stages, from preschool to adult. She is most joyful when she is shepherding others to live a “with-God” life attuned to the voice of Jesus, their Good Shepherd, who knows them by name. She is married to Daniel and mother to Jacob (and his wife Abby), Adelyn, and Teagan.