(L-R) Whis Hays, Anna Purdum, Britt Norvell
by Andrea Bailey Willits
One summer evening in 2015, longtime friends Anna Purdum and Amy McCarty were having dinner with a priest from a neighboring diocese. As they sat around Amy’s dining room table in Longview, Texas, the two women shared their idea of starting a church that welcomed the least of these in their small community. Anna’s and Amy’s families had been meeting for Morning Prayer for the last several months, and they sensed God was up to something.
The priest replied skeptically, ”You can’t build a church. But maybe your husbands could.”
He then offered them some advice: “Save up $50,000, buy vestments, and get a chalice and paten, prayer books and hymnals before even thinking about planting a church.”
Anna and Amy looked at each other and smiled. They didn’t have any of those things, but they shared a fundamental conviction: “It’s not hard to build a church if God is building it.” God had called the two friends to start a church in Longview—even if it was something they’d never done before. Anna was a music teacher, and Amy was a software quality assurance manager.
Confident in God’s call, the women—joined by their families and a few friends—were soon gathering in living rooms and, shortly thereafter, in the chapel at HiWay 80 Rescue Mission. They named the fledgling congregation Good Shepherd Anglican, and they invited the people most churches seemed to overlook: the homeless, the wandering, the weary.
“The new church had to be faithful to Scripture, open to all sorts and conditions of people, and rooted in liturgy,” Anna says. “That was the kind of church Longview needed.”
“So many congregations clutched their purses when ‘real friends of Jesus’ showed up,” Amy says.
Preparation and Growth
For Anna, the path to planting Good Shepherd stretched back two decades. She had trained for Christian leadership through Rock the World’s Josiah Project, a program that shaped her understanding of vocation.
“Josiah Project helped me realize that other people saw me as a leader—even when I didn’t see myself that way,” she says.
The Rev. Whis Hays, Rock the World’s founder, helped shepherd Anna through that process, and witnessed her blossoming into an innovative ministry leader.
“Coming alongside Anna—discerning her call, encouraging her and giving her practical tools—that’s what we do,” Whis says. “Rock the World always wanted to support Josiah Project grads in innovating new ministries. Anna’s vision for Longview was exactly that.”
While the idea of planting a church solidified, Rock the World provided the scaffolding: nonprofit status, accounting, insurance and crucial coaching. C4SO added credibility and connections. The Rev. Canon Kimberley Pfeiler and the Rev. Nobie Hendricks, the closest C4SO priests in the area, traveled to Longview once or twice a month to celebrate the Eucharist.
“The diocese made sure Anna and Amy weren’t just running on adrenaline,” Whis says. “They gave structure and guidance, things that are usually missing when you’re just trying to start something out of thin air.”
A cradle Episcopalian, Amy had a knack for liturgy that complemented Anna’s energy in the community, where she led worship at local homeless shelters and outreach programs.
“I was the one keeping the liturgical stuff in order and running our little internet presence,” Amy says. “Anna was out there talking to people, connecting us to places like HiWay 80.”
Anna also drew on her musical background to serve as the church’s worship leader. Their services started small—two families, 10 people total. But within weeks, a new member, Peggy, showed up, then another new member, Connie. Pastors of other Christian denominations in East Texas donated supplies and furniture to help establish the new church.
The services were a mix of the Daily Office and monthly Eucharist until Anna was ordained a deacon in 2018. Then, Kimberley, Nobie or other C4SO clergy would come to pre-consecrate elements for a deacon distribution.
Anna insists that prayer built the congregation.
“We prayed without ceasing. When we needed a priest, we fasted and prayed for seven days. On the third day, God answered.”
A Leap of Faith
God’s answer came in the form of a phone call. The Rev. Ed McNeill, a C4SO priest in charge of ordinations, received a call from Britt Norvell, a C4SO postulant and native East Texan who was exploring the Path of Discernment to Holy Orders. That call began a conversation with C4SO that brought Britt and his family from Nashville, Tennessee to Longview.
Britt was a Baptist preacher’s kid who’d attended a Church of Christ graduate school before becoming Anglican. He had interned at Good Shepherd the previous summer.
“Our moving here in 2019 was a genuine leap of faith for everyone involved,” Britt says. “Though I had been an intern, I was still very, very green in pastoral ministry. Our family had deep roots in Nashville, so it was a hard move. But there was a clear sense of the shepherding of God.”
Those early days were filled with freshness and possibility.
“That first full year was such a beautiful time of energy and growing familiarity with the community,” Britt says. “It sustained us through the difficulties [of the pandemic] that would follow.”
Two former C4SO churches, Christ Church Plano and St. Mary of Bethany in Nashville, supported Good Shepherd financially in 2019 and 2020. C4SO also assisted with church planting funds. By the end of 2019, Good Shepherd was established enough that not only were they independent from Rock the World, they were sending contributions back to support their ongoing ministry.
Britt was ordained a deacon in 2019 and a priest in 2021, and the church soon moved into its current location—Community Connections, an organization that rents meeting space to nonprofits. While initially bivocational, Britt is now full-time at the church. Anna splits her time between church and her role as the academic secretary in the School of Engineering and Engineering Technology at LeTourneau University. Amy is still an involved member committed to seeing the church flourish.
“One of the phrases we use a lot at Good Shepherd is ‘Welcome the Wandering,’ and I am continually amazed at how faithfully the people of this church have done that from day one,” Britt says. “Good Shepherd welcomes the wandering from rescue shelters, alongside those wandering after painful experiences in previous churches. And they welcomed me, despite my inexperience as a pastor. That spirit of welcome has profoundly shaped my own sense of God’s welcome to all who are lost and wandering.”
Celebrating 10 Years
On September 6, 2025, Good Shepherd celebrated its 10-year anniversary of public worship with a Saturday night party—an echo of those first living-room gatherings, now multiplied many times over. The party felt like a homecoming with food, singing, memories, vision-casting and the presence of many friends who had supported the church through the years.
To the Good Shepherd community, the future feels as hopeful as the beginning.
“I think I am most excited by the sense I have that the people of Good Shepherd are ‘all in’ for another 10 years,” Britt says. “Especially here in East Texas, there’s a growing need for churches that provide kindness and rest for the religiously wounded and weary. That’s who we are, and I’m thankful to be part of such a beautiful community committed to the way of Jesus.”
Good Shepherd’s story also expands what church planting can look like in our diocese.
“People can see that our model works,” Anna says. “It looks a lot more like mission-field planting: ordinary Christians, starting small, rooted in prayer, supported by networks like Rock the World.”
Whis agrees. “The real miracle isn’t that Anna and Amy defied the odds. It’s that God built a church in Longview—through their hands, their hearts and their obedience.”
“They told us it couldn’t be done,” Amy says. “But here we are, 10 years later, celebrating a church God built. And he is an awesome God, isn’t he?”