non-denominational, spirit-filled church

non-denominational,

spirit-filled church

Experience Jesus.

Live Transformed.

Jesus Saves, Heals, and Delivers in Northwest Indiana!

Jesus Saves, Heals, and Delivers

in Northwest Indiana!

Wednesdays at 6:30 P.M. • Sundays at 11 A.M.

7498 Grand Blvd, Hobart, Indiana

Wednesdays at 6:30 P.M.

Sundays at 11 A.M.

7498 Grand Blvd., Hobart, Indiana

Why Shepherd Church?

“Once you were like sheep who wandered away. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls.” (1 Peter 2:25, NLT)


This is our story.  We found
hope, healing and peace when we turned to Jesus. We have seen Him help people from all types of backgrounds, and we are committed to providing a space for anyone in Northwest Indiana to come experience Him. 

LEAD PASTORS

Ken and Candace Schaap

Ken and Candace were both born and raised in Northwest Indiana. They fell in love with each other while attending high school and were married in 2005. In 2014, they planted a church near Cincinnati, Ohio and served there for 10 years. In recent months, God it made it clear to them that they were to move home and start a new church. Together, along with other team members, they have developed a process and spent hundreds of hours in prayer rooms that have led to healing and freedom for individuals around the world. The Schaap's have 4 children, Kenny, Chloe, Clarke and Claire and live in Portage.

What to Expect?

Encountering Jesus

At the center of everything we do is helping people actually meet with Jesus. Whether it’s a Sunday morning gathering or a midweek prayer time, our heart is that you wouldn’t just hear about Him, but hear from Him. We believe His voice is alive and that He still speaks today, bringing peace, direction, healing, and hope to everyday people.

Worship Where We Are

Our worship isn’t about lights or polish—it’s about bringing our hearts honestly before God. We sing, we pray, and we pour out what we have, trusting Him to meet us right where we are. Sometimes it’s loud and full of joy, sometimes it’s quiet and reflective, but always it’s about lifting up Jesus together as a family.

Everyone Gets to Play

We believe spiritual gifts aren’t reserved for a few “special” people on a stage. God delights in moving through all of us. That means whether you’re praying with someone, sharing a word of encouragement, or simply showing up with faith, you’re part of how God works here. No spectators—everyone has a place in what He’s doing.

Come Expecting

We gather with anticipation, not routine. Time and again we’ve seen God move when His people come hungry and open. It might look like physical healing, a word that brings clarity, or just the deep sense of knowing you’re loved by Him. We don’t gather to check a box—we gather expecting to encounter the living God.

CORE BELIEFS

What Do We Believe?

The following are the core beliefs of Shepherd Church in Hobart, Indiana, based on the foundational truths taught in the Bible. All of our teaching and ministry is rooted in and flows out of these biblical doctrines.

God The King And The Holy Trinity

We believe that God is the Eternal King. He is an infinite, unchangeable Spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, goodness, justice, power, and love. From all eternity He exists as the One Living and True God in three persons of one substance, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, equal in power and glory.

God The King: The Creator And Ruler Of All Things

We believe that God’s kingdom is everlasting. From His throne, through His Son, His eternal Word, God created, upholds and governs all that exists: the heavenly places, the angelic hosts, the universe, the earth, every living thing, and human beings. God created all things very good.

Counterfeit Kingdom: Satan And Demonic Hosts

We believe that Satan, originally a great, good angel, rebelled against God, taking a host of angels with him. He was cast out of God’s presence and, as a usurper of God’s rule, established a counter-kingdom of darkness and evil on the earth.

The Kingdom In Creation, The Fall, And The Doctrine Of Original Sin

We believe that God created mankind in His image, male and female, for relationship with Himself and to govern the earth. Under the temptation of Satan, our original parents fell from grace, bringing sin, sickness, and God’s judgment of death to the earth. Through the fall, Satan and his demonic hosts gained access to God’s good creation. Creation now experiences the consequences and effects of Adam’s original sin. Human beings are born in sin, subject to God’s judgment of death, and captive to Satan’s kingdom of darkness.

God’s Providence, Kingdom Law, And Covenants

We believe that God did not abandon His rule over the earth, which He continues to uphold by His providence. In order to bring redemption, God established covenants which revealed His grace to sinful people. In the covenant with Abraham, God bound Himself to His people Israel, promising to deliver them from bondage to sin and Satan and to bless all the nations through them. We believe that as King, God later redeemed His people by His mighty acts from bondage in Egypt and established His covenant through Moses, revealing His perfect will and our obligation to fulfill it. The law’s purpose is to order our fallen race and to make us conscious of our moral responsibility. By the work of God’s Spirit, it convicts us of our sin and God’s righteous judgment against us and brings us to Christ alone for salvation. We believe that when Israel rejected God’s rule over her as King, God established the monarchy in Israel and made an unconditional covenant with David, promising that his heir would restore God’s kingdom and reign over His people as Messiah forever.

Christ The Mediator And Eternal King

We believe that in the fullness of time, God honored His covenants with Israel and His prophetic promises of salvation by sending His Son, Jesus, into the world. Conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, as fully God and fully human in one person, He is humanity as God intended us to be. Jesus was anointed as God’s Messiah and empowered by the Holy Spirit, inaugurating God’s kingdom reign on earth, overpowering the reign of Satan by resisting temptation, preaching the good news of salvation, healing the sick, casting out demons, and raising the dead. Gathering His disciples, He reconstituted God’s people as His Church to be the instrument of His kingdom. After dying for the sins of the world, Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day, fulfilling the covenant of blessing given to Abraham. In His sinless, perfect life Jesus met the demands of the law and in His atoning death on the cross He took God’s judgment for sin, which we deserve as law-breakers. By His death on the cross He also disarmed the demonic powers. The covenant with David was fulfilled in Jesus’ birth from David’s house, His Messianic ministry, His glorious resurrection from the dead, His ascent into heaven, and His present rule at the right hand of the Father. As God’s Son and David’s heir, He is the eternal Messiah-King, advancing God’s reign throughout every generation and throughout the whole earth today.

The Ministry Of The Holy Spirit

We believe that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Church at Pentecost in power, baptizing believers into the Body of Christ and releasing the gifts of the Spirit to them. The Spirit brings the permanent indwelling presence of God to us for spiritual worship, personal sanctification, building up the Church, gifting us for ministry, and driving back the kingdom of Satan by the evangelization of the world through proclaiming the word of Jesus and doing the works of Jesus. We believe that the Holy Spirit indwells every believer in Jesus Christ and that He is our abiding Helper, Teacher, and Guide. We believe in the filling or the empowering of the Holy Spirit, often a conscious experience, for ministry today. We believe in the present ministry of the Spirit and in the exercise of all of the biblical gifts of the Spirit. We practice the laying on of hands for the empowering of the Spirit, for healing, and for recognition and empowering of those whom God has ordained to lead and serve the Church.

The Sufficiency Of Scripture

We believe that the Holy Spirit inspired the human authors of Holy Scripture so that the Bible is without error in the original manuscripts. We receive the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments as our final, absolute authority, the only infallible rule of faith and practice.

The Power Of The Gospel Over The Kingdom Of Darkness

We believe that the whole world is under the domination of Satan and that all people are sinners by nature and choice. All people therefore are under God’s just judgment. Through the preaching of the Good News of Jesus and the kingdom of God, and the work of the Holy Spirit, God regenerates, justifies, adopts, and sanctifies, through Jesus by the Spirit, all who repent of their sins and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. By this they are released from Satan’s domain and enter into God’s kingdom reign.

The Church: Instrument Of The Kingdom

We believe in the one, holy, universal Church. All who repent of their sins and confess Jesus as Lord and Savior are regenerated by the Holy Spirit and form the living Body of Christ, of which He is the head and of which we are all members.

Baptism And The Lord’s Supper

We believe that Jesus Christ committed two ordinances to the Church: water baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Both are available to all believers.

The Kingdom Of God And The Final Judgment

We believe that God’s kingdom has come in the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, that it continues to come in the ministry of the Spirit through the Church, and that it will be consummated in the glorious, visible, and triumphant appearing of Christ – His return to the earth as King. After Christ returns to reign, He will bring about the final defeat of Satan and all of his minions and works, the resurrection of the dead, the final judgment and the eternal blessing of the righteous, and eternal conscious punishment of the wicked. Finally, God will be all in all and His kingdom, His rule and reign, will be fulfilled in the new heavens and the new earth, recreated by His mighty power, in which righteousness dwells and in which He will forever be worshipped.

© Copyright 2025. Shepherd Church NWI. All Rights Reserved.

© Copyright 2025. Shepherd Church NWI.

All Rights Reserved.