Gary Everling, senior vice president and chief strategy officer at Hendricks Regional Health, serves on Shepherd Community Center\u2019s Board of Directors. Everling says Shepherd\u2019s Christ-centered approach to breaking the cycle of poverty inspires his commitment to serving with the ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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How did you first get involved at Shepherd Community Center?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n How long have you served on Shepherd\u2019s board?<\/strong> What impressed you the most about Shepherd?<\/strong> How do you see your gifts and passions being used at Shepherd and on the board?<\/strong> What is your vision for Shepherd moving forward?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n What can you tell us about yourself?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you could share one thing with people who don’t know much about Shepherd, what would you tell them?<\/strong> Gary Everling, senior vice president and chief strategy officer at Hendricks Regional Health, serves on Shepherd Community Center\u2019s Board of Directors. Everling says Shepherd\u2019s Christ-centered approach to breaking the cycle of poverty inspires his commitment to serving with the ministry. How did you first get involved at Shepherd Community Center?I was part of Westside Church […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-profile-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/upliftindy.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/em>I was part of Westside Church of the Nazarene, which founded Shepherd with a Thanksgiving dinner in the 1980s. I sang in the church choir at those Thanksgiving dinners. Shepherd was much smaller and different then. The mission was similar, but the approach was different than it is now. I supported Shepherd financially over the years. I was always impressed by Shepherd\u2019s continuous focus on a Christ-centered hope that breaks the cycle of poverty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/em>I am very selective on what boards I am a part of, but when given the opportunity to join Shepherd\u2019s board in 2019, it was something I simply couldn\u2019t say no to. I decided to take a leap of faith, investing myself fully in the mission, strategic plan, vision, and constant improvement. It has been a steep learning curve, but I love being a part of it all.
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<\/em>Shepherd has several cultural values that impress me. But I can\u2019t give you just one, so I\u2019ll give you my top three. First, is keeping a Christ-centered approach and life of faith. That has stood the test of time. Second, is the attitude of hope. If there is a community that needs hope \u2013 spiritually, economically, relationally \u2013 it is this community. We cannot live without hope and this value is critical to all our lives. Third is Shepherd\u2019s unwavering focus on mission and purpose. Everyone who works at Shepherd is dedicated and committed with all their heart. I love that. I have worked with a lot of organizations that are missing these values, and Shepherd stays committed to them above all else. I believe that\u2019s why they have success with our neighbors.
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It was good timing when I started serving on the board, because Shepherd was just initiating a new strategic plan. I am a strategy guy. That\u2019s my strength for what I do every day \u2013 putting a plan and process together and figuring out how we measure those items. One of my first meetings on the Shepherd board was an all-day strategic planning session. I learned more that day than I would have in a year of board meetings. Along with many others on the board, I have some business acumen that Shepherd can borrow and put to good use. My incredible strategic planning team at Hendricks Regional Health are a huge help to Shepherd as well. They helped with crafting our strategic plan.
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I don\u2019t have an individual vision for Shepherd, but our new strategic plan crafts the vision for the organization. I\u2019ve been a part of groups where 50 people are trying to put together a single vision statement and it forces too much compromise, is too long, and is not inspiring. I challenged our group at Shepherd to spend a few months to think through it and keep it simple. What we came up with is truly inspiring and a great vision for Shepherd moving forward: \u201cTo be the light in our community on our neighbors\u2019 journey of hope and transformation \u2013 spiritually, relational, economically.\u201d Jay calls it \u201cRe-Neighboring Our \u2018Hood,\u201d but I feel inspired by the idea to be the light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/em>I was born and raised a Hoosier. I grew up in Plainfield and still live there today. I married a beautiful girl from Lexington, Kentucky named Jackie, and we\u2019ll be married 31 years in October. God blessed us with a wonderful son, Jayce, who is 25. He is married and just gave us our first grandbaby in February. I love being a grandpa. I went to Greenville College in Illinois for undergrad and got my MBA at the University of Indianapolis. I have worked in health care for over 25 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/em>I would share Shepherd\u2019s mission and the metrics that support our mission of breaking the cycle of poverty. There are few organizations that have done that very well. I think Shepherd has gotten to the point that we truly see that success. I also want people to know Shepherd\u2019s approach to helping families get out of poverty is truly Christ-centered. It is the reason I joined and stayed committed to the Shepherd board.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"