After 12 years of service as senior pastor at Fountain Hills Presbyterian Church, Reverend Bill Good plans to retire at the end of this year.

Replacing Good is Rev. Robert (Bob) Simmons as transitional pastor while FHPC’s nominating committee begins the process of hiring a new, permanent pastor.

Good’s last sermon at FHPC will be Sunday, Jan. 8.

“I won't say that I’m not proud of what I’ve done here because I am, and I’ve given this church a hundred percent the whole time,” Good said. “But this church has heard every word I have to say. It’s heard every bit of vision that I have and it’s time now for a fresh voice, a new vision and new directions.”

In his office, tucked away behind piles of books and accompanied by his friend and confidant John Scaggs and his adoringly handsome Irish Settler, Murphy, Good explains a parallel of his life with that of the Prophet Elijah, who ran 40 days and 40 nights across the desert to hide from God, only to be questioned, “what are you doing here, Elijah?”

“It’s the question that put me in ministry,” Good says, who feels that it would be detrimental to the church for him to stay any longer because it would not be in keeping with his calling.

Good first took the role as FHPC’s senior pastor in November 2010, leaving his post as associate pastor at a Presbyterian church in Scottsdale. During his time as FHPC’s head pastor, Good led the Fountain Hills Christian Ministerial Association for five years and has a 35-year background in business administration, management and strategy, skills which Good says came in handy as he entered the world as a parishioner.

“This has been a full-blooded, full-orbed experience,” he said. “I have seen this congregation at its best, and I’ve seen it at its worst… and they’ve seen the same from me.”

During his tenure, Good has shepherded FHPC through several challenges including a denomination change in 2016 and the decision to release an associate pastor in 2019. Through the struggles, Good said the church has held together and is stronger as a result.

In his retirement, Good plans to spend time with his family, reading, fishing, playing with his dog and focusing on his role as an adjunct professor at Grand Canyon University (GCU), where he recently taught two sessions of Christian Worldview, a required course for all GCU students to attend.

Teaching is discipleship at its purest, according to Good, who has a unique way of connecting with his students.

“As an adjunct, I don’t have an office,” Good said. “You’re supposed to have office hours, right? Well okay, out front of the college of theology, there’s a grassy lawn and these big trees, they’re beautiful, and they have Adirondack chairs underneath them. So, I told my students from day one, ‘I’m not going to have office hours, I'm going to have tree hours. At 11 o'clock on Tuesday and Thursday, you'll find me in the Adirondack chairs under the trees.’”

What started as a trickle, Good now describes as a flowing stream of students meeting him on the lawn after class to talk about everything under the sun.

“That’s probably been the best part of the experience, just being able to be relational with [students],” Good said.

A student himself, Good recently completed a leadership mastery program that taught him how to be an effective leader. The course tasked its participants to become vulnerable, finding strength through transparency, which Good found challenging.

During the course, Good recognized his tendency to keep a safe distance from others, a habit undoubtedly honed through years of counseling and advising others.

Committed to become more transparent with others, in September Good was inspired by his classmates to initiate a workshop series at FHPC entitled “Longing for Belonging: A Journey to Joy.” To replicate his own experience, Good’s in-person workshop was intended to help those hoping to reclaim a sense of belonging following the impacts of lockdown policies implemented during the pandemic.

“I look in the society and I see people isolated by the way the society operates. And then COVID sets in and we really get isolated,” Good said. “I'm here to tell you, COVID had a profound impact. I had more phone calls, more emails, more people bleeding out, more dysfunction. And so, all of a sudden, I witnessed this belonging thing as even bigger than I thought.”

Because of the workshop’s overwhelmingly positive response, Good has plans to duplicate the series at other churches.

Looking back on 12 years at FHPC, Good said he is grateful for his congregational family who has supported him through the years, hoping that “they had witnessed Christ in me, and that I had shared Christ with them in ways that were life-changing.”

“Elijah is the only guy I’m aware of in the Bible that gets to retire, but he retires with God’s blessing,” Good said. “I feel like I’ve run 40 days and 40 nights across the desert. I feel like I went to hide in the cave and God said ‘No, you got a little more and then I’m going to release you.’ I feel that release now.”

To keep tabs on Rev. Bill Good, follow his Facebook page at Facebook.com/uncommoncommunity419 or send him an email at fhpc.billg@gmail.com.