Born Joseph William Shepherd in Bethesda, Ohio during the 1930's, Bill grew up in a Christian household filled with love. After high school graduation, he attended and received a degree in Business from Miami University in Oxford, OH and then began working as an accountant for the General Motors plant in Flint, MI. Although he was serving the Lord through his work at the YMCA and in the Christian Education Dept of his church, he felt that God wanted him to go further. He applied to seminary and, trusting that the Lord would lead his footsteps, resigned from his position at GM before even being accepted. Upon working his last day at the plant, he returned home only then to receive a phone call notifying him of his acceptance to Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, IL. During an extremely stressful time at seminary when Bill was certain he was going to fail, the Lord gave him insight as to how to handle the mountain of studying looming ahead of him - simply turn it over to Him. After successfully completing seminary, he came to the Wisconsin Dells area to become the youth pastor on the staff at two churches, one in Baraboo and the other in Portage. He has served as pastor in United Methodist Churches all over Wisconsin, from Grantsburg to Sheboygan. After leaving the Dell's area he came to Door County and began serving five separate churches, three for Sunday morning worship and two as mid-week support. It was during this time that he met his wife Alice, who was home on furlough from a five year stint as a missionary in Pakistan. They married a little over a year later, Alice having decided to not return to Pakistan. They adopted their first son four years later and were blessed with the birth of their second son the year after that. It was during this period that they transferred several times, eventually ending up in Grantsburg. In 1995 they decided to retire and returned to Door County. Not too long after returning, Bill came to Friends Community Church to share pulpit duties with a former pastor from Green Bay after the serving pastor had moved away. He eventually took over as the sole pastor in 2000 and we have been blessed to have him serving as such ever since.