January 2024 Update
CENTRE FOR THE CITY OPENS ITS DOORS!
We enter 2024 with great expectancy for what God will do in and through our church and the relationships He leads us to invest in.
This month, our Young Adults Ministry moved into their new spaces, and our Centre for the City officially opened the doors of our new home to serve people in need and new Canadians! We couldn’t be more excited to step into this exciting milestone of our mission to introduce people to Jesus by serving their basic needs in a way that is personal and relational. We were reminded of the power of a relational approach during the Christmas season. Like when our newcomer friends helped our ministry for new Canadians to move to by joining us to pack and carry boxes during the Christmas season. They do this because they feel a sense of belonging! After our Christmas dinner with people in need at The Well Cafe, we were blessed with the photo of a young boy curled up with his new giant stuffed moose. And relationships can lead to important moments – like when one of our hamper recipients responded to an invitation to come to church, and now regularly attends at Bearspaw Campus. And it’s all because of one thing – relationship! We have had such an incredible response of gratitude to CSC out of hampers this year - more so than at any other year!
These moments are an outworking of each of us saying yes to God in the unique ways by which He calls us. How will you say “yes” to Him in 2024? Is there a person He is calling you to invest in? To pray for, care for, share with and invite to a Why Believe service or one of our events?
SW CORNER RENOVATIONS CONTINUE
Renovations on the main level of the existing facility’s SW corner are continuing smoothly, and once they are complete, our Special Needs and Early Children’s Ministries will move into their new spaces, and the level 2 renovations will begin to develop multipurpose space that will serve Grades 5/6 Children’s Ministry and other ministries. Once the level 2 is complete, our Grades 5/6 Children’s Ministry, and other ministries, will move into their new space.
Presently the Early Children’s Ministry is operating on the level 2 SW corner space and the Special Needs Ministry is using temporary spaces in the existing facility. We anticipate all renovations and construction being finalized sometime in the next several months (Spring to Fall of 2024).
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
With Children’s Ministry now in the expansion, we are going to need many new volunteers in roles that include working directly with children, or roles that do not include working with children, such as the Guest Services and more. Visit here to sign up!
These are this month’s top construction updates:
- Late last year we received our occupancy permit for the Central Campus expansion; some spaces are not accessible while additional work is done; please watch for signage.
- Levels 1, 2 and 3 are available for ministry and some ministries have already moved in. Others are moving in during the first several weeks of 2024. Level 4 is being used for storage.
- Renovations in Level 1 of the SW corner of the existing building have begun; demolition is complete and installation of new walls and other elements has begun. Please watch for signage.
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- Special Needs Ministry and Early Childhood Ministries will move into their permanent new spaces in the SW corner after renovations have been completed – estimated sometime mid-2024.
- Staff and volunteers are fine-tuning the building systems and signage in the expansion. We appreciate your prayers and patience as it could take some time for this to be fully complete.
- Most spaces in the expansion have been designed as multi-purpose spaces. Classrooms and larger spaces will be used for children, youth, adult and other ministries.
- Some operable walls (which divide large spaces into small spaces) have been installed. Some operable walls will arrive and be installed at a later date.
- Some exterior work such as line painting in the parking lot and landscaping is deferred to the Spring of 2024.
Photo Gallery
For more photos click here.
Update Videos
With our Centre for the City officially opening its doors this month, the video below reminds us of the missional purpose of our ministries to people in need of help, hope, belonging and truth.
Importance of Prayer
Prayer of the month
Praise the Lord that our Centre for the City is having a profound impact in the lives of people and that we have opened the doors to our new spaces in the Central Campus Expansion.
Pray for our staff and volunteers as they navigate ministry while becoming accustomed to their new spaces. Pray that God will use the new spaces for His glory, and that many will make commitments to Christ through all our ministries.
Visit this link for a full list of BUILD prayer requests for January 2024.
Finance Update
Through your generosity to December 2023, God has provided $22.7M (Chapter 1 $15.7M, Chapter 2 $7.0M) leaving $2.8M remaining in our Chapter 2 goal. We are grateful! We still have a way to go to reach our goal. Thank you for continuing to pray and persevere with us in our journey to “complete the work,” physically, spiritually, and financially, in the spirit of 2 Corinthians 8:11.
To see where giving is at today, visit here.
The financial plan for the project is available here.
To give, visit here.
Read, Watch, Catch up...
Just joining us on our journey to BUILD? God has been leading us in these projects since 2018. To learn more about the mountains and valleys of this project, visit these links: