New church planned for RR

Ken Johnston
Editor

God willing, the congregation at Rainy River’s Evangelical Covenant Church will be holding services in a new church within the next couple of years.
Co-pastor Gord Armstrong said that the church’s ten year quest for a new building is getting much closer to reality. About four acres of property has been purchased on Highway 11, just west of the town garage.
The congregation is now in full fund raising mode having raised a little over $100,000 already. Armstrong said they estimate that they will need nearly $500,000 to complete it, but right now are targeting about $170,000. “That is what it will take to get the outer shell up.”
They are hoping to do that this summer, but if the money is not there they will push that off until next year. Armstrong said that once the shell is up they will utilize as many volunteers as they can to do the inner construction work. “We are very fortunate to have several carpenter types and handymen in the church.” If all goes well they hope to be in the new church by the fall of 2007.
The new church talk started in 1992 when Marvin McDonald told the members of the board that they should begin looking at a new church.
With a growing congregation and the fact that the current church (located on 1st St.) has accessibility problems for the handicapped and senior citizens the idea has been tossed around and now is nearly a reality.
At present they do not have enough space to accommodate their Sunday school kids. “The teens are having to meet in a house each Sunday as we are full,” explained Armstrong. Every Sunday they average about 60 kids for Sunday school and about 50-60 adults for church. “When everyone shows up it is standing room only.
Armstrong noted that he has visited with every member of the church possible and sought their input on the project. “We do have an accessibility problem. It seems we are either going up or down in our church.” Stairs are a big issue, especially for seniors and handicapped people. Rather than spend a couple of hundred thousand dollars on an elevator for a building that is already too small, the church is looking at going new.
While the blueprints have not been drawn yet, they hope to build an 80’X150’ church with an auditorium capacity of 250 people. “We also hope to use big sliding doors that can be opened to allow a capacity of up to 450 people.” They hope that the community will want to use the building for larger weddings or funerals as they do now at the Catholic Church, which can currently seat about 150 people. The new church will also be a single story building fully accessible for all.
A larger church like that will also allow the church to bring in larger musical productions. “Often the (Christian) radio station brings in groups and are looking for other venus to host them. Now we will have that.”
The church has received permission from the government to fund raise for a new building and will issue tax receipts for donations. Anyone wishing to make a contribution can send it c/o the Rainy River Evangelical Covenant Church, P.O. Box 756, Rainy River, Ont., P0W 1L0.