Congregations merge in NW Calgary
by Tim Callaway

Following months of concerted prayer and strategic negotiations, the congregations of Bow Valley Alliance Church (C&MA/Willow Creek Association) and Country Hills Community Church (North American Baptist/Willow Creek Association) have merged to become a single entity in northwest Calgary.

While weekend services will continue at Bow Valley’s (BVAC) Bowridge campus near Canada Olympic Park, a combined Sunday morning service was initiated July 11 at the Country Hills’ (CHCC) facility on Highway 1A in Bearspaw.

Plans call for the combined congregation to function as a church of the Christian & Missionary Alliance but in accordance with BVA’s long-range vision of being a single congregation meeting at multiple sites.

Originally a church plant of Foothills Alliance church, BVA has grown to a congregation of close to 1,000 people since it began operations in the mid-1980s. In addition to conducting a Saturday evening and two Sunday morning services at its Bowridge site, last September the church began services in the Bearspaw School, several kilometers from the Country Hills facility.

"Our congregation directed the elders to actively pursue locating either land or a suitable facility for part of our body to begin meeting somewhere north of the Bow River in the northwest quadrant of the city," explained BVAC senior pastor, Brent Trask. "Once we began looking at property and prices, we knew that if anything was to materialize in that respect it would definitely have to be God’s doing. Prices are high, suitable locations few."

CHCC began as a home Bible study in the early ’90s and met in a movie theatre in the Northland Village Shoppes for almost ten years before relocating to a $4 million sprawling complex in Bearspaw in April 2001.

Despite the church’s growing reputation as a specialist in the performing arts, CHCC did not experience the growth necessary to sustain a large mortgage and operating budget.

"Over the past year," explained Debbie Rapske, chairperson of the church’s Board of Elders, "it became increasingly apparent that we needed to radically adjust our strategy at Country Hills in order to remain viable as a church. After much prayer and the consideration of several options, the board initiated discussions with the leadership at BVAC because we were aware of some of their thinking and planning."

This past April representatives of both congregations began a series of meetings that eventually led to each body overwhelmingly supporting a motion to merge with BVAC taking over the CHCC facilities as the additional site its people had been praying for.

"In the course of undertaking a process of ‘due diligence’ related to purchasing the facility, we encountered some unanticipated delays," noted Trask.

"However, as it now stands, a capital campaign in the neighborhood of $4.5 million has been authorized by the combined congregations. That amount will enable us to do some upgrading and repairs at both facilities and also permit us to make a significant donation to Alliance University College."

"Starting the weekend of September 11," he added, "we began five weekend services: three at Bowridge — Saturday night and Sunday morning at 9 and 11 — plus two services at Country Hills, Sunday mornings at 9 and 11. Preaching at the 9 and 11 o’clock services alternate between a live and video feed format that will be assisted by the fact that two members of the Country Hills’ pastoral staff have remained on with the combined work."