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Chalmers Congregational Church has a new addition and a new pastor.

The rural church, located on the 7th Concession of the former Kincardine Township, held a grand opening June 27, with long-time member Donald Craig cutting the ribbon to open the new addition which houses a foyer and a lift.

Ed McGugan, chairman of the board, said the project was a community effort with everyone involved in its success.

"We took about 10 years thinking about it, figuring it all out before we did it," he said. "We did a lot of research. I've been in the engineering design business and I know it's cheaper to make changes on paper."

Amazingly, the project took only four months to complete and cost about $120,000 plus the architect's fees.

"We have wonderful volunteers," said McGugan. "The framers framed it up and then we had tremendous volunteer labour working on it. About 50 per cent of the church was involved in the building of the addition."

He said the spirit of community was constantly felt during this project.

"We had a lintel stone at the base of a window which we had to remove to turn it into a door for the lift," said McGugan. "It was a huge stone - about six-feet long, a foot high and two feet deep. We weren't sure how we were going to remove it. It was gigantic. Well, a group of farmers came in, put some boards down and hauled it out in one piece."

He said the architects were from Dickinson and Hicks of Orangeville, the same firm that did the Baptist Church south of Exeter. "Their price was good and they were great to work with. They took pictures of our project and are encouraging other rural churches to do the same because it's not so costly."

When it came time to consider the lift, the board contacted Davidson-Hill of Port Elgin, believing that a local firm would bode well if there were repairs to be made later on.

"They were a terrific choice," said McGugan. "They couldn't be at the grand opening but they came out the day before just to check that everything was 100 per cent with the lift for our grand opening."

He said the board debated whether to put in a lift, but since it was installed, church members who were unable to walk up the steps to the sanctuary have come back out to church because they can take the lift.

The original church was built in 1901, said McGugan, using brick from a Paisley company. Amazingly, the Paisley Brick and Tile Company is still in business and was able to furnish the church with brick that matched the original building.

The board had the original cornerstone pulled out because it would have been covered up by the addition and found a time capsule from 1967. Volunteers placed the old cornerstone and the new cornerstone side-by-side, and buried a new time capsule in behind.

During the grand opening, two young people, Luke McBride and Cailyn McKay, unveiled the cornerstones.

"We just put this all in the Lord's hands," said McGugan. "He runs His business better than we can."

The church has a membership of about 70, and the next project will be renovating the basement.

Meanwhile, the church also welcomed its new pastor, Brian Martin, his wife, Heather, and their two-week-old baby, Liberty Grace.

Originally from Burlington, Martin, 27, graduated a year ago from Wycliffe College in Toronto, an Anglican seminary. He began his schooling at Emmanuel College, also in Toronto, a United Church seminary, but realized that the theology there was more liberal than his own conservative theology. So, he switched to Wycliffe which was evangelical and accepted his credits.

While he was finishing school, he worked part-time in children's ministry at the Baptist Church in Milton which he and his family were attending. His wife wanted to finish teacher's college in Kitchener, so he took a job at a funeral home there for a year, continuing his children's ministry in Milton.

Pastor Brian Martin

During that time, he was looking for job offers in his pastoral calling. "I grew up in the United Church, so I was looking at websites for job postings and Chalmers Church came up," said Martin. "I realized I knew nothing about the congregational church. I had heard of Kincardine because we had spent time at our family's cottage at Sauble Beach so we'd been through Kincardine.

"I read over the job description (for Chalmers) and it clicked with me. I had a sense that this church was interested in growth and missions and being authentic. It appealed to me."

Once he was accepted for the job, he and his wife bought a home in Kincardine and the people of the church have helped them paint it and will help them move in sometime later this month.

"I get a rural community family feel at this church," said Martin. "Heather and I are looking forward to moving up here."

Currently, he is working three days a week including Sundays but he is anxious to be in the community full-time and operate his office out of his new home.

"The pastor needs to be in the community and be the face of the church," he said.

Martin began preaching at Chalmers at the end of May. He preaches all but one week, when a lay pastor takes the service. He has been visiting people and getting to know them.

"It's a very family-oriented church," he said. "Everyone knows each other, so I have to get to know all of them."

He said Chalmers has a strong Sunday School and it's wonderful to see in a rural church - youth from Grades 1 to high school.

Martin would like to see even more emphasis on youth, particularly teenagers, because it's such an important age and they start asking hard questions.

He'd like to see more focus on small group ministries - people studying together and asking relevant questions, practical questions, how what they are studying affects their lives.

And he'd like Chalmers to have more of a presence in the town and the greater community. "We have to be out there so people know we're here," he said.

In his spare time, Martin enjoys the outdoors and camping. He also hopes to set up evenings of board games and movie nights, and he plans to get involved in community activities.

"The statement for this church is 'Come and See," said Martin. "We have a new addition and a new pastor, so come out and see us."

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Tuesday, July 06, 2010