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The Kincardine Christian Reformed Church, at the south end of Queen
Street, held its final service Sunday, Nov. 1, and has officially closed
its doors.
"It came down to dwindling attendance," says Rick Luymes, chairman of
the church council, "and an inability to find new leadership."
The church's last full-time minister was Elzo Tenyenhuis who left a
couple of years ago, says Luymes. "Not having a full-time pastor wasn't
an issue," he says. "As far as leadership goes, he's part of the team.
But people did not feel comfortable calling a full-time pastor again.
So, we had interim pastors."
He says the average attendance was 30-40 people. "We had a lot of names,
but they weren't all active members," he says.
The Kincardine branch was an off-shoot of the Lucknow Christian Reformed
Church, and opened its doors in 1978, in the wake of the influx of
people moving to Kincardine to work at the Bruce Nuclear plant. At its
peak, the church had about 80 people, says Luymes, including a lot of
younger families with children.
He says members are now deciding what they will do. Some plan to attend
other local churches, others will go to the Christian Reformed Church in
Lucknow, some are talking about forming another church, and others want
to stay together as a group. "Part of the difficulty was there were a
lot of different ideas of what a church should be," says Luymes.
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A board of trustees will be selling off the assets, including the church
building and the church parsonage on Huron Terrace, says Luymes. "We
expect it will be sold within the next year unless a group wants to use
it."
Meanwhile, the church is pleased that some of its programs are
continuing, such as the "Friendship Program" on Tuesday nights at the
Lighthouse Fellowship Baptist Church in Kincardine, says Luymes. This
well-attended program brings Community Living clients together with
members of the church for fun and fellowship. There are also Bible
studies, and the Saturday afternoon playtime for children which are
ongoing, he says.
"Our members are looking around to see what programs are available at
other churches," says Luymes, "so we aren't duplicating what's already
out there."
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