After several years of fundraising, Cochrane Alliance Church is a couple months into construction and expected to “open the doors” by next summer.
“There is a huge need for community space in Cochrane and we wanted to be part of the solution,” said Mike Poettcker, associate pastor for the Church.
The Open the Door campaign launched in the fall of 2014, with a target goal of $4.2 million for the expansion of the Cochrane Alliance Church.
In July, organizers announced that more than $2 million had been raised and the project would start construction.
To date, more than $2 million has been pledged through sponsorship and individuals, with $1.2 million collected in cash. Church staff said they are ready to carry a mortgage of $1.5 million, leaving $500,000 left to fundraise.
“It is going to be a great space – we are really excited,” Poettcker said.
The one-year renovations include an expanded kitchen, a large-group space that can hold banquets of up to 80 people or meetings for up of 120 people. There will also be several configurable rooms to accomodate classes of 20 on Sundays or expanded to seat 60 for a seminar during the week.
“There were internal pressures (for the expansion),” Poettcker explained.
“We do kids programming the same time as worship … they used to use my office as a kids space.”
With the lack of a large community space in town, the Church was occasionally used to host events. When asked if the church would consider granting liquor licences for certain events after the expansion is complete, Poettcker said they would consider it.
“That has been an ongoing conversation – we do not have a problem with alcohol and we are not closed to the idea but we are not open to it yet,” Poettcker said.
Currently the Alliance Church Sunday services are being held at the Baptist Church at 4 p.m. with the same programs also being offered.
“We really appreciate the partnership with the Baptist Church – we are Evangelical, which translates to good news, we want to be the good news in this town,” Poettcker said.
If renovations stay on track, the Church will be ready to re-open by next summer.
The alternative Sunday services are being held at the Bow Valley Baptist Church, located at 54 Aarsby Rd. W.
For more information on the current programming and worship still being offered through the Alliance Church, go to cochranealliance.com
