OLDS — The Home Church Olds/Mountain View finally has a new home.
After about 10 years of renting the TransCanada Theatre, the church it’s now located in the northeast corner of Mountain View Plaza in Olds at 4513 52nd Ave.
The church is located in space that used to be Home Furniture and was IGA before that.
Services have been held in the new location for the past few Sundays, but the big celebration will be held Nov. 1.
On that date, the congregation will hold three services instead of the usual two; at 9:30 a.m., 11:15 a.m. and 1 p.m., to accommodate with socially distant seating.
The congregation will be hearing from several special guests, including lead pastor Jachin Mullen.
Mayor Michael Muzychka and Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills MLA Nathan Cooper have also been invited to speak.
Pastor Ed Furst says plans are also in the works to obtain greetings from representatives of partner churches from around the world via a big screen.
“We’ll have a few African faces, a few Indian faces, maybe a Turkish face; just some different people that are partners with us,” Furst said during an interview.
Furst said the church’s journey to its new home has been a long one.
“Many years ago we used to have a small blue building over by the UFA Farm Store, but we outgrew that and we wanted a bigger place,” he said.
Initally, they held a couple of pilot services at the Alumni Centre in Olds College.
That went pretty well.
“We loved the experience of all being together rather than having multiple services at the small building,” Furst said.
That led to rental of the TransCanada Theatre, which they did for about 10 years until a member of the congregation suggested obtaining space in Mountain View Plaza.
A deal was agreed upon and the church opened its doors for the first time in its new location on Oct. 4.
That new location is spacious, Furst said.
“We’re about three times what we had in the little blue building back in the 2000-2010,” he said. “It’s about 12,000 (square feet) they tell me. I haven’t actually added it up. I’m just hearing what the engineers told me.”
Church officials delayed having a grand opening until Nov. 1 so they’d have time to complete renovations and work out any problems that might arise.
“Even though it’s brand new, not everything is working the way you need it (to) right away,” Furst said.
He only has one regret regarding the grand opening.
“Sadly, we won’t be able to whoop it up with serving food,” Furst said, adding that’s a direct consequence of “just the wonderful COVID season that we’re in.”
