New Hope Pentecostal Fellowship is celebrating its 60th anniversary in Olds and the denomination's 100th anniversary in Canada with a special service Sunday, Sept. 29.
"The mayor's going to speak and we're going to have some food and stuff like that and a special program where the kids will be singing," pastor Tim Bowen says.
The church is located at 5014 49th St. Doors open at 10:30 a.m. and the service begins at 11 a.m.
He says the service will last about an hour.
"After that will be an open house and the people can walk around," Bowen says.
He says planning for the event began as far back as about last March.
Bowen says New Hope Pentecostal Fellowship conducts its services differently than probably any other church in the community.
"We have tables and chairs in the sanctuary, not pews," Bowen says. "We do about three or four songs to start off with and then we have kind of like an open mic thing where people talk about what God has done in their life during that week and stuff like that.
"My sermons are not called sermons, they're called conversations. So when I talk, we have an actual conversation. So people can talk and ask me questions while I'm talking, so it's a total different format than what anybody else is really doing."
He says people can help themselves during the service to goodies and coffee that are made available; hence the reason for the tables and chairs. He notes the tables are also convenient for those who want to bring their Bibles.
Music consists of contemporary Christian songs as well as hymns. Singers are accompanied by piano, drums and guitars.
As is the case in some other churches, kids go downstairs while adults attend the service upstairs.
