Knox United Church Exploring Options To Continue

For nearly 115 years, the Knox United Church has been located in the Drumheller Valley. The church, which is currently at the corner of 3rd Avenue East and 2nd Street East has been in that location since 1920.

As the years have gone by, costs of operating the church and adjoining Knox Hall have increased. The church has been looking at different options to increase revenues and remain viable. Dave Wood, one of the committee members looking into the options for the church, notes that things are changing when it comes to the numbers attending services. “We’re like many congregations right now. We’re finding that there are not as many young people going to church, except the occasional church. It’s gotten to the point where your tithing (offering) doesn’t really support your church. A lot of places, like we do, have older buildings and utilities and things are expensive. For a number of years, we have been concerned about the sustainability of our church.”

With that in consideration, Wood, as a member of the board of the church, brought forward an idea to generate a plan. “Years ago, I suggested we start a committee to create a vision for the future. We had a small committee to investigate options. That committee diminished from four down to two, myself and Keith Moe. Our church is part of the Chinook Winds Region. There is a fellow there that we reached out to Joel Den Haan, and he is basically in charge of properties for the Region. We came up with two options that we felt were both viable but quite different.”

One option was to turn over the Sanctuary (church) and the hall to a developer, which would then convert the property to a multi-unit residential building, similar to the Keystone Tower across from the church. The hope was that the developer would then have a space in the new building for the parishioners to continue to have weekly services, but that was not guaranteed. The second option was to make the sanctuary and hall two separate buildings. Then, the church would offer up the Knox Hall for lease to a non-profit social agency to lease. The church would generate income from the lease, helping to remain viable. Additionally, Knox Church would renovate the church building to better use the space of the church building, including removal of the pews and setting up chairs instead. Also included in this plan would be the renovation of the altar / stage area as well as the fellowship room to create washrooms, possible elevator, and new kitchen area. The church would look to hire a project manager for the second option to help to find the group that would be interested in leasing the hall, and the renovations of the church.

Wood shared that they as the committee has been presenting the two options to the congregation for the past month. “The board made a recommendation to the congregation of the second option of keeping the buildings, going with a social enterprise in the hall, and revamping the sanctuary. The reason going with that option is it is not terminal. Whether we get back on the site with a developer is a question mark. Going with the other plan, allows us to incorporate something that is going to help the community. That was a big selling feature, that’s what churches are supposed to be about.”

Wood states that option two will be moving forward. They will be in contact with Joel Den Hann with Chinook Winds and come up with a project manager. Wood understands that the project manager is key as the scope of the process is more than the board would like to tackle themselves.