A young man is moved by worship music at an Impact Youth Ministries rally in this Morinville News file photo.
by Stephen Dafoe
Morinville – There is a fitting coincidence that La Maison is French for the house. The Morinville Plaza and Suites, formerly known as La Maison, will become home to the Father’s House Christian Fellowship this week, replacing both the office space the church lost when St. Andrews Anglican Church was destroyed by fire last summer, but also restoring space for the church’s popular youth programing initiatives.
Pastor Greg Fraser said he was excited about the upcoming move, one that will allow Impact Youth Ministries to get rolling once again. The youth group is set to hold its first evening session at the new venue Nov. 29.
The church will take over the hotel’s banquet and upstairs areas to house everything, approximately 4,000 square feet of area for discipleship school, church staff meetings and the youth programming. Church services will continue to take place Sundays at the Morinville Community Cultural Centre.
“What we’ve lost in the fire, we’ve regained in an even larger space to utilize for weekly and day-to-day activities,” Pastor Fraser said, adding some renovations were needed to get the facility up to speed for the church’s purposes. “It’s exciting.”
Youth programing important
Although Fraser said he is anticipating the move from the former Professional Realty location on 100 Avenue to the new location to be completed by mid-December, Impact Youth Ministires will hold their first Friday night event Nov. 30.
“One of the things we’ve done this last year is divided our youth into junior youth, senior youth and young adult,” Fraser said, adding young adults meet Tuesday, senior youth on Fridays, and junior youth on Fridays as well but in a different location. “It’s just kind of breaking that up to build Impact even more to a larger demographic of people in proper age categories so the right thing can be said to senior highs as compared to junior highs.”
Regardless of the age demographic, Fraser said the Father’s House tradition of accepting people where they are at will continue with youth programming. “The key message of Christianity is God has removed the barrier that has kept people aay from Him and coming into a relationship with him,” Fraser said.
“Acceptance for wherever people are at; that’s a huge part of our values, teaching people their significance. You are created in the image of God. You may have some issues that you are dealing with and struggling through. God loves you. God’s for you. He’s not against you. It’s helping people to understand that and grow in their significance and become more of who they were always intended to be.”
The youth programming is but one aspect of a church community that has grown from about 30 members nine years ago to a congregation of approximately 300 in Morinville today. The Father’s House now has satellite churches in Bon Accord and Rochester, both of which are doing well.
