It has a new name and soon it will have a brand new house of worship, but Church on 99 is anything but new to the community.
"We were formerly called Word of Life Centre," said Church on 99 Pastor Steve Chapman. "In September, it will be six years since my wife Marilyne and I started the church here in Squamish."
To mark that anniversary, Chapman said he hoped the new Church on 99 building would be ready for its flock of worshippers.
Renovations have been ongoing for months at the site of the new building - which will be the first real church for the Chapmans and their congregation of about 50, since starting in Squamish.
"It was what we call a 'church plant', meaning you come to a new area and begin to do your work," he said. "My pastor in Alberta is the founder of Word of Life Church. He founded it in Alberta 33 years ago.
"Since then it has grown and led to the creation of outreach churches in outlying communities in Alberta and also in Montreal," Chapman said. "He and I, along with my wife Marilyne, decided to start a Word of Life Church in Squamish. We started off small, with virtually nobody. But, we reached out to people through things like bible studies and began to build a congregation."
Chapman grew up in Squamish, but after he finished school, he headed out into the world to travel, before deciding to return and start the Word of Life Centre.
Back then, the Chapmans ministered out of their own house, until it could no longer contain the number of worshippers who attended services.
"Eventually you outgrow your house, then you outgrow the next facility and eventually you are forced to look for other places to hold your congregation," said Chapman. "We started renting the Howe Sound Inn banquet room. That's where we went to when we moved the church out of our home.
"We outgrew that facility because it didn't allow us to meet the needs of the children in our congregation. We needed a second room for the children," he said. "Currently, we rent two rooms in the Sea to Sky Hotel."
But, that too, seemed inadequate when they thought about the future of the church, he said.
"Four years ago, the Lord put it in our hearts and minds to look for property to buy for the church," he said. "And for us, it was going to be on Highway 99, not hidden in back of something on the corner of some subdivision.
"So we started looking for property and found the one we are building on now," he said. "It was perfect for what we wanted and it was zoned properly. We just had to come up with the money to buy the property."
As a non-denominational church, Church on 99 is not funded or aided financially by a larger group.
"Denominational churches have Mother headquarters who help finance new churches and the like," said Chapman. "With a non-denominational church such as ours, although you get support from other pastors, there is no financial support. You sink or swim on your own merit."But, members of Chapman's flock helped raise the money to buy the property on Highway 99."A lot of people sacrificed heavily to help raise money for the new church," he said. "The property is also under the society's name, not my name or anyone else's. Whether I am the pastor, or someone else takes over when I retire, the property and all its assets belong to Church on 99."When completed, the new facility will have a state-of-the-art sound system and multi-media capabilities, a coffee bar and a secondary room for children's bible studies.
The spacious facility will also be available for community meetings, events and [email protected]
