On Thursday, July 17, Grace Community Church in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, hosted an open house at the warehouse facility that will soon be their next ministry home. More than 100 people from the Grace family turned out to walk through the building and to hear the plans for construction and use of the space. Pastor Bartley Sawatsky shared the details of how the leaders at Grace felt great evidence that God had led the church to acquire this particular property. And he shared the build-out and move-in timeline with those in attendance. Pastor Bartley also invited the Grace family members to join in a four-month finance campaign in effort to raise $150,000 for the purpose of building modification.
For several months, the staff and elders at Grace have been in negotiations to lease the 22,000-square-foot warehouse building located at 6670 Campobello Road. This past week, the finishing touches were made to the lease and the keys were acquired. The hope, for now, is that Grace will begin hosting its Sunday services in the facility by mid-November.
The new facility will also be the office site for Grace Brethren Canada and Manantial (a new Hispanic church launching in September). Additionally, the church will license an independent Christian school called St. Jude’s Academy to operate it’s school program in the facility beginning January 2009.