No one had planned to start a new church in North East Edmonton. At the time the North American Baptist Conference annually put together a team of young people, who would spend the year travelling to churches and assisting them with their evangelism program. In the fall of 1970 the new team was training in Edmonton. Their director was looking for a place where he could train this team in door to door evangelism. He asked the Northern Alberta Church Extension Council for a good neighborhood. The executive suggested North east Edmonton, and provided maps for the newly developed areas of Steele Heights and McLeod areas. When the team reported back to the council in November, they were surprised at the positive results and the lights started going on. Quickly the Council put out a call to the churches to provide volunteers to survey this area. Between fifteen and twenty people blitzed the area on a cold Saturday late in November. The question was asked, "If a new Baptist Church started in this area would you be interested?" Again the response was positive.
The council executive met to plan the next step. Which was to find some students from North American Baptist College who would come out and start a Sunday School. Very quickly they found a handful of students who were willing to go, but they needed a leader. After some persuasion a young married student by the name of Bruce Merrifield agreed to give this team the leadership it needed.
J.J. Bowlen was a brand new Junior High School in the area. Mark Messier's uncle was the principal. He was a bit puzzled about a group wanting to rent the school with no idea about what to expect. The gym was too big and cold, so he agreed to let them use the lab area in the open classroom. They would have to haul chairs from the gymnasium and provide their own piano, but plans were set for a place to test the starting of a new church.
By now it was the Christmas season and people were busy with Christmas programs in their own churches but another call went out for volunteers. With only a handful of people in the first week of January they zeroed in on the neighborhood immediately surrounding J.J.Bowlen. This time they handed out announcements inviting people to a Sunday School in the Junior High School starting in January.
A bitter cold snap enveloped the third Sunday. Temperatures plummeted to -30f. But that Sunday morning Bruce and Norma Merrifield as well as 6 students from NABC arrived early to set up the chairs. The Sunday School lessons were prepared and greeters waited at the door.... A mother and her four children came as well as a father and his two children.
That afternoon a dedication service was held with a few people attending because of the cold. The question was asked, "Would this simple beginning be the start of a church?"
A month later, with now up to 25 people attending from the community, the North American Baptist Conference approved the request to find a church planting pastor for what was called the STEELE HEIGHTS CHURCH EXTENSION PROJECT.
(adapted from the 25 th anniversary "Making Tracks")