First Presbyterian reinvents itself as it turns 100

A Brandon church is reinventing itself to spur growth in the congregation 100 years after it was established.

The congregation of the city’s First Presbyterian Church has met for services since mid-November in 1925. It started off in people’s homes, then moved to city hall and the Strand Theatre. Churchgoers moved into their towering forever home at 339 12th St. in late 1928, only six months after construction started.

Now, almost a century later, they’re trying to grow again.

“We’re trying to make ourselves more relevant, and reaching out and bringing people in,” church member and office manager Kathy Lancaster said during an interview at the church late last week.

“Part of reinventing ourselves has been opening the sanctuary to as many people as we can, in as many ways as we can.”

In its heyday, the church had as many as 400 people present for regular services. Now it has 50.

“It’s not enough to wait for people to come to us anymore, which is what used to happen,” Lancaster said. “Now we are going out and inviting people in.”

That’s being done by “outreach” and making the church a place people can use.

“We have this building, and it needs to be used for God’s purposes,” Lancaster said.

She said while the remaining members of the church are an aging population, she’s confident the congregation can rebound, eventually celebrating a 150th birthday and other future milestones.

Along with turning the church into a kind of community centre, which is what it used to be, the congregation is also taking advantage of its rich musical history.

The church used to be a gathering place for the community, with organizations meeting there, and even hockey and baseball teams organized out of the church. Now in its revamped form, it hosts many concerts, Girl Guides, a powwow group, a weekly coffee group, Gamblers Anonymous and more.

The church’s interior boasts elevated gold-coloured pipes for its organ and high wooden walls.

“The sound bounces off, and then it comes back again, and so it reverberates beautifully,” Lancaster said.

The church also has more than a dozen stained-glass windows, rows upon rows of dark brown pews and a deep red carpet that is soon to be replaced with a new one.

While Lancaster isn’t involved much on the musical side of things, she is a big part of the church in other ways.

She looks after the office, teaches Sunday School and sometimes preaches, she said, noting there are many people very active in helping the church.

The reason she’s so involved is because “we need to be God’s hands and feet in the world, in the community,” she said.

“We have that big, beautiful sanctuary — the best acoustics outside of Winnipeg in Manitoba arguably … If we closed it, we would lose that, the community would lose that. And so we’ve been working really hard.”

Lancaster said she would like to see the pews full.

“I would like people to know that God is not a stuffy guy sitting on a cloud, that God is the hands and feet of people, and that we need to be that in the world,” she said.

“The world needs people who care, people who don’t judge. And I think we can be that.”

Lancaster said the church doesn’t have a golden answer for everything, but that it is a place where people can ask questions and look for the answer, and can do so together.

“The world is desperate for a place that doesn’t judge, that is open.”

When the church had more members, it was still big on community.

The church’s minister during the Second World War sent letters to members of the church serving overseas.

Lancaster said that’s what the church is all about.

“The support that we give each other is made in heaven.”

While the church has a history of focusing on children, families and music, Lancaster said, the one thing that has never changed is the congregation’s faith.

» alambert@brandonsun.com