Historic church in Minnedosa making way for new facility

An historic building in Minnedosa is being demolished to better serve the community’s younger population and offer them more recreation opportunities.

What was formerly known as the Minnedosa Methodist Church was built in 1879 and moved to its current location at 52 2nd Ave. in Minnedosa, 52 kilometres northeast of Brandon, in 1891. Additions and a brick veneer were added to the building in 1905.

Soon, the church will be removed and, in its place, will be a new 9,000 square-foot facility, featuring a youth drop-in centre and gymnasium.

The old house of worship has seen better days and is in dire need of the upcoming makeover said Don Dragan, the pastor of the former Calvary Church, which is now known as the Valley Life Family Worship Centre.

The building has recently been plagued by a number of problems, including standing water and a lack of space.

“It’s a money pit to repair and it needs to come down. Honestly, we have outgrown it. We need something in its place that will better serve our community and us,” Dragan said.

Although the congregation is modest in size, Dragan says up to 50 children take part in its after-school program, and there’s not enough space to accommodate them all. In addition to the gym and space for the drop-in centre, the bigger square footage of the new church will allow an expansion of the after-school program, which offers homework help, opportunities to take part in sports, movie nights, concerts and more.

The building will also feature a walking track, a spacious kitchen, a multi-purpose room — which will be used for various community groups, with a special focus given to addictions awareness and assistance groups.

After Dragan came to the community in 1994, he formed a vision to reach out to the youth of Minnedosa and ensure that they had a safe place to relax and enjoy opportunities to socialize and take part in extra curricular activities.

“In the early 2000s, I began to feel this community needed a place for our young people to hang out and I’ve been dreaming of a youth drop-in centre since then,” he said.

Dragan started looking into metal buildings to source for the church in November of 2013. In the end, the church board felt that the time was not right. Eventually, they learned that adding an addition to the church would mean removing the old building and bringing everything up to code.

“Our vision kept expanding until we arrived at the place where we realized the best thing would be to tear it all down and start fresh, with exactly what we need,” he said.

The congregation wanted to match the new building with a new name that they feel better reflects their identity, so the Valley Family Life Worship Centre was registered as the name of the church in 2020. However, the COVID-19 pandemic slowed down the board’s plans.

After sending out a request for proposals earlier this year, the decision to hire Patrick VanDoorne of Kiras Engineering in Boissevain was made.

Dragan believes the church’s new facilities and programs won’t just benefit the people living in Minnedosa, but in the surrounding communities, as well.

“It’s going to be multifunctional,” he said.

So far, the community’s reaction to the board’s plans for the new, updated, and expanded church has been one of excitement, Dragan said.

“It’s been nothing but positive, really,” he said. “I’ve been in the community for 30 years at the church, and it’s much needed.”

To celebrate, the church will be hosting a sign unveiling this Sunday, followed by a sod turning ceremony and the official launch of the church’s fundraising to pay for the project. There will also be a light meal served after the announcement, and a virtual walk-through of the new building will be led by VanDoorne, the lead engineer for the project.

And even though the old building that once stood where the new one will soon be will soon be just a memory, it was important to the community and the congregation that a little bit of it be incorporated into the new build.

“We’re going to take the bricks off the old building and put some of them inside the new building for remembrance,” Dragan said.

This story was originally published in The Brandon Sun. It is republished under a Creative Commons license as part of the Local Journalism Initiative.