Parkwood Gardens Church History

Parkwood Gardens began in 1976 as a two-pronged vision of Gladys McCartney and Pastor Ray Zimmerman. Gladys had a vision to see a church planted in this newly developing neighbourhood and Pastor Zimmerman had a passion to plant a church. Bible studies started and soon a core group began to meet as a church. They first met in a drive-shed next to three acres of land generously given to the United Brethren denomination by the McCartney family. The shed housed the sanctuary and a kitchen, and a trailer in the back was used for Sunday school and the nursery.

 
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From this humble start the church grew. Wisely, when the McCartney's donated their land, it was stipulated that a building was to have been erected within a ten-year period or the land would be returned to the family. As this deadline approached, the congregation, now with an average attendance of forty-one, developed a plan to build.

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With a leap of faith, the groundbreaking was held in May, 1984 and a facility was built at a cost of $225,000. Many members (and even a few non-church neighbours!) contributed not only their financial support, but also helped install wiring and insulation, paint walls and nail on shingles. On Christmas Day in 1984, the first full service was held in the new Parkwood Gardens Community Church.

In 1985 Pastor Wayne Goldsmith arrived. Under his leadership God continued to strengthen and grow His ministry. God's blessing was evident when in 1987, after the generous donation of $60,000 from the Merillat Foundation, the mortgage for our building was retired.

In 1988 God brought our current pastor, Brian Magnus, into our fold. In the years since, we have seen the continued growth of existing ministries and the initiation of many others. In these years, attendance continued to increase to the point where in 1996 a second worship service was added on Sunday mornings. It wasn't long before attendance peaked and in 1999 a long-range planning committee, after a thorough assessment of the church needs, presented its recommendation to expand.

In October of 2001, as we celebrated our twenty-fifth anniversary, we launched our $750,000 Building to Impact People for Christ Capital Campaign. Our much-needed expansion would see our space double including 100 extra seats in the sanctuary, a new nursery, foyer, additional classroom space, offices, youth rooms, library, boardroom, resource room, expanded Fellowship Hall, storage and additional washroom facilities. Gladys McCartney broke ground for this project on May 5th 2002 and God was faithful to the vision. A dedication celebration took place on December 8, 2002; and on February 1st, 2009 a mortgage burning celebration was held.

Pastors Neil and Liz Cudney joined our staff on May 1st 2005 in order to plant a new church. As a result, our daughter church, Mill Crossing, began holding services in Hespeler in September of that year. God is blessing Mill Crossing with much growth as members faithfully continue to serve Him there.