Rhythm of Life

After nearly 5 years of re-visioning and reshaping the direction of ministry at what was First Christian Reformed Church of St. Thomas, the ministry has found a new identity and hopefully a new goal to lead us into the future. On September 29th 2019, in a dedication service, we took on a new name, ‘The Junction’ A Church for Everyone.  Zephyr Bloch-Jorgense once said, “Dedication involves making the space to let young ideas take hold; every tree was once a seed and every company was once an idea.” That was so true when in 1952, a group of young immigrant families from the Netherlands came to Canada in search of a better life. A life of opportunity. With hard work and much dedication the ideals of this young and vibrant generation gave birth to establishing a faith community here in our city. We became known as the ‘Dutch Church’ which was relevant to that time since most of the people were of that decent and the original language of Dutch was used during services; since English was not yet well-known. But time has changed that dynamic, and we have become a multi-cultural community and are proudly Canadian today.

Dedication has several meanings and one of those says, dedication is the willingness to give a lot of time and energy to something because it is important. Faith in God and service to him is very important in this community, and the variety of expressions of that faith has led us to a church that since then has grown and given birth to two more venues in St. Thomas, at Fellowship CRC on Elm St. and at Destination Church on Talbot St.  Over the years our church became a family of believers that loved, supported, and offered a hope to many other people as well, reaching out into our community.  

One example; in the early 1980s after war and oppression devastated Cambodia, and many from that country were searching for refuge, the people of our church responded and today we are proud of the Cambodian Fellowship that worships in our facility every Sunday. They too, worship in their own native language, but while they worship separately they are a valued and deeply loved part of our DNA as we share fellowship with them. Today we are again seeing an influx of refugees from various parts of the world coming to this great country, and St. Thomas, as a city is welcoming them and enfolding them. It is our prayer that they too can find a faith loving community connection here, and we are open to continuing to coming alongside of families in need. 

With the passing of 67 years, First CRC has made many transitions. As any living organism knows, some of them painful, some of them with great joy. Each with sacrifice and hard work. One transition that we made was to rebrand our faith community as ‘The Junction’, deepening our commitment to be a place of connection where people from all walks of life can find a home in this place called St. Thomas. Which was what we celebrated on September 29th as a day of remembering and rejoicing. We open the day with a continental breakfast and an interactive worship service marking the memories of our past and refocusing our vision to a new future. After the service there was a ribbon cutting ceremony in front of our new name on the building, dedicating this building and our people, once again to the mission of God. We did that because we wanted to demonstrate openly our dream. Dedication by definition also means, “a ceremony in which a building, especially a religious building, is opened for use and its purpose is state.” But it is more than just a building; it is a passion to share as “A dedication is also a ceremony in which something is formally opened or made available to the public.” 

This is our main dream. That although we have been identified as a cultural entity, and have reached out to cultural communities in need, and continue to be open to that; what we are seeking more than anything is to be truly Canadian and multi-cultural, while at the same time bringing each of us into one family and celebrating the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We welcome people from all walks of life to come and experience the love and joy that we have found in Christ Jesus. It is to our God that we dedicate our lives and mission to grow his kingdom here in this community. A seed God has planted in our hearts from the beginning and which he gathers his fruit today. But as in any harvest, that opens us to being re-seeded for the future. Therefore, we look forward with anticipation to that next chapter in our lives and continue to dream of the possibilities of what the next 50-75 years might look like. May God be praised.