CALGARY, AB-After months of concerted prayer and strategic negotiations, the local congregations of Bow Valley Alliance Church (Christian and Missionary Alliance/Willow Creek Association) and Country Hills Community Church (North American Baptist/Willow Creek Association) are preparing to finalize a legal merger.

While weekend services have continued at Bow Valley's (BVAC) Bowridge campus near Canada Olympic Park, a combined Sunday morning service was initiated July 11 at the Country Hills' (CHCC) facility.

Plans call for the combined congregation to function as a church of the Christian and Missionary Alliance but in accordance with BVAC's long-range vision of being a single congregation meeting at multiple sites.

Originally a church plant of Foothills Alliance church, BVAC has grown to a congregation of close to 1,000 people since it began operations in the mid-1980s. In addition to a Saturday night and two Sunday morning services held at its Bowridge site, last September BVA began services in the Bearspaw School, several kilometers from the Country Hills facility.

"Our congregation directed the elders to actively pursue land or a suitable facility for part of our body to begin meeting somewhere north of the Bow River in the northwest quadrant of the city," says BVAC senior pastor, Brent Trask. "Once we began looking at property and prices, we knew that if anything was to materialize in that respect it would definitely have to be God's doing. Prices are high, suitable locations few."

CHCC began as a home Bible study in the early '90s and met in a movie theatre for almost 10 years before relocating to a sprawling $4 million complex in Bearspaw in April 2001. Despite the church's growing reputation as a specialist in the performing arts, CHCC did not experience the growth necessary to sustain a large mortgage and operating budget.

"Over the past year, it became increasingly apparent that we needed to radically adjust our strategy at Country Hills in order to remain viable as a church," explains Debbie Rapske,

chairperson of the church's Board of Elders. "After much prayer and the consideration of several options, the board initiated discussions with the BVAC leadership because we were aware of some of their thinking and planning."

Last April representatives of both congregations began a series of meetings that eventually led to each body overwhelmingly supporting a motion to merge, with BVAC taking over the CHCC facilities as the additional site its people had been praying for.

"In the course of undertaking a process of due diligence in purchasing the facility, we've encountered some unanticipated delays," notes Trask. "However, as it now stands, a capital campaign is in the works and we anticipate that a mid-September meeting of the combined congregations will finalize the remaining legal steps that need to be taken."

There are five weekend services for the combined church: three at Bowridge-Saturday night and Sunday morning at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m.-plus two services at Country Hills at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Sunday. Preaching will alternate between a live and video feed format.