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Ladysmith, B.C.
The Gathering Place closes


After one-and-a-half years as Mennonite Brethren church planters in Ladysmith, B.C., Dave and Colleen Koot have resigned as church planters of the Gathering Place church, with a goal of joining a Fellowship Baptist church plant in Nanaimo. The Gathering Place leaders, upon learning of the Koots’ plan to go to Nanaimo some 15 km away, decided to join the Koots, placing the future of the church in serious jeopardy.

The B.C. MB Conference Board of Church Extension, after numerous meetings with Dave Koot and the leadership team, took steps to provide a replacement pastor for this church plant, which had grown to an average attendance of about 70 people. However, before these plans could be implemented, the Gathering Place moderator, to the surprise of the church and BOCE, announced that the Ladysmith church would be closing at the end of August because the pastor and the church leaders had decided to join a Nanaimo church plant which was going to have its first service at the end of September.

In loyalty to the church leaders, a good number of the church’s attenders also decided to leave for Nanaimo, making it untenable for BOCE to continue the Ladysmith church plant at this time.  – Board of Church Extension news release

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Last modified September 28, 1999.

© 1999 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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