Originally founded as Fairview-Louth Mennonite Brethren Community Church in 1980, our church was intended to be a place where its families’ children could grow up to love and serve Jesus.  Right from the start, the founders were focused on the next generation.

 

By the mid 1990’s, facing the retirement of their pastor, the church’s original intent bore fruit as they began to "hand the family business over to their kids".  Some next generation leaders emerged to set a new direction for the church that sought to reach out to the community with the message of Jesus in more culturally-relevant ways.

 

By 2003, not only had this new direction created growth that maximized the original facility, but the location of that facility in rural west St. Catharines was being critiqued because of its lack of proximity to people - especially the marginalized. So the church decided to relocate to the south end of St. Catharines to position themselves to be greater difference-makers in their community.

 

Soon after, they began serving the homeless community and eventually opened a 40-bed, 24-7 shelter within their new facility. This gave the people of the church the opportunity to become friends with people of substantial need,  only to realize their own brokenness in the process. Individuals began to experience a kind of faith transformation that no Sunday service or small group discussion could provide.

 

By 2009 the Glenridge location had maxed out its capacity.  Instead of expanding on-site the church decided to become multi-site, launching in Welland in the fall of 2009 and North End St. Catharines in winter 2010. Foundational to this expansion was the emergence of new social justice “anchor causes" in those areas of Niagara for the community to rally around and serve with the love of Christ.

 

That brings us to today, where you can see that the journey of Southridge is really a story of God’s faithfulness over 30 years. Represented by some key eras where defining values shaped who we are today, a heartbeat for the next generation, cultural relevance in sharing the message of Christ, a willingness to take risks in order to make a difference in others and the desire to rally around “anchor causes”. We’re excited for you to join in this adventure and can’t wait to see who God grows us to become in the future!