From the beginning, the unusual way in which CCC 'did church' was attractive to the community. They met in a community centre, sat at round tables, had donuts and coffee, music was provided by a live band, messages were life-relevant and the services were upbeat. CCC grew quickly and soon had to move to two services to accomodate the numbers.
They met in a community centre, sat at round tables, had donuts and coffee, music was provided by a live band, messages were life-relevant and the services were upbeat.
In 2000, seeing the need to branch out, the leadership agreed to step out into Whitby and began doing Saturday evening services at a high school in the Brock Street and Taunton Road area. It did not take long for a committed core group to develop at Whitby Community Church.
Since that time, the churches have made efforts to move into other communities such as Pickering and Ajax and have partnered with two additional denominations - the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec and the Mennonite Bretheren Conference in Canada. As these projects were undertaken, the decision was made to change the name to the Durham Church Network.
By 2006 it was clear that in order to reach out to the community and to provide those attending with opportunities to grow in their faith, a permanent home base was needed. The leadership proposed building a structure which would house a day care facility, a climber that would be available to the public, meeting rooms and a presentation centre that would be available for the community to rent, rooms for children's and youth programs and much more. The vision is to create a community centre in which a church meets; a place where the the community will feel welcomed and where the church will have the opportunity to postiively impact the community.
A successful campaign was conducted in the fall of 2006, however, a series of unfortunate events in our attempt to rezone a local piece of property led to challenging times from 2008 to 2010. During that time the Durham Church Network began a rebranding process around the name of LIFE POINT CHURCH. Part of the rebranding was less of an emphasis on church planting and a greater emphasis on the acquisition or construction of a central community centre like facility. After a series of set backs, in the Spring of 2010 we became aware of an existing church property located on the east side of the city of Oshawa which would be coming on to the market. It was ideally situated for our purposes. With a virtual unanimous vote the leadership and people voted to purchase and redevelop the facility at 15 Harmony Road north into Harmony Creek Community Centre. Possession of the facility will occur in March of 2011. For more information on the vision of Harmony Creek Community Centre please click here.