From Good Friday to Resurrection

On the east side of Edmonton, Alta., a church building that once belonged to Ottewell Christian Reformed Church is now filled by mosaicHouse, a Resonate Global Mission church plant. The end of one story has become the beginning of another.

For Rev. Victor Ko of mosaicHouse Church, the transition carries a powerful image from the Christian story itself. “Think about Good Friday and Easter Sunday,” Ko said. “On Good Friday, we see a burial in a tomb. On Easter Sunday, we see a resurrection.”

For the Ottewell congregation, closing its doors marked a painful season. Yet the opening that was made possible for mosaicHouse led to a continuation of gospel witness in the same neighborhood.

“As churches approach the end of their life cycle, one of the most powerful legacies they can leave is to help new churches begin,” Tim Sheridan, director of church planting for Resonate Global Mission, said. “Sometimes that means partnering with a church plant, sharing space, or even gifting facilities so that the gospel continues to be proclaimed in that community.”

A Church Plant That Plants Churches

MosaicHouse itself began as a church plant in Edmonton with a simple but ambitious conviction: the church should multiply.

“When we came to Edmonton, we believed the Holy Spirit didn’t have just one church plant in mind,” Ko said. “We believed the Spirit had multiplication in mind.”

That conviction shaped mosaicHouse from the beginning, he said. The church intentionally set aside resources and developed leaders so that one day it could help start new congregations. Over the years, that vision has taken shape through mentoring church planters and supporting new church plants across the Edmonton area.

For Ko, church planting is not merely a program—it is part of the church’s calling. “Churches multiply churches,” he says. “That’s how the gospel moves forward.”

The Gift of a Place

While some mosaicHouse sites still meet in rented spaces such as schools and community halls (setting up and tearing down every week) the opportunity to take on the Ottewell building created something new: a permanent presence in the community.

And that presence matters.

Ko is quick to emphasize that the church is first and foremost a community of people; it is not primarily tied to a building or a piece of real estate. “We still believe that when you are the church, you embody the presence of Christ wherever you live and work,” he said.

But over time, said Ko, he has also come to see the value of physical church spaces. “It’s not either-or,” he explained. “It’s both-and.”

A visible church building serves as a kind of gospel outpost within a neighborhood, he said. It becomes a place where people gather, ask questions, and encounter Christian community. Ko described church properties as “beachheads” for the gospel, strategic footholds that allow ministry to continue in a particular place for generations.

In a growing city like Edmonton, where land is expensive, those footholds are especially significant. “Once a church building is gone, it’s gone,” he says.

A Building for the Whole Community

Today the building that once housed Ottewell CRC is active nearly every day of the week.

A daycare uses much of the space during the week. Community groups gather for classes and meetings. Other congregations meet there as well. And through it all, mosaicHouse continues its worship and ministry.

The goal, Ko says, is to see the building serve both the neighborhood and the broader mission of the church.

“We want the building to be used seven days a week,” he explained. “Every person who walks through the doors might begin to wonder about the church and maybe come check it out.”

Even the mosaicHouse financial model reflects the church’s commitment to multiplication. Revenue generated through the building helps to create “seed money” for future church plants, said Ko.

A Legacy That Continues

Stories like this one matter, especially as some congregations across North America face declining membership and difficult decisions about their future, said Ko. He hopes that churches walking through those seasons might see a different way of thinking about legacy.

“In an ideal world, a declining church could partner with a new church plant—sharing space and eventually passing the building on,” he said.

Even when that kind of partnership isn’t possible, Ko said, he encourages congregations to consider how their resources might continue gospel ministry in the same place. And he suggests that congregations think about passing along their property before it has debts that would make it difficult for a church plant to take the property on. 

When churches close, their assets are sometimes distributed among many good Christian organizations. While those ministries are valuable, Ko noted, something unique is lost when the physical space no longer hosts a worshiping community.

“Imagine the legacy,” Ko says, “if that space could continue to be used for the work of the Lord.”

Sheridan pointed out that the story unfolding in Edmonton reflects one element of Resonate’s 10-year church planting strategic plan. The plan encourages congregations nearing the end of their life cycle to consider how their buildings, resources, and assets might support future church planting.

Hope in the In-Between

For churches experiencing decline, the season can feel deeply painful—like the grief of Good Friday. But the story unfolding in Edmonton reveals that God often brings new life in surprising ways.

A congregation’s final chapter does not have to be the end of its impact, said Sheridan. Through generosity, courage, and trust in the Holy Spirit, even a closing church can help plant the seeds of something new. And as the story of mosaicHouse shows, resurrection can happen in the very same place.