The first service of Cochrane Alliance Church was held on February 4, 1979. We rented a classroom at Cochrane High School for that inaugural gathering, and soon after we moved into the gymnasium. For the people who helped get the church off the ground in those early years, the dream was to plant a church which would share the message of Christ in Cochrane as well build a faith community based on the life and priorities of Jesus. From the beginning, we have been a part of the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada. As an evangelical denomination, “the Alliance” emphasizes the need for a genuine personal relationship with Jesus Christ, a Spirit-filled life and sharing Christ’s message of hope and healing in a dark and hurting world. For more info about our denominational family, visit www.cmacan.org.

There’s No Place Like Home...

The gym was our home for seven and a half years until God allowed us to build a permanent place of worship. Services began in the first phase of our current facility on June 1, 1986. Finally, with a place to call “home”, Cochrane Alliance Church was poised as a ministry centre with a visible presence in the community. God has blessed the church by adding to our numbers—most significantly during the late ’80s and also in the mid ’90s. In 2016-2017, we spent a year meeting at Bow Valley Baptist Church during construction of our building expansion. September 10, 2017 was our first service after the expansion.  

Still Focused On Our Eternal Home

Cochrane is a vibrant growing community, and with that, we’ve welcomed lots of newcomers, but one of the realities of our times is that people move around to other communities as well. So as we’ve grown, we’ve also said our share of goodbyes. The result is that we are a family which spans the globe. One of the distinctives of being an Alliance Church is a strong commitment to extend God’s work across cultures and around the world. People from Cochrane Alliance have been involved in cross-cultural ministry quite literally around the world, from Guatemala to Montreal, from Laos to Hungary.

God is Good… All the Time

Even though we’re not a perfect church, we feel like God has helped us become a healthy church. We have had our share of joys and trials over the years but God has always proven faithful to us. Each joy is a new reason to thank him more dearly, and each trial is an opportunity to trust him more deeply. Through it all, one thing has remained for Cochrane Alliance: a commitment to being an authentic Christ-centered community.