CALEDONIA—With upwards of a thousand people visiting Gateway Church any given week, church leaders are looking beyond their walls and planning a roughly $20-million facility designed to serve both their congregation and the wider community.
The church on Haldimand Road 66 is planning a new, multi-purpose facility on land it already owns, with hopes of creating space not only for its growing congregation and ministries, but also for recreation, community programs, rentals, and potentially a daycare centre.
Executive Pastor Dave Ralph said discussions about expansion began before the Covid-19 pandemic but were put on hold when the pandemic arrived.
Since then, attendance and activity at the church have grown significantly.
Gateway currently holds three services each Sunday, with attendance averaging more than 950 people over the past month. Its existing auditorium holds approximately 350.
“We’re just out of space,” Ralph said. “It’s not just Sunday morning, but there’s stuff going on all week and we’re out of space across the board.”
Among those additional activities, the church sees more than 150 students between Grade 6 and Grade 12 participate in its youth programming on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
Ralph said Gateway grew by roughly 100 people per week in average attendance over the previous 12 months.
In total, he said, 1,500 to 1,600 people call the church home.
A temporary parking area was recently created on the property because the existing parking supply was insufficient, with some attendees previously parking along Haldimand Road 66.
With consideration of growing both ministerial space and community space, Gateway will forgo constructing a fixed sanctuary for worship. Instead, Gateway plans to create a large gymnasium-style space capable of holding at least two full basketball courts. Chairs could be set up for Sunday services and removed during the week.
“We want our community to feel like they have access,” Ralph said.
Potential uses could include pickleball, concerts, basketball, dance classes, rentals, and other recreational activities. Ralph said plans also include a children’s play area and a soccer field beside the facility.
Gateway is exploring other uses.
“We believe there’s a need for a daycare, so we want to start a daycare in this facility,” Ralph said, pointing to Caledonia’s continued residential growth.
Gateway currently works with various community organizations, including the food bank and pregnancy centre, and its Giving Tree program provides assistance around Christmas. The church recently began hosting English as a Second Language programming as well.
Ralph said the new building would allow those community-focused activities to grow while creating room for additional support programs.
Gateway currently offers ministries for people dealing with divorce and grief, but Ralph said limited space has prevented the church from expanding into other areas, including programming for people dealing with addictions and compulsive behaviours.
“We can’t even meet that need in our community right now,” he said.
While the expansion is expected to cost approximately $20 million, Ralph said architects are still working toward final figures.
Before launching its current capital campaign, Gateway had already received more than $1 million for the future expansion project. Ralph said another $8.5 million has been committed so far through the fundraising campaign.
Those funds have come from church members making one-, two- and three-year pledges.
Gateway hopes to have detailed architectural plans completed in early 2027 before moving through the necessary approval and permit process, which Ralph estimated could take up to 12 months.
The tentative schedule would see the project go to tender in January 2028, with construction beginning in spring 2028 and completion targeted for summer 2029.
The congregation dates back to 1992, when Ralph said it launched with approximately 16 people. He described Gateway as an “anchor church” with a regional reach and a goal of supporting other churches as well. The congregation includes residents from across Caledonia, including the new Avalon development, as well as Mount Hope, southern Hamilton, Dundas, Ancaster, Brantford, Hagersville, Dunnville, and Cayuga.
Residential growth in and around Caledonia is one factor behind Gateway’s expansion. Major events are now bringing substantially larger crowds, with Ralph estimating that Gateway welcomed close to 1,200 people over multiple Christmas Eve services in 2025 and again around Easter.
The church has named its capital campaign “For Such a Time,” reflecting what Ralph described as an important period for both Gateway and the rapidly growing community surrounding it.
“We believe that we have been positioned by God to be here to not only care for church people, but to impact our community,” he said.
While the campaign carries a substantial price tag, Ralph said the church does not view the project simply as a larger place to hold services.
“This isn’t about a bigger church,” he said. “This is about a bigger opportunity to have an impact on our community relationally, mentally, spiritually, all those different ways.”
For Ralph, the goal is for the building to remain active well beyond Sunday mornings.
“We’re building something for our community,” he said.
