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WHO WE ARE
Established in 1985, Sonrise CRC is a diverse congregation made up of long time residents of Canada and many newcomers.
Our mission is to love God with all our hearts and with all our souls and with all our strengths and with all our minds. And to love our neighbour as ourselves.
(Luke 10.27-28)
As a church, we believe this mission is fulfilled through worship and through serving God in our fellowship, work and relationships in the broader community.
Our church community is part of the Christian Reformed Church in North America. The Christian Reformed Church is a Protestant Christian church with its roots in the 16th century Reformation.
Our denomination was established in North America in 1857 and now numbers over 900 congregations with active missions in over 25 countries.
ABOUT OUR CHURCH
Sonrise Christian Reformed Church is a confessional, covenantal, Bible-believing, traditional, faithful Reformed Church that is connected to the Christian Reformed Church in North America.
To be confessional is to believe what the church has always believed (Jude 3) as a pathway to unity with the catholic church, but also a safeguard from false teaching and heresy (1 Tim 6:20-21, 2 Tim 1:13-14, Tit 1:9). As Reformed Christians this means we hold to the ecumenical creeds (Apostles, Nicene, Athanasian) and the Three Forms of Unity (Heidelberg Catechism, Belgic Confession, and the Canons of Dort)as faithful summaries of Holy Scripture. This guides our understanding of the Bible, theology, teaching, pastoral care, and personal lives.
To be covenantal is to believe that God enters into covenant relationships with people, and we participate in those covenants through worship and baptism. Covenantal theology guides our worship on the Lord’s Day, our sacrament of baptism for believers and their children, how we parent and raise our children, and how we belong to a church family. Through the covenant, we are assured of God’s grace and presence.
To be traditional is to honour the traditions and practices of the church that have gone before us. We are inheritors of a great theological tradition that can be traced back to the Church Fathers, through the magisterial reformers, the Dutch Further Reformation, and many more eras of the Calvinist and Reformed history. This shapes the way we practice our faith, engage the world, worship God, and seek to be faithful Christians for the good of our neighbour and to the glory of God, in all of life.
Finally, to be liturgical is to think and carefully practice the way we worship. The second commandment teaches us how to worship God, and God alone. And so, our worship is to be done according to God’s word where he meets his people through the Holy Scriptures, the preaching of the Word, and the sacraments, and his people respond with confession, joy and praise, giving of alms, and with a life of gratitude for the grace offered from the cross and empty tomb.
And finally, we live under the sovereignty of a good God. All of life is lived coram deo, before the face of God. We see our church ministry work and every other duty in life as an act of worship (Rm 12:1).
MESSAGE FROM OUR PASTOR
Hello! My name is Pastor Curtis, and I have served as the minister here at Sonrise Christian Reformed Church in Ponoka, Alberta since August 2026. I grew up in the Reformed Tradition and have served churches in Alberta and British Columbia. My journey of ministry began many years ago in youth leadership, then serving the homeless and inner-city community of Edmonton, to full-time vocational youth ministry, and then a few years of graduate studies at Calvin Theological Seminary, where I completed my Master of Divinity before accepting the call to serve as minister here in Ponoka.
I married my bride, Nicole, in 2011, and we have been blessed with 5 covenant children. We enjoy camping, walking, playing games, and generally being together. I enjoy reading history, theology, or fantasy, playing board games, going for walks, and cooking.
My hope for Sonrise CRC is that we would be a healthy and thriving church family that gathers regularly around the Word and sacraments and that our love for Christ is experienced through shared meals and time spent together. In that culture, children can be nourished, young people discipled, newcomers and strangers welcomed, and, most importantly, Christ is glorified through us.
To God be the glory now and forever,
Pastor Curtis Meliefste
To learn more about the history of our denomination
Visit our CRNA Page
