About Our Church
Calgary Central is the largest of the 18 Seventh-day Adventist churches in Calgary with a membership over 1100 and growing. What To ExpectOur BeliefsOur Mission & Vision
OUR MISSION
To Engage the members of Calgary Central in sharing Christ’s message of Hope and Wholeness
OUR VISION
To Experience & Express Christ
What Does Experience & Express Christ Mean?
Worship celebrates the divinity of God. It recognizes God for who He is, what He has Done, and for what we are expecting God to do.
Fellowship can also be called “inreach” or “church life”. It is what unites us as we share our relationship with Christ and with one another.
Discipleship Is The Call Of Christ to Not Only know him, and serve him but also to share Him with others.
Outreach signals to the world that we are the arms, hands, feet, eyes and mouth Of Jesus.
Our Beliefs & Values
Seventh-day Adventists accept the Bible as the only source of our beliefs. We consider our movement to be the result of the Protestant conviction Sola Scriptura—the Bible as the only standard of faith and practice for Christians.
The Bible
The Holy Scriptures, Old and New Testaments, are the written Word of God, given by divine inspiration. The inspired authors
spoke and wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. In this Word, God has committed to humanity the knowledge necessary
for salvation.
Creation
God has revealed in Scripture the authentic and historical account of His creative activity. He created the universe, and in a
recent six-day creation the Lord made “the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them” and rested on the seventh
day.
Salvation
In infinite love and mercy God made Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin for us so that in Him we might be made the righteousness of God. Led by the Holy Spirit we sense our need, acknowledge our sinfulness, repent of our transgressions, and exercise faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord, Substitute and Example.
The Sabbath
The gracious Creator, after the six days of Creation, rested on the seventh day and instituted the Sabbath for all people as a memorial of Creation. The fourth commandment of God’s unchangeable law requires the observance of this seventh-day Sabbath as the day of rest, worship and ministry in harmony with the teaching and practice of Jesus.
The Second Coming
The second coming of Christ is the blessed hope of the church, the grand climax of the gospel. The Savior’s coming will be literal, personal, visible, and worldwide. When He returns, the righteous dead will be resurrected, and together with the righteous living will be glorified and taken to heaven, but the unrighteous will die.
If you would like to learn more about our beliefs please contact the church office and one of our pastors would be happy to share with you.
Or you can read more about our beliefs on our world wide church website Seventh-day Adventist Church
Who We Are
Our Team & Leadership
ON BEHALF OF THE PASTORAL TEAM AND ALL OF OUR MEMBERS, I WOULD LIKE TO EXTEND A WARM WELCOME TO YOU.
As you spend time in fellowshipping with our church family, I would encourage you to discover the many activities that this church offers and make an effort to connect your life to the people and mission of our church.
My prayer for you through this process is that God will deepen and grow your relationship with Him and reveal to you the unique role that you are invited to play in the life of this church.
Our Pastor: Ghena Girleanu
Senior Pastor
Pastor Ghena was born in Moldova and moved to Canada in 1999. He was born into a pastor’s family and was raised in the Seventh-day Adventist Church by loving parents. He has been married to his beautiful wife Beatrice since 2007. Together they are raising two boys (Dominic and Liam), and ministering to their congregation.
Pastor Ghena enjoys spending time together with his family and friends, playing sports, reading, and playing musical instruments. He is passionate about sharing the love of God with everyone and leading them to Jesus.
Pastor Felix Richter
Associate Pastor
Pastor Felix was the fourth of nine children in a devoted Catholic home in northern Saskatchewan. He faithfully attended church with his family, became an Altar Boy and later lead out in songs and readings during the Mass. God influenced him to investigate prophetic truth and to join the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The Holy Spirit revealed to him is lost, sinful condition and the compassion and kindness of Jesus Christ. Felix now selflessly devotes himself to imitating Christ, sharing His message of hope and wholeness.
Pastor Liviu Tilihoi
Associate Pastor
Pastor Liviu was born in Romania in a devout Adventist family. He grew up in Romania and Italy and then came to Canada in 2010 to finish his pastoral studies at Burman University. He met his beautiful wife Vanessa while colporting in the Regina area and they got married in 2012. Together they have three children (Nathan, Ellyanna and Alex) and they enjoy spending time and exploring God’s nature together. Pastor Liviu enjoys playing sports, biking, reading, gardening and country living. His passion is to advance God’s Kingdom on earth and to prepare the people for the second coming of Jesus!
Doreen Cliffe
Office Administrator
Doreen and her husband Marlon love serving their church family and community. As well as assisting the pastoral team and church ministries at Calgary Central Church, you will find her and her husband partnering with God in their own ministry presenting marriage seminars across Canada and working with couples through relationship coaching. They have two amazing adult children who love the Lord and serve Him in the communities where they reside.
Pastor Jonathan Deximo
Youth Pastor
Pastor Jonathan was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec to his loving parents Joe and Mina Deximo. Throughout his childhood, Jonathan was raised Seventh-Day Adventist, and spent his entire elementary and secondary education in the Adventist School system along with his younger brother. However, like many young people, he left his faith only to return a couple years later; being led to share his new-found love for God by going into the ministry. He attended Burman University in 2014 and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Religious Studies. Jonathan enjoys playing basketball and other sports during his downtime. He also has a passion
for Youth and Young Adult ministry and works to inspire people to come to realize God as their personal savior and friend.
History
Our Local Church History
The first Evangelistic Meetings were held in Calgary in private homes in 1902 and later in rented halls. The record indicates that five families gathered together for these meetings; two English speaking and three German speaking. The evangelist was Elder Henry Block. In 1903 the first converts of the message were J. J. Gerlitz, Adam Gerlitz, and Mr. and Mrs. A. H. Gerlitz. In 1910 the church was organized as a company with twenty-five baptized members, and began holding their regular Sabbath meetings in a small Lutheran Church, which they rented for the Sabbath.
In 1914 the company was organized as a church under the pastorship of Elder C. F. McVeigh, with E. P. Bossard and Robert Kitto appointed as local elders. Twenty-seven people signed as charter members. The church was located in the odd fellows hall, corner of 6th Street and Centre Street SW. Having acquired land at the corner of 14th Avenue and 4th Street SW, the task of erecting a new church building of their own began in 1920. The basement was dug, covered, and then finished into suitable rooms, and later in the year the members moved in.
When Harold Wood, a young pastor who had recently been ordained, came to Calgary from Minnesota in 1924, he took as his first task the completion of the church building that had commenced in 1920. Pastor Wood was instrumental in substantially building up the strength and the membership of the church during his ministry in Calgary. The church at 14th Avenue and 4th Street SW was dedicated free of debt in 1946.
Here are the “sod turners” for the new church.
June 25, 1959
Church Before The Renovations
Circa, 1970
In a historic business meeting of the church that was held on December 5, 1956, under the chairmanship of Elder J. P. Habenicht, who was the pastor of the church at the time, a mandate was given to the church board to launch a fund-raising program for the erection of a new church building. On January 15, 1957, the church board unanimously resolved to undertake a new church building program, and appointed T. W. Smith, who was the first elder at the time, as chairman and director of this undertaking.
After encountering many challenges, the Lord led this committee, and finally they were able to secure and obtain the approval of the present site of Calgary Central Church in 1958, which is located at 1920 – 13th Avenue NW.
On June 22nd 1959 the groundbreaking ceremony took place in which the Mayor of the City of Calgary, Don MacKay, was present together with many other honored guests. The construction progressed quickly, and on Sabbath, February 20th 1960, the grand opening service for the new Calgary Central Church building took place. The church was officially organized with 198 members.