The concept of Christ Our Redeemer was first thought of in 1979 when some Sandpoint residents who were attending Christ the King in Coeur d’Alene first thought of the idea of establishing a “preaching station” in Sandpoint. In 1983 a mission survey report of the Bonner County area was done and with the support of CTK the first service was held in the VFW hall on November 27, 1983. The first worship leader was the senior pastor at CTK, Bill Hemenway.
The first organizational meeting was held February 26, 1984 with 20 persons present. By November the property at our present site was purchased. In August of 1985 Vicar (Pastoral Intern) Paul Kelto was installed under the supervision of CTK to serve the preaching station for a year. It was during Paul’s stay in April of 1986 the congregation was officially incorporated under the name “Christ Our Redeemer”. In July of 1986 a ground breaking was held for the erection of the first sanctuary.
During the building of the sanctuary a new vicar arrived, Scott Rische. The sanctuary was dedicated November 30, 1986. A third vicar, Mark Tewes, served during the following year. Each of these three men, having completed their seminary education, have gone on to become successful pastors, but COR, sensing a need for more permanence, called a seminary graduate, Steve Moser, in July of 1988. Pastor Steve served lovingly and well until February of 1992, when he resigned for health reasons.
Pastor Stan Simonik was installed in September of 1992 and served until April of 1994 when he resigned to move to part-time status, also because of health reasons. The congregation called a third pastor, Steve Nickodemus, who was installed in November of 1994. On the eve of beginning a second building program, Pastor Steve’s wife, Kathy died suddenly at Kootenai Medical Center and the congregation grieved with him and his three sons.
In the midst of this tragedy, COR moved forward to break ground in October of 1995 for a new education wing. The building was dedicated in November of 1996. This enabled the congregation to expand its preschool and kindergarten and ministry to families. In the midst of this expansion the congregation rejoiced with Pastor Steve in his marriage to Margaret Bowden, or Dr. Mac, as she is affectionately called.
In December of 1999 the congregation finished a large expansion to the sanctuary and an addition of a playground for our school and children. After careful examination of the needs of the Sandpoint community, Christ Our Redeemer has continued to expand its outreach through Little Lambs Preschool which grows every year.
A second worship service was added in June of 2002, offering a contemporary praise format. At the same time COR added a Director of Christian Education to work with families with children and youth. Kanagasabai UmaShankar, originally from Sri Lanka, served as our first DCE for three years. He shared his passion for outreach and his love for his wife, Toni, and their two sons, Avi and Arujun. Our current DCE, Dave Nickodemus, graduated from Sandpoint High School in 1997, Graduated from Concordia University in Portland in 2001 with a degree in Secondary Education, and attended the University of Oslo in Norway for one year.
Starting intentional small groups at COR in 2004 with a 40 Days of Purpose emphasis. COR continues to nurture and encourage small groups as one of our main ways to connect people with Jesus Christ and each other. Other developments have included our first long-range strategic planning in 2005 and the beginning of a task force to look at additional buildings.
COR is poised to reach out into the community with the Good News of Jesus Christ. We continue to expand our vision in outreach, worship, fellowship, discipleship, and servant ministry wherever God calls us to go.