A new church is scheduled to open for worship services on Sun., Feb. 11.
      The former St. Mary’s Byzantine Church, 7782 Glenwood Ave., located on a 3.4-acre site, was purchased in Sept., 2021 by Greenford Christian Church at a cost of $260,000, and since that time has been undergoing extensive renovations.
      Greenford Chirstian Church, founded some 200 years ago, holds Sunday worship services at its main campus, located at 11767 Lisbon Rd., Greenford; as well as at an Austintown campus, located at 150 Victoria Rd. Upwards of 3,500 people are attracted to those services every Sunday.
      Church attendance, or lack thereof, was a key to the decision of Greenford Christian Church to open a Boardman campus.
      As its lead pastor, Sean Kelly, noted when the Glenwood Ave. site was purchased, studies show an estimated 29,000 people living in Boardman do not attend church on a regular basis.
      “We want that to change. We want to reach as many people in Christ as we possibly can,” Pastor Kelly said.
      Greenford’s Boardman location will begin with two services, at 9:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. on Sun., Feb. 11.
      During the 9:30 a.m. worship service, children’s programming, including for middle school and high school students, will be provided. There were also be an 11:00 a.m. service.
      “More services will be added as needed, especially for our Easter Services that will be held on March 31,” says Sheldon DeVries, lead pastor at the Boardman church campus.
      He says that “Greenford Christian Church/Boardman is a church where all people are welcome. We offer a real, relaxed and relevant worship service, with understandable preaching and inspiring worship. Our hope is that at our Boardman Campus, strangers will become friends and friends will become family.”
      Greenford Christian Church is associated with the Restoration Movement - Christian Church.