“This town is absolutely amazing. We've been here for eight or nine months and honestly, we’re just loving every second of it!”
Originally from Ontario, Pastors Scott and Carling Mortimer moved to Cochrane in July 2024 with their soon-to-be greatly expanded family.
“We have young kids – ages four and eight – with three more on the way,” reveals Scott. “We're expecting triplets in the summer – so the family-friendly dynamic here has been just incredible.”
What led the couple to Alberta is nothing short of God-ordained. Scott was a paramedic for 14 years, and Carling was a nurse for 13 years. They couldn’t imagine leaving their medical careers for anything else, until they spent three pivotal months in Haiti in 2015.
“We were working with an organization called Haiti Arise,” Scott says. “And that's where we first felt the leading towards the ministry life where we're basically full-time with the church.”
“We thought maybe closer to retirement or something,” Carling adds. “We were just really enjoying our medical jobs.”
Ordained at Impact Church Kingston in 2021, the couple stepped in as lead pastors for ten weeks while their pastors took a sabbatical.
“Everything went wrong that summer,” laughs Scott. “Just different things, like the air conditioning stopped working and it was 40 degrees every Sunday. I was a sweaty mess, it was awful. At the end of that ten weeks we told God we were never going to lead a church and never plant a church for sure.”
At that point Scott says they took a week off to decompress.
“We just disappeared off the radar for a bit and God really started working on our hearts and saying there is a calling here for you guys.”
In 2022 he dropped down from full-time to part-time as a paramedic, and doors opened to many different leading/speaking opportunities within the church.
“In September 2022 we were at a conference – and we believe God speaks prophetically through other people; God can speak through everybody – and a number of people were praying over us and felt God wanted us to start a church. And we just thought, ‘Oh yeah, that's probably like 15, 20 years down the road.’ But God just started changing our hearts
and we gave God a blank cheque and said, ‘We'll go wherever you send us.’ And God sent us to beautiful Cochrane.”
Over the next number of weeks, their pastors walked Scott and Carling through questions to really pray about, and the couple carefully sought the Lord.
“We just found that every verse God kept pointing us to talked about the foothills of the mountains,” reveals Scott. “There were a number of different signs, some dreams that we had, and different people were speaking into our lives – and it all kept pointing specifically to Cochrane.”
After a few weeks of prayer, they brought it to their pastors.
“We thought we were crazy,” says Scott. “We were like, are we seriously going to uproot our family and move to a place where we know nobody and do something we’ve never done before?”
As it turns out, their pastors were not surprised at this revelation.
“They said, ‘You know what? God actually spoke to us a year ago, and said that you were going to plant a church in Alberta.’ They just didn't know what town,” says Scott in amazement.
The couple announced their decision to Impact Church Kingston in September of 2023, relinquishing their careers as a nurse and a paramedic.
“And what's really amazing is that God started speaking to other people, too,” says Scott. “So there's a total of about 15 to 20 people who are moving here from Kingston in the next couple of months. Eight are already here. We didn't ask anybody to come – they all individually heard from God.
“We wanted to create another Impact because that's who we are and what we want to do, and that is the church that we came from. So we're here with their support, accountability, and oversight. They’ve set us up with financial support and resources and equipment and their blessing.”
Carling says she appreciates Cochrane’s many amazing Jesus-centered churches and the vital role they play in building God's kingdom.
“We're grateful to be a part of that community of churches,” she says. “They're already making a huge difference. And we've already been able to build some great relationships with them – connecting with them and other pastors has been really life-giving for us.”
A significant differentiating factor for Impact Cochrane would be their meeting time of 5:30pm every Sunday, which Carling points out will make church attendance accessible for a completely new demographic.
“And the great thing about the collection of people that have already said ‘yes, we are a part of Impact Church’ – there are five nations represented. We love having that multiculturalism, that representation from different nations, and we love that we're starting that way because it gives that small taste of what heaven is going to look like.”
“Our vision is to build a thriving church where Jesus impacts people to transform their world,” emphasizes Scott. “So we want to create an environment where people can have a moment in the presence of God because that can transform lives.”
At Impact Cochrane, Scott says people will experience God's presence in a very real way, and a big part of that is meeting the needs of the community in practical ways through a variety of outreaches.
“We have a heart for every nation and generation, and we want every Sunday to feel like a family reunion.”
He is quick to admit, “Having triplets in a couple of months, we're potentially limited in everything we want to implement, but we have an amazing team around us that can help carry that vision.”
Scott says that their main goal is to push past any stigma that people may have about church.
“Like, we're gonna be a fun church. We're gonna laugh. And, being at 5:30pm, it's a unique opportunity for people who otherwise wouldn't be able to go to church, maybe because of work or other commitments.
“People can expect culturally relevant and practical biblical teaching. Lively, engaging contemporary worship. And we want to bless the kids with a safe, fun environment, age-appropriate worship, games, and fun. And, we're going to be a church that loves to serve the community. One of our core values is that serving is our honour.”
“A big word that we keep coming back to is balance,” adds Carling. “We really hope people find that we can balance the deep, important things that they don't always have an opportunity to talk about in every social setting, while also being able to have fun and have relationship. Just realizing that it doesn't all have to be serious and you can have a balance of both. You can have the deep chats and also just laugh and have a great time together.
“But we also don't want it to be limited to just the 90 minute experience on Sundays. We really believe that the church is the people. It's about how you live your life all week and how we relate to people. Because when God impacts us, we get to go out and impact the world around us.”
As for the triplets’ arrival?
“We've already gone through the shock factor,” says Carling. “They're spontaneous triplets. This was not a plan. So, yeah, just in January, we found out about this. And we're like, ‘Okay, we're here. We're doing it. So I guess we'll just keep going!’
“But the support has been amazing. It's gonna be a little chaotic, but we'll get through it, and there'll be lots of helping hands.”
Impact Church Cochrane will be meeting at 200 Seminary View every Sunday at 5:30 pm starting April 13th.
“We're excited to see how we can help, how we can serve, and excited to see who wants to come and be a part of this, because we know that God draws the right people,” shares Carling. “Thank you so much for taking this time to learn about our story and our dreams for the church and for the community.” For more information, please visit the church website at impactcochrane.com.