All Nations Church gets ready for first service in new building Feb. 7

The pastor of All Nations in Sudbury says his new church has to compete with the Netflix crowd.

After years of holding services in Laurentian University's FraserAuditorium, the new building at 414 St. Raphael St. in downtown Sudburyis near completion, Jeremy Mahood told CBC News.

The new building's signature concrete dome will house custom technology to reach a congregation that doesn't attend sermons.

A total of 550 seats have been installed, but Mahood estimates his worshippers at more than 1,300.

Many simply don't show up in person, as they tend to stream the sermons live or download the podcasts.

"They're used to going on a screen and picking their Netflix movies," he said.

"People are extremely visual in today's world, so the church experience can no longer be one single person up at the front talking for 40 minutes."

Mahood said All Nations is building two kinds of churches.

"One where people come and physically experience church on a Sunday and, the other, where they [go] online and experience church from the comfort of their bed, or their laptop or their large screen TV."

Sermons can be streamed live or downloaded as podcasts, he noted.

The first sermon in the new building is scheduled for Feb. 7.