Pastor has lofty goal

Even gray winter skies can’t dim the light streaming through the atrium of the former Coeur d’Alene amusement arcade. The Rev. Tim Remington stands alone in the room’s bright center, right where the Adventures in Fun carousel once revolved.

Soon, the man known as “Pastor Tim” plans to transform the 20,000-square-foot landmark from an abandoned hulk to a center for spiritual renewal – a process he hopes is mirrored in the lives of the people he serves.

“It’s going to be a church, but also more of an outreach ministry,” said Remington, longtime pastor of Cataldo Lighthouse Church.

Final arrangements are pending, but Remington said he has all but inked a $1.5 million deal to buy the building from Marsha Bowlin, whose family trust owns the structure at 722 Appleway Ave.

It’s the site of the failed arcade once operated by former Coeur d’Alene Mayor Steve Judy, who closed the business in 2003 after 18 months of operation. Records indicate Judy completed Chapter 7 bankruptcy in U.S. District Court that year.

For Remington, the building is an ideal location for the expansion of his 14-year-old church, which he said has more than 700 members.

“We’ve looked all over the place,” Remington said. “It’s a prime location, near Northwest Boulevard and the freeways.”

Within four months, after an estimated $250,000 in renovations, Remington hopes to open the center that will combine a traditional church sanctuary with support services for programs aimed at drug addicts, alcoholics and others. Remington also operates Good Samaritan Rehabilitation Inc., a treatment agency that provides intervention and shelter for substance abusers.

The Appleway Avenue site won’t provide residential care for addicts – zoning regulations prohibit that – but it will serve as the springboard for services and a gathering place for the church community.

The glass-walled front of the building will be renovated as a public coffeehouse, Remington said, where recovering addicts will find employment experience and everyone else will find hot drinks and good conversation.

“It will be a quiet, Christian atmosphere,” Remington said.

In recent years, Remington, 44, said much of his ministry has centered on methamphetamine addiction. The drug is a burgeoning problem in the North Idaho region, which continues to lead the state in the seizure of clandestine methamphetamine labs, according to Idaho State Police.

“Our focus isn’t really on that, but that’s what seems to come to us,” Remington said. “We try to outreach, and, for us, the outreach now is meth.”

Every Sunday, between 250 and 300 people gather to worship at Remington’s makeshift church near his Silver Valley home. Many in the congregation are former addicts whose lives have been transformed through Remington’s ministry.

“We used to be known as the misfit type of church,” Remington said. “If they didn’t fit anywhere else, they came to us.”

The pastor employs a faith-based philosophy that tries to instill a sense of purpose, identity and confidence, plus a positive attitude, in people who’ve had scant acquaintance with those qualities. Remington runs a mentoring program that pairs recovering addicts with Christian volunteers who model healthy family structures and behaviors, he says.

“My wife and I always have three or four (addicts) living with us,” said Remington, who also has four children ranging in age from 9 to 18. “I believe the reason that we’ve stayed successful is that we just love them.”

Remington’s philosophy is successful, said Kootenai County Prosecutor Bill Douglas, who praised the expansion plans. Judges, police officers and others in the legal system frequently refer people to Remington’s rehabilitation services.

“I think it’s great,” Douglas said. “He’s a great resource for families and people at the breaking point.”

Neighbors of the new site – a U-Haul store, local retailers – said they’ll welcome the venture, too.

“Just hearing about it for the first time, I think it’s a great idea,” said Ruthie Blosser, manager of the Christian Supply store two doors down.

Remington is hoping that the reservoir of good will from clients, friends and congregants will spill over into financial support for his new – and expensive – venture. The church’s annual budget of about $250,000 is financed entirely by donations from members, Remington said.

He doesn’t accept government grants or contracts because he doesn’t want to be bound by their reporting requirements, the pastor said. New faith-based funds available through the federal government might be an option, but so far, Remington has received no money. He’ll pay for the new building with about $500,000 in proceeds from the sale of church property and the rest from savings.

But that will leave a lean budget for improvements and operation.

“Some of our members have never stepped up to the plate, and we’re hoping they will now,” Remington said.

The new venture represents a huge shift for a church that started out as a foot ministry to homeless people in 1990, the pastor said. Creating a permanent, physical presence in the city’s core is a welcome, but unnerving goal.

“It’s a risk, no doubt about it,” Remington said. “It’s a do-or-die thing, but I’m up for do or die.”