NEW SCOTLAND — The Clarksville Community Church is gearing up for a season of fundraising to pay for a new boiler before cold weather hits.

According to Reverend Eric Bogerd, the heater is original to the building, which is over 50 years old.

“It’s had a good, long run,” he told The Enterprise.

The primary fundraising tool the church is using is a gofundme site, set up by member Cindy Myers Neumann.

“We are in need of a new boiler for our church before the next heating season arrives,” Neumann wrote on the site. “Anyone who attended our chilly Easter service this past spring can attest to that fact. We can no longer repair the giant, inefficient dinosaur we currently have.”

The church discussed in May whether to install a propane heater or an oil-burning heater.

“It’s going to be oil — that’s existing,” Bogerd said of the church’s pipes. The church would need to wait for more than 10 years to make up the cost of switching the system over to propane, he said.

“We do have a small fund available,” he said of the church’s emergency monies. “We’re trying not to dip into it.”

The small church has about 50 members, Bogerd said. Bogerd shepherds both the Clarksville Community Church and the Onesquethaw Reformed Church. The two churches serve the Tarrytown and Feura Bush communities, he said.

“The downside of being a country church these days is people are busy,” Bogerd said about Clarksville. “It’s sometimes difficult to organize a large group of people to mobilize things.

“We are a church that’s focused on being an integrated and visible part of our community,” he continued. “Now, in the United States, there is a need for community centers. It gives an anchor and a place to be together. Keeping the facility up and running is one part of what we’re trying to do to remain in the Clarksville community.”

The church joins other local churches in supporting a food bank, and the local churches work together to hold an open-invitation summer picnic, Bogerd said.

The picnic is a way, “in a world that’s fast, to try and provide a place where people can get to know one another as they don’t get to do anymore,” he said.

By replacing the boiler, Bogerd said, Clarksville Community Church will “continue to do that for many years to come.”

The church participates in the Clarksville Heritage Day event in August, he said.

“We always host a lot of people in our parking lot, and on the front lawn,” he said. “A lot of craft vendors set up sales booths free.”

The church also allows the community to use its large backyard for a classic car show.

“I would encourage folks, if they are on Facebook, to like the page for Clarksville Community Church to see activities,” he said. The activities are for anyone, not just for members, he said. Recently, the church hosted a garage sale, a game night, and a creative art day.

The church plans to do smaller fundraisers like a basket drawing and a food sale to supplement payment for the boiler, he said.

Shared pastor

Bogerd, 40, and his wife, Carol, came to the region in 2011, after serving an internship at First Reformed Church in Albany, Eric Bogerd said.

“My wife and I fell in love with the upstate area,” he said.

Before coming to Onesquethaw, the two lived for a year in Iowa, where Bogerd had a chaplaincy internship after he completed studies at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan.

Bogerd felt at home “right off the bat” with Onesquethaw, he said. After an interview in October, the church hired him to begin in November.

“They welcomed us with open arms,” Bogerd said. “It was my first church posting.” Onesquethaw accommodated him as a former student and chaplain, he said.

Clarksville searched for a pastor for a number of years before the two churches formed a team to share a minister, Bogerd said.

“We’ve come up with a new model — we mesh well and use the resources we do have to serve our community,” he said.