Area churches holding free concerts

Rock isn't the only genre that stops in Cape Girardeau. Three concerts in two weeks feature gospel artists to appeal to the light in life.

The sold-out Heart of America Concert featuring Cody Schuler and Pine Mountain Railroad with The Southern Brothers will be Friday at La Croix Auditorium in La Croix United Methodist Church, and Bobby Bowen will perform a gospel sing the following weekend at 7 p.m. March 27 at the Father's Arms Fellowship in Scott City and at 7 p.m. March 28 at Cornerstone Assembly of God Church.

All the concerts are free, but tickets for the Heart of America concert have all been reserved.

The Men's Fraternity of Southeast Missouri holds the Heart of America Concert as "a gift ... to families in our region," said Dan Steska, executive director at La Croix United Methodist Church and a member of the Men's Fraternity.

"Each year the International Men's Fraternity has an end-of-the-year Christian celebration," Steska said. "These musical groups present the gospel in song."

The Men's Fraternity is a nondenominational group that helps men better serve their communities and their God by hosting Bible studies, group discussions and other activities.

The Bobby Bowen gospel sing at Cornerstone was pitched as a good old-fashioned time, according to Glenda Mayberry. Mayberry attends Cornerstone Assembly.

She worked as a gospel concert promoter in Illinois before eventually becoming a real estate account executive at the Southeast Missourian. She said the church has hosted concerts sporadically in the past.

"I think it's a good, community event," she said. The Bobby Bowen concert -- like the Heart of America Concert -- requires a ticket, but is free. Mayberry said that "with the economy like it is" a free concert can be like an escape.

"People don't have to buy anything. They can come and go as they want," she said.

Bowen's Christian country sound was made famous with The MidSouth Boys Quartet. The group had several hits on religious charts, earned a Grammy nomination for Southern Gospel Album of the Year in 1992 and had a handful of songs on CMT and VH1 like "You Were At The End of Every Road" and "Without You (I Haven't Got A Prayer)."

Mayberry's nephews from Anna-Jonesboro, Ill., will play either before Bowen or during intermission. The boys, Adam and Tyler Webb, play contemporary gospel.

She said concerts can bring people to God as much as a sermon can.

"It's the message in the songs," she said. "It's an inspirational message that we need today."