Building a new church

WANT TO GO?

Preview service at 7 p.m. for Cape Community Church at Osage Community Centre.

Another preview will be at 7 p.m. Sept. 21.

The congregation will begin meeting regularly Sept. 29. Worship is at 10 a.m.

Nondenominational church to hold preview service at Osage today.

By Laura Johnston ~ Southeast Missourian

Just like you'd get a preview of the latest movie at the theaters, Cape Community Church wants to give area residents a glimpse of what it has to offer.

There isn't likely to be popcorn, though.

The "Jesus and Java" coffee fellowship time won't begin until next month.

The new, nondenominational, contemporary church will hold a preview service at 7 p.m. tonight at the Osage Community Centre. Another preview is planned for Sept. 21.

Sydney Maness, pastor, acknowledges there are already dozens of churches in Cape Girardeau. But his congregation is new. "We wanted to do something in another place."

Although Cape Community Church is a new congregation, it has its foundation in Christian Life Church in Advance, Mo. That congregation has been meeting in homes for about five years under Maness' direction.

Twenty of those members will be involved in leading the services in Cape Girardeau.

Making new believers

Cape Community Church doesn't want to take members from other congregations, Maness said. "We don't want to duplicate any church that's already here but we want to be different than normal."

The church is appealing to the 25- to 50-year-old demographic. "We should be able to get some people who aren't in church already," he said.

One way the church will do that is by holding its regular meetings in the Osage Centre. The church will begin meeting regularly at the community center at the end of September. Sunday Celebrations will be at 10 a.m.

Building relationships and encouraging people to take leadership positions are part of the church's mission, Maness said.

"It's about getting people challenged," he said. "Everybody has a destiny in Jesus, we're helping them find it."

The church, as it is in Advance, has been able to create new leaders. Discipleship is at the core of the congregation, he said.

As good disciples, Maness said the Advance congregation has been letting God lead in the new church start. "If I'm a good golfer, I'm within a golf shot of five churches from the Osage," he said. "We aren't wanting to pull people from them but to build relationships and let it take whatever shape God wants.

"We've been asking God what's in store for us," he said.

But part of the excitement is finding people who are willing to join the new church. That's what the preview and celebrations are about.

"If they can get a touch of heaven on Sunday, that's what it's about."

ljohnston@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126