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NewsFebruary 20, 1999

Programs for young people are available each Wednesday night at Cape Bible Chapel. While youths gather at the church, adults meet in homes for small-group Bible study. A sign on Cornerstone Church on West End Boulevard advertises the building's sale. Cornerstone is building a church near Minnesota Street...

Programs for young people are available each Wednesday night at Cape Bible Chapel. While youths gather at the church, adults meet in homes for small-group Bible study.

A sign on Cornerstone Church on West End Boulevard advertises the building's sale. Cornerstone is building a church near Minnesota Street.

Cape Bible Chapel offered a "how-to" course on Bible study during mid-week services. Many adults meet in homes throughout the city while their children meet at the church on North Mount Auburn Road.

Cape Girardeau churches are growing rapidly because they are founded on scripture, meet needs of their congregations and the community, and offer help to families, area pastors say.

Since the early 1990s, Cape Girardeau has experienced an abundance of church growth, evidenced by construction of new churches or additions to existing buildings.

No one has really pinpointed the reasons for the growth, but they have some hypotheses.

"If you look at all of these growth spurts, you see that everyone is meeting the needs of families," said the Rev. Kim Ferguson, pastor of Cornerstone Church.

Ferguson's congregation started construction of a building last fall and expects to move to the new site near Minnesota Street and Shawnee Parkway by mid-summer. The site was selected because of its visibility, but the growth came by word-of-mouth.

Across town at Cape Bible Chapel, pastors agree that word-of-mouth advertising has been a blessing for their congregation, which also completed a recent construction project.

Since the church is nondenominational, it doesn't have the instant recognition that a Lutheran or Baptist church gets.

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"It's good that they hear about us from someone they know," said Steve Johnson, pastor of ministries and administration. "It's not someone who says you should go but that you should come with us."

People are interested in the church because of its biblical values, he said. "We are not only teaching but are seeking to live it."

Attracting people to their congregation isn't always as easy as an invitation from friends. Many churches around the nation use consultants or "coaches" to advise them on how to attract membership.

"Some churches have signs that are unspoken: `We don't want you here,'" said Daniel Allen, a church adviser in Cleveland, Tenn. "In our consumer-driven society, churches need signs that say, `We are a warm and loving place.'"

Area churches say their ministries and programs offer the warm invitations people need to keep them coming back.

"We are helping people cope with the day-to-day stress that society presents and the problems that weren't there 30 years ago," Ferguson said.

Wednesday night services for youths attract entire families to the church, he said. "It's kind of a 'Catch-22': If you do something good for the kids, then you get the parents."

At Cape Bible Chapel, midweek services are also popular for families because there is a program designed for every age group. The youths meet at the church for activities, which frees up the parents to attend Bible studies in members' homes.

Polls show people avoid church because they feel pressured to give money or find services boring or irrelevant. Newcomers decide in the first 11 minutes whether to return, so details like cleanliness in the building and good music count, consultants say.

"We've never been high pressure when you walk in the door," Johnson said. "We've found that if they want to come, we'll get to know them, and let the Lord make them feel at home."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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