CROWDED HOUSES: CAPE GIRARDEAU SEES CHURCH BUILDING BOOM

Lynwood Baptist Church is so crowded it has moved Sunday school classes into the gymnasium of a nearby elementary school.

The Rev. Milton Ryan often delivers Mass to a packed house at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church.

The Cornerstone Church has outgrown its quarters in a former grocery store.

These and other Cape Girardeau congregations have joined the growing church-building boom.

Cape Girardeau ministers welcome the construction of new church buildings.

Wes Wright, pastor of Mount Auburn Christian, is president of the Cape Girardeau Ministerial Alliance.

He said our society puts a lot of stock in buildings.

"A building says something about your permanence and your legitimacy as a church," he said.

A couple of churches have been built along the city's Lexington Street corridor on the city's west side and others are under construction.

La Croix United Methodist Church moved out of rented space in a movie theater into its modern-looking church building on Lexington two years ago.

First Christian Church relocated from the 800 block of West End Boulevard to an eight-acre site at 2411 Abbey Road. The congregation began worshiping at the new brick church last December.

Lynwood Baptist has begun construction on its new church between Route W and Kingshighway.

Cape Bible Chapel is building a huge addition to its existing building on Kage Road.

"I think it is just a matter of economics," Wright said of churches' decisions to build on the city's west side.

"This is where there is available ground," he said. "It is a whole lot less expensive to develop an empty lot than buy up a city block."

It also is a growing residential area, which makes it attractive to churches.

Pastor Ron Watts of the La Croix United Methodist Church said earlier this year that churches are in the people business. "If people can't find you, they can't come to church," he said.

The congregation first organized as a church nine years ago.

Membership doubled within a year after the July 1995 opening of the church building.

The Methodist Church has three services each Sunday. Average attendance for the three services combined is more than 500.

"People have a spiritual hunger," said Jim Beise, the church's discipleship pastor.

A few blocks away, Cape Bible Chapel is drawing about 450 to 550 people to worship services each Sunday.

The non-denominational church was founded 30 years ago. It has been in its hilltop building since 1984.

Construction began this summer on a $2 million, two-level addition that will include a new sanctuary and space to meet its future education needs. The new sanctuary could open in fall 1998.

The new sanctuary will seat 1,200, making it the largest in Cape Girardeau. It will have space to add a balcony that could handle seating for another 300 people, said Steve Johnson, one of the church's four pastors.

"We view this, in essence, as a step of faith," said Johnson of the building-expansion project.

Johnson said he and other church officials expect attendance to grow.

Lynwood Baptist is building a new church that will seat 1,100.

About 600 to 700 people attend worship services at the church at Lynwood and Randol.

The church doesn't have enough parking of its own. It relies on the parking lot at nearby Alma Schrader Elementary School to handle the overflow.

Mark Anderson, pastor at Lynwood Baptist, said new church buildings typically lead to a surge in membership.

A 30 percent increase in attendance has occurred in other churches, he said. "If that happens to us, we will be at a thousand in the first year."

Anderson said the new church represents just the first phase of construction on the 24-acre site.

Many Cape Girardeau churches are experiencing growth, Anderson said.

Cape Girardeau has nearly 90 churches today compared with 64 in 1990, a Chamber of Commerce report shows.

Church construction isn't just occurring on the city's west side.

St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church is in one of the city's more established neighborhoods.

The Catholic church is being expanded. The addition will add seating to the sanctuary, a gathering area at the church entrance and two multipurpose meeting rooms.

The Cornerstone Church isn't moving westward either.

It plans to build a new church on Koch Street on the city's south side. Construction could begin this fall and be completed by next year.

The church will face the new Highway 74. "It will be high visibility," said Pastor Kim Ferguson.

It is estimated the new highway will carry more than 20,000 vehicles a day by 2005.

"We just feel like a lot of the city is going to be there and we want to be there too," Ferguson said.

Cornerstone was founded 6 1/2 years ago. There were 17 people at its first worship service, held in a house. Today, the average attendance is about 125.

The new church will have a sanctuary that seats 225. The 11.5-acre site offers room to expand, Ferguson said.

Future plans include a playground area and a softball field that neighborhood residents could use.

"If our church is not community oriented, I feel like we are dead in the water," he said.

Ferguson said new church buildings allow for more space for classrooms, children's ministries and other activities.

"Small churches have a place, they have a ministry. But then you've got families who want youth pastors and children's ministries."

Said Ferguson, "They want all the bells and whistles."