LOCAL CHURCH HONORS ITS HERITAGE AND HOPE

History helped shape the congregation and community of First Baptist Church of Cape Girardeau into the fellowship it is today, but it also provides a new hope for future generations.

The church will commemorate its 166-year history with a special "Heritage and Hope" service at 9:30 a.m. Sunday. All adult, children and youth will gather to remember the events with a special timeline and historical service. The congregation will spend the evening service looking toward its hope and future with a stewardship banquet.

First Baptist Church was founded in 1834 and is the oldest Protestant congregation in Cape Girardeau. It began with a group of nine members.

Speakers during the worship hour Sunday include a selection of church members who will talk about the "new building" constructed during the late 1920s, vacation Bible schools, youth activities and programs and construction of a Habitat for Humanity house.

The church will remember several key events in its history:

* Ladies Aid members help bake sales and collected special offerings to help pay for the building during the war and Depression. After 25 years, the church paid off its debts in 1949.

* Construction of new facilities, including an activities center built in 1984.

* Missions commitments to congregations in Bela-rus, Russia, and to the community with projects like a Habitat for Humanity house built in 1998 and a Helping Hands House, renovated in 1999 for families with relatives in the hospital.

* Adding new staff members and remembering former pastors who served the church.

* Hosting statewide conventions and a foreign missionary commission in 1996.

History is always important because it is the foundation for the church, said Denise Lincoln, a church member and spokesman for the group organizing the service.

"You have to understand your history and were you come from, and in that history you find encouragement," she said.

The church is in the midst of an intentional interim program that allows the congregation to spend at least six months addressing its history, setting goals for the future and working toward a new organizational structure.