Meet Wesley Tew, the new pastor at First Baptist Church in Cape Girardeau

When Wesley Tew became the new pastor at First Baptist Church in Cape Girardeau he knew the congregation was a little "different," but in a good way.

Not long after taking over the pulpit there was a funeral at the church and they had a motorcycle in the sanctuary. He said he'd never seen that before.

"This was the funeral for Chris Hutson (co-owner of Hutson's Big Sandy Superstore and Old Town Cape Board of Directors president)," Tew said. "In all the churches I've been a pastor, I would have had to think long and hard and make some phone calls before I felt comfortable allowing anyone to bring a motorcycle into the sanctuary. But here, I was like, you know, this is just the kind of church where people don't get upset about that sort of thing. They understand that they want to love people, and if loving people means letting them bring in a motorcycle, you know, that was fine and no one got upset about it."

Tew is a third generation Baptist minister from Alabama, and he said being in the ministry was in his blood.

"When I was a little kid, I used to always say I'd be a pastor, but that was just because my dad did it. You know how little kids are, you want to be like your dad," Tew said.

As he got older, Tew said he wondered whether being a pastor was really what he wanted to do, but then, at a church camp in the mountains of Colorado, he said he felt God's calling.

"It sort of sounds like a cliche, saying I had my mountain-top experience, you know?" Tew said. "It was in the middle of an outdoor worship service, and it's the kind of thing that can be hard to put in words, but I just felt called to go into the ministry. That's something I often look back on. Ministry is not always easy but I just remember it's what I'm called to do."

Tew met and married his wife, Lara, while they were students at the University of Northern Alabama. Tew said there weren't many seminary schools in Alabama, so they moved to Texas to attend Truett Seminary at Baylor University. He received his Masters of Divinity in Ministerial Leadership and Lara became a medical chaplain.

Tew pastored two churches in Texas, one near Waco for 12 years, and another near Corpus Christi for seven. Then he said he felt God leading him elsewhere, and he and his wife wanted to be closer to home and closer to family in Alabama. In their search for a new church, Tew said First Baptist in Cape Girardeau stood out.

"We came and visited Cape, and it just seemed like a really great place to raise a family, with good schools and a lot of stuff for kids," Tew said.

First Baptist is part of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the denomination in which Tew was ordained. Though he grew up Southern Baptist, Tew said the denomination was more moderate then, compared to today's conservative Southern Baptist Convention, and CBF is more like his father's church.

Tew has a lot of family history to draw from when it comes to being a minister. He's heard sermons from his father and grandfather, but says his preaching style is closer to his father's.

"My dad was the person I heard preach more than anyone else," Tew said. "There are definitely generational differences between the way my grandfather preached to how my dad and I do. My grandfather is old school, and a little more direct. My preaching is more narrative, with a little more storytelling to help us see things a little differently."

Tew is settling in at First Baptist and he said his wife just got a job at the SIH Cancer Institute, near Carbondale, Illinois. Together, with their three young daughters, he said they are all happy to be in Cape Girardeau.

"We moved here right during the fall when all the leaves had changed," Tew said. "It was beautiful. Our daughter, who had only lived in South Texas, was just mesmerized. It's a really nice place and I'm real impressed by the schools and the number of playgrounds in town."

When they were moving into their new house, he said neighbors kept coming to introduce themselves and welcome his family. Tew said the men from the moving company told him it was the friendliest neighborhood they had ever moved someone into.

"We're still getting to know people and still figuring things out a little bit," Tew said. "But what really strikes me about First Baptist, it might not be the biggest church anymore, but the people they have sure are dedicated and sure are loving. All in all, it's a good church in a good town with friendly people."