NEW CENTER FOR YOUTHS: CHURCH'S FREEDOM ROCK PROGRAM PLANS MOVE

Teen-agers who lament the lack of weekend entertainment in Cape Girardeau might soon find they have little to complain about.

With Christian music blaring from stereo speakers, flashing colored lights and video screens, Freedom Rock offers "youth flavor" to youths and people of all ages, said Mike Lovig, youth pastor at First Assembly of God Church.

Freedom Rock, the youth and college program at First Assembly of God, is ready to expand. The church is helping sponsor a new venture, the Freedom Rock Youth Center, in the former Sav-A-Lot grocery store building at Kingshighway and Broadway.

The center will be open weekend nights for youths 12 to 21 regardless of church affiliations. It is slated for completion by fall.

The project just can't get moving fast enough for those involved. Youths and adults from the church have begun to tear out old ceiling tiles and renovate the building. Much of the renovation should be finished within three weeks.

"It takes patience and a little time," Lovig said.

Youths are already asking when the center will open, he said. "The kids are really excited about the new place and getting in there."

Plans are to keep the warehouse look and transform the open space into a place for concerts, video games, pool tables, fooseball, youth concerts and even a cafe.

Now about 150 youths gather each Wednesday from 7-9 p.m. for Freedom Rock. They meet in a portion of the church that was once its gymnasium. The room has been split in half with an area for a cafe and a section set aside with open floors and bleacher seating for praise and worship times.

Brightly colored walls and flashing disco lights brighten up the room. Old license plates hang on a section of the wall near the front of the room, and a podium is fashioned from hubcaps, car parts and a steering wheel.

The cafe, complete with booths and tables, is open from 5 to 7 p.m. before the service starts so the youths can visit and eat. It reopens at the conclusion of the service, around 8:45 p.m.

The new Freedom Rock Youth Center will be open Wednesday nights and again Friday nights. The Friday night event will be more like a hang out for youths rather than a set worship service atmosphere.

"I've always had a desire not just to get out of a church setting but to find an atmosphere that is more out in the community, and that's what we are doing," Lovig said.

People create stereotypes for churches, and that hinders some people and youths from attending regardless of the programs available, said Lovig. "We might have a great thing going on, but they won't come simply because it's in a church," Lovig said. "We will have something for the kids that is their culture and has all-youth flavor."

Shelly Moore likes the idea of a youth center for teen-agers in Cape Girardeau. Moore has been working with a leadership group in South Cape Girardeau trying to develop more youth and teen-age activities.

"I'm diligently trying to help the youth and make it better for them because that makes it better for our community," Moore said.

She thinks a youth center could be a great attraction if parents and youth really work to promote it. "Doing anything is better than doing nothing," she said.

She believes that having activities and a place for youths to hang out and talk will be effective in alleviating problems. "Idle time is a playshop for problems," she said.

Youths as young as 9 are walking city streets at night looking for friends to hang out, and that concerns Moore. She wants them to have a safe place to play and visit with their friends.

"There's really nowhere to go after school or at night," she said. "So they have a cluster of kids that gather on the streets to fellowship."

Lovig hopes Freedom Rock creates enough curiosity that youths will come to see what's happening. Already youths who have heard about the center are asking questions, he said.

Youths who come to Freedom Rock don't have to be concerned about having the right clothes or being in the right cliques at school, he said. "That's always been my main emphasis. It's not what you look like or where you come from, but kids are kids and they all have the same need: to be loved and accepted for who they are."

"That's what God does for us. You can come and be who you are. You don't have to pretend to be someone you're not. If you've got to meet another set of qualifications or guidelines, who wants to do that?"

Youths should "all come and feel comfortable," Lovig said.

And they usually do at Freedom Rock. On a typical Wednesday night, the youths come in jeans and T-shirts, shorts or khakis. A few kick off their sandals or tennis shoes and really relax during the nearly two-hour service. Some dance to the beat of the music as a band plays Christian songs.

Even with all the fun activities and games now happening at Freedom Rock, having a new building means even more. "We'll use a lot more multimedia and be doing a lot more updated things. We won't be restricted" by space, Lovig said.

The new building is 12,000 square feet, and while the space is ample it wasn't a key consideration in choosing the site. "We needed a place, because of our size, that could accommodate a bunch of kids."

While the old Sav-A-Lot has plenty of room it also is a place "where every young person, junior high student and a lot of college kids travel," Lovig said. "It's just a prime location."

The church had used the building for a New Year's Eve bash and then realized that it might be suitable for the expansion of Freedom Rock. "We started looking for anything that was out there," he said. "It's a big building and that's what we wanted."

Freedom Rock has been operating for eight years and has 30 adults involved in leadership teams.