New church begins services in Cape

A new church has opened its doors for worship in Cape Girardeau.

Grace Church, located behind One City Community Center at 610 Independence St., held its first service Sunday. Brett Smith, co-lead pastor at Grace Church along with his wife, Taylor, said 150 people attended.

"It was incredible," Brett Smith said. "We had 150 people, 40 of those being kids. We had quite a few families. It was just a great experience and all-around great service."

Brett and Taylor Smith are natives of Cape Girardeau. Brett Smith joined the Marine Corps out of high school, and was stationed at Camp Pendleton in California.

"About halfway through my enlistment, my wife and I really got plugged into ministry," Brett Smith said. We stayed out there for the last 10 years, and we've been in ministry ever since then."

The Smith family moved back to Cape Girardeau in August of last year to start their church. The two began volunteering with One City and made a partnership with founders Jeremy and Raelenna Ferguson, who rented the space to them.

"We started volunteering there during the Work Life program and things of that nature," Brett Smith said. "That space had kind of become available and they asked if we wanted to utilize that space to start up our church. We said 'of course' and that's kind of how that started."

Grace Church -- a non-denominational Christian church -- is an affiliate of Grace International, a global network of more than 4,200 churches in 116 countries. The church will hold services at 10 a.m. every Sunday, and weekly small groups and discipleship groups will begin being offered in May.

"Our church is really for anyone, and we want to be a church that looks like heaven," Brett Smith said. "There's a place to belong here at Grace, and you can belong here before you believe. We just want to be that place for people to come in and feel accepted, and loved and have a place to serve."