Former Red Star Baptist building up for sale

A landmark church in Cape Girardeau is for sale.

The Church of the Rescued and Redeemed, formerly known as Red Star Baptist Church, 1301 N. Main St., can be purchased along with the church’s activity building across the street for the asking price of $650,000.

Located in what is commonly referred to as the Red Star District, parts of the neighborhood have been periodically plagued by Mississippi River floodwaters for the past half-century.

“They (the Red Star Baptist congregation) have needed to move many, many times, but never did,” said Billy Garner, the church’s pastor.

“Right now our church is one of the last big structures in the neighborhood,” he said. “We’re growing, but the neighborhood is dying.”

The former Red Star Baptist Church building, which now houses The Church of the Rescued and Redeemed, is for sale, along with the church's activity building.JAY WOLZ

Garner said the church and activity building have been appraised at $1.1 million. However, he said the church needs several hundred thousand dollars’ worth of upgrades.

But despite the needed repairs to the church’s HVAC system and other necessary upgrades, Garner believes the property has potential. The church and activity building, he said, could be rezoned and although high water from the Mississippi River has come close to both buildings, “floodwaters have never been in either building.” He said water pressure from below, however, has pushed into the church basement from time to time. The activity center does not have a basement.

Once a contract is signed to sell the property, Garner said The Church of the Rescued and Redeemed will proceed with plans to design and build a new church on nine acres it recently purchased along Lexington Avenue just north of Sprigg Street.

“It’s not far from here and technically it’s still on the edge of the Red Star District,” he said. “But everything is contingent on the (church) sale.”

The Church of the Rescued and Redeemed was formed in March 2017 when Red Star Baptist merged with the Rock ’N’ Roll Church, which had met for several years in various Cape Girardeau storefronts and in Garner’s home.

Informally known as “the biker church,” Garner said the Rock ’N’ Roll Church needed space to expand and Red Star Baptist Church was in need of a pastor and a membership infusion.

“They (Red Star) were looking for something to come in, so it was a good combination at the right time,” Garner said.

The merged church remains affiliated with the Cape Baptist Association and the Missouri Baptist Convention.

According to Southeast Missourian archives, Red Star Baptist began in 1916 as a Sunday school class that met under a tree just north of the present church’s location. By 1920, it was felt there was a need to establish a permanent church near the International Shoe Co. plant on North Main Street (where Century Casino Cape Girardeau is now). First Baptist Church donated a 30-by-40-foot building as an outreach mission project and the church was organized as “Red Star Baptist” in 1920, taking its name from a brand of shoes and boots produced at the shoe factory with red stars on their heels.

Red Star’s membership grew and the church was expanded at least twice over the next few decades. The present 50,000-square-foot church was completed in 1955 and the 14,400-square-foot activity center opened in 1973. At that time, the church had a membership of nearly 1,300.

Today, Garner said, The Church of the Rescued and Redeemed has an average attendance of about 110 at its weekend services. The church operates several ministries, including a food bank, a clothing pantry, youth and children’s ministries, recovery ministries, a motorcycle ministry, martial arts classes, a music ministry and a faith-based transitional housing program for men who are reentering society after incarceration.

“We are not the biker ministry we used to be and we’re definitely not Red Star,” Garner said.

More information about The Church of the Rescued and Redeemed can be found at www.rnrchurch.org.

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