Church-planting church settles in

While most churches strive to spread the Good News, each congregation has its own specific focus, an area in which its members feel especially called.

City Church Cape Girardeau at 817 Broadway, which "started in a living room with a handful of families" in 2012, is committed to serving its community and planting other churches for evangelism.

The church website states its mission is to "make disciple-making disciples of Jesus Christ who are characterized by faith, hope and love," and its vision is to "plant church-planting churches in cities of great influence and great need." This focus of planting churches stems, in part, from their belief that the more "healthy" churches there are, the better.

The Rev. Matt McDonald, who has pastored the church since its beginning, said he would love to see more churches with a genuine heart for service. "We desire to train up men and women whom God would lead to start new churches in new areas of need."

McDonald and Pastor Greg Schwab, who joined in 2013, said they believe church is not a place people go. Rather, the people are the church. That fact must reveal itself in how they live every day. This is at the heart City Church's purpose, which they say is "to reveal the greatness of God -- Father, Son and Holy Spirit." To see church as simply an event or building is to limit the purpose people have been given.

"Because of who God is, and what He has done, we are freed up as believers to live our lives for God and no longer for ourselves," McDonald said. "This is what we mean by revealing the greatness of God. We believe that Christians living out their everyday lives for God is the best reflection and picture of God. We don't have a bunch of programs or events or ministries. Let's keep it simple -- everyday life for God."

For this church, everyday life is wrapped in a commitment to plant other churches to continue that simple principle. City Church is a member of the Acts 29 church-planting network and partners with PlantMidWest. Both organizations represent what City Church deems essential: communicating the Gospel message. They do so by investing in establishing church plants. They grow the Kingdom of God by sowing seeds -- planting -- new churches.

Why is evangelism so important? It's all about not keeping the freedom of Christ to oneself.

"We have experienced the love, grace and freedom that the Gospel brings, and so we desire for others that we love to know this Good News," McDonald said.

He went on to say, "We are not here to judge people or 'drive-by guilt them,'" but to share with them how God has transformed their lives, a pattern he believes Jesus modeled. "[Jesus] took time to know people and love them, but he also came with a message of, 'Repent and believe in the Gospel' (Mark 1.15)."

The church's vision is manifested through the volunteer work of City Church members.

"Oh, man, where to begin? We have a group who are very involved working at the Family Counseling Center with women in drug rehab," Pastor Matt said. "We have people that volunteer for organizations like Old Town Cape, the United Way, Red Cross, SEMO, Girls Scouts and CASA." Some also work with homeless men on their own." Church members "are always looking for needs in the community and organizations/churches that we can partner with and support."

Downtown Cape Girardeau has a special place in the hearts of church members because they see it as a place of unique need. Issues of poverty and substance abuse, for example, require loving hands to help. Additionally, Pastor Matt asserted, "a variety of subcultures ,,, have perhaps been mistreated by the church." He named the "LGBTQ community, college students and artists/musicians" in that group, and said, "We have a big heart to serve and love these different groups of people. We desire to be a safe place for people who are hurting and may be looking for a community that will love them unconditionally."

The church comes together at "the building" on Broadway for Sunday services at 10 a.m. A variety of instruments and selections ranging from traditional hymns to more modern songs are part of their musical repertoire.

While these Sunday gatherings are an integral part of who they are, members do not lose sight of what their focus is: not simply congregating inside a church building, but being the church by living Christ's example every day.

Pertinent address: 817 Broadway, Cape Girardeau.