TRADING PLACES: THREE CHURCHES MOVING TO NEW HOMES

When Lynwood Baptist Church moved into its new building last week at 1712 Lynwood Hills Drive, the congregation packed up everything but the pews and pulpit. Members of Bethany Baptist and Fellowship Baptist churches will do the same this week.

The three Southern Baptist congregations will move into new buildings this month. Although it isn't unusual for churches to move into new buildings or to add space, what is unusual is that these churches are trading buildings, said the Rev. Roy Jones, director of the Cape Girardeau Baptist Association.

Jones has not known of any other churches that cooperated quite like this during a move. "If it's not unique, then it's without precedent," he said. "They are working together in a picture of Christianity."

With the construction of Lynwood's new church facility, Bethany bought the existing building at Randol and Lynwood streets. That enabled Fellowship to purchase Bethany's building on Koch Street.

"It's a good example of good stewardship," said the Rev. Don Ford of Bethany Baptist Church. "It allows us to move to different levels for growth and we are not spending tons of money."

Lynwood will hold its first worship service in the new building Sunday. Bethany and Fellowship will be in their new buildings April 26.

"I feel that it's a miracle," said Lynwood Baptist's the Rev. Mark Anderson of the move, but it's also an emotional move for the congregation.

Many of the members were married or baptized in the building at Lynwood and Randol streets, he said. However, "we have said over and over that Lynwood is not about a building program but about changing lives for God."

And changing lives doesn't depend on where the congregation meets. So for the first time in nearly seven years, other than on special occasions like Easter, Lynwood's congregation will gather together for worship Sunday in the new church, Anderson said. The church will meet for worship at 9 a.m. with Sunday school at 8 and 10:30 a.m.

Lynwood planned its building program knowing that selling a church building would be difficult, Anderson said. "So the sale has greatly helped up pay down on the debt."

Typically, finding a buyer for a former church building is difficult. "The only people in the market for a church is another church," said the Rev. Joe McCullough of Fellowship Baptist Church.

Often the problem of growth is doubled by a need to find the right amount of space for a congregation. The solution often comes with construction of a new facility.

"Our church had grown to the point that we were praying about what to do," Ford said. "We had started a second service and had several options."

Those options included adding on to the current structure or purchasing land and building a new structure. "Someone mentioned that we should buy Lynwood," he said. "We felt like the Lord was in it."

Once Ford and Anderson talked, Ford suggested to McCullough that the Fellowship congregation purchase the building on Koch Street.

McCullough said, "It's going to be different because we are going from a building with no space to having a surplus. It will be a transition but a good transition."

Fellowship is the newest of the three congregations and has met in other sites around the city since its founding in 1993. The congregation will meet at its new site April 26. The building on Koch will be the first property owned by the church. Its other sites had been leased.

But this week's worship service won't be a bittersweet one, McCullough said, adding: "We've been looking forward to it for a long time. There won't be bittersweet tears although we've appreciated being here, but it's a greater blessing to be moving."