CHURCH HOPES TO BUILD BUT NOT MOVE

Zoia Martin, the clerk of the Second Missionary Baptist Church, said the thought of tearing down the 130-year-old church building saddens her. "But it's fine with me if the Lord wills it," Martin said. "He knows what's best for me."

Tonight's Cape Girardeau City Council meeting at 7 will include a public hearing to decide whether to issue a special use permit to allow Second Baptist to tear down its church building at the corner of Jefferson and Frederick and the abandoned parsonage next door. The congregation wants to build a larger, more modern structure in the same place.

The current building is structurally unsound and would be too expensive to rebuild, said the Rev. Wiley Reed, pastor of the church for the last two years.

In those two years, attendance at Sunday services has grown from 35-40 to more than 100. At Sunday's service, about 100 churchgoers spread out over every pew and a few folding chairs with room for maybe six or seven more.

The only other rooms in the church are a kitchen and a small lunchroom. The church holds adult Sunday school in the sanctuary while the primary, intermediate and adolescent classes try to coexist in the lunchroom, said Willie Newbern, a church deacon who heads up the Sunday school.

Reed said the new church would have rooms for separate classes as well as for a day-care center.

Plus, he wouldn't worry about the church crumbling, Reed said. Although the sanctuary looks homey and comfortable, the paneling on the inside and the 60-year-old plaster outer walls conceal 130-year-old brick work. Rotting mortar and flaky brick can be seen through cracks in the plaster.

"We wouldn't stand a chance in an earthquake," Reed said, "without a miracle."

Why build on the same site and have to find a temporary place to worship during construction? Many older churches have moved north and west with the city's population.

"We want to be an asset to the community," Reed said. He noted that although many members drive to services from all over Cape Girardeau, some still live in the neighborhood and walk to services.

Even in a new building, some church members feel attached to the place, said U.V. Campbell, one of the church deacons. "This is home to a lot of people," he said. "This is where they were first baptized. This is where they first found Christ."

The church needs the special-use permit because it is in a residential neighborhood. The city Planning and Zoning Commission recommended unanimously that the City Council approve it. According to city documents, no one came to an earlier hearing to oppose the permit.

Second Baptist has raised about $25,000 of the $200,000 it needs to build the new church. Reed said he has faith that construction will begin no later than spring 1998.