Lynwood Baptist Church

History

Lynwood Baptist Church began in 1959 with a congregation of 27 with the opening of the Third Baptist Church on the north side of Cape Girardeau, Missouri. The church remained known as Third Baptist Church until 1965. At that time the church's name was changed to its current moniker with the assistance of the First Baptist Church of Cape Girardeau.

Groundbreaking for the first Lynwood Baptist Church location took place in January 1961 at Lynnwood and Randol Streets. The first service held at that location was on March 4, 1962. In 1996 Lynwood relocated to a new location off Highway 61 and Route W allowing 24 acres for church development. After the purchase of that land, Lynwood had a groundbreaking ceremony in November with roughly 600 people in attendance.

Staff

Lynwood Baptist Church has had four different pastors over the years. Bobbie Buster served as pastor from 1965 to 1969. Buster was succeeded by Bill Ellis, who served in that role for more than two decades, ending in 1989. Other pastors have included Allen Reasons (1991–1993), and Derek Staples (2001–2006). Mark Anderson, the current pastor at Lynwood Baptist Church, served initially from 1994 to 2000, before returning in 2008.

The current Pastor of Education is Kevin Coffee, who joined the staff in 2007. Gabe Martinez is the newest addition to the Lynwood staff, serving as the pastor of worship. Others in leadership over various children and student programs including Jeff Moran, Student pastor; and Christy Brey, Children’s director. The church administrator is Brad Rogers.

Programs

Lynwood provides several weekly religious services. Sunday morning worship services are offered at two separate times at 9:00am and 10:30am to help fit anyone’s schedule. Life Group Bible Studies (Sunday school) are offered at 9:00 and 10:30. The church also hosts multiple different Sunday school classes for people ranging of all ages. Classes including those for men, women, coed and couple classes, adult special education classes, college/career classes, highschool and junior high classes, children and preschool classes.

Lynwood is a part of nationwide anti-addiction program called Celebrate Recovery, offering support to people from the church and the community.

Every Fall the church presents a walk through drama presentation for the community depicting the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The presentation consists of heart-wrenching scenes based on a fictional family as they face the difficulties of life, and how their relationship with God or their lack of a relationship with God can affects the outcomes of those situations.

Lynwood Baptist Church is an active sponsor of Upward Sports where children learn sports while being taught about Jesus Christ. The church provides local community children an opportunity to become involved in the Upward programs such as basketball, cheerleading and football through Lynwood’s participation on this program.