FALMOUTH- Pastor Benjamin D. Feldott stood in an open field, looked into the dense woods just off Route 151, and imagined the future home of the Cape Cod Church.
Mr. Feldott had just finalized paperwork to purchase 10 acres between Currier Road and Plum Hollow Road, Hatchville, across the street from the Barnstable County Fairgrounds. The project will relocate Mr. Feldott and his congregation from their current location on Teaticket Highway.
Mr. Feldott pointed out the sloping topography and said he could see the church built right into the hillside. He said he could imagine quite a bit more, “In some ways, when I look (at the property) I see the youth ministry. I see open space, and ball fields, and outside events.”
He paused and said, “I wish it were here today.”
The Cape Cod Church has grown exponentially in a relatively short period of time. Mr. Feldott and his wife, Tammy J. Feldott, founded the church in 1992. They were newlyweds and he was 23 years old.
Their first service, he remembered, was held in the living room of their condominium with just the two of them making up the congregation. “We skipped the music, opened a Bible, and took an offering,” he said.
The next week some friends drove down from Norton. The following week, more people came. A few months later, they rented the basement of the Bennett Plumbing building on Rose Morin Drive in Falmouth.
Five years after that they purchased a property on Teaticket Highway and held services there.
By 1999, they had outgrown the facilities again and constructed a new worship center, a 3,500-square-foot addition, where they currently hold services.
“We started to grow and we never stopped,” Mr. Feldott said. Every Sunday, he said, about 600 people show up for three services, part of a congregation of about 1,000 people. The regulars are asked to park down the street at Falmouth Lumber, so there are parking spaces available to newcomers.
Mr. Feldott gave three reasons for their exponential growth: the music, the message, and the people.
The music is a group of about 20 musicians, including a brass section, called the Worship Team. They have professional quality audio and video equipment and a computerized lighting system.
Mr. Feldott does not participate in the music section. “All I play is the radio,” he said. The music he leaves up to Alan Porter, a third-generation pastor, who began attending Cape Cod Church when he was stationed in the Coast Guard in 2001.
The message, Mr. Feldott said, is uniquely welcoming. He said even though the church is crowded there are always seats available. He said newcomers are witness to a vitality and joyful spirit. “Part of our mission is to inspire people to live fully for God,” he said. The people are ethnically diverse and come from a variety of backgrounds, said Mr. Feldott. The average age of the congregation is just under 31 years old, including a large number of children. As Mr. Feldott’s congregation has grown, so has his family. He and his wife have three daughters and a son, Brittany, 14, Brianna, 12, Brooke, 8, and Cody, 4. The older girls attend Falmouth Academy.
Mr. Feldott said, “We love Falmouth. It’s a great place to raise a family.” The two older girls are among about 60 to 70 teens who meet on Thursday nights with youth pastor Josh Adams. The youth group is called Detour and also has its own band. Mr. Feldott said the young people want to go to church on Thursday because the style of the service is appealing to their sensibilities.
“If we are talking in a language that no one understands, then we shouldn’t be surprised that no one shows up,” Mr. Feldott said. He said they try to deal with both the lessons of the Bible and the issues of the day at Cape Cod Church. Mr. Feldott said that someday he can imagine the church filled with 1,000 or 2,000 people. “The church is not only for the people who are here,” he said, “It’s for the people who are not yet here.”
He hopes the church will be built in a style that reflects Cape Cod and also anchors the community, like the churches near the Village Green in Falmouth.
The 10 acres of land on Route 151 is in two parcels: one nearly eight acres, and another that includes frontage on Route 151, at just over two acres. The purchase price for both parcels is a total of $670,000, Mr. Feldott said.
Asked why he chose Falmouth to start a church, he said, “I like the New England personality.” He explained that he feels comfortable with the private and plainspoken qualities of his congregation.
Mr. Feldott said he plans on being the pastor of the Cape Cod Church for about 30 more years in its new location. The last step in the journey, Mr. Feldott said, will be to sell their property at 805 Teaticket Highway, which is assessed at $1.1 million.