Daniel Taylor had a longtime dream of starting his own church. It finally will come true with the grand opening of the Elevation Church on Sunday, Feb. 12.

The opening is the culmination of a lot of work by Taylor, who is the lead pastor, and a few others who followed him from Cape Girardeau in pursuing the new venture. For the 150-member congregation, it's an exciting time.

"There's a lot of energy here," Taylor, 35, said. "New churches really reach out to people who want to be part of something new, something different."

More established churches can have cliques. With Elevation, everyone has a common bond, Taylor said.

He chose the name Elevation to refer to the strategy of taking people to a higher relationship with God and others, and having a higher impact on the world.

Elevation Church has its weekly worship services at the Rockwood Summit High School theater. The congregation likes the facility's seating and acoustics. Sunday school will be taught at two nearby classrooms.

Taylor's dream started a few years ago when he was the associate pastor at LaCroix United Methodist Church in Cape Girardeau. He had a desire to start his own church and decided to try. With the backing of the Missouri Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, Taylor and his family moved to Fenton.

His passion inspired others to quit jobs to help start the church.

One was Jen Schenkelberg, 25, who attended LaCroix UMC. She heard about Taylor's plans and was caught up in his vision for Elevation. She was working at a bank, but she quit and moved to Fenton in June 2011 to help with the church.

"A year before, I thought it was time for me to get out of Cape Girardeau," Schenkelberg said. "I lived there almost my entire life. Then, Daniel came along and I decided to join."

Tim Bastron, 37, is Elevation's worship pastor. He quit his position as the worship pastor for a church in Wildwood to join Elevation.

He had met Taylor and heard his vision for the new church. The father of four children, he thought about the risk of giving up a comfortable position with an established church. Things were comfortable, a little too comfortable.

"I longed to be part of a church that reached out to the lost and the hurting," Bastron said. "It's a risk, but the stakes are too high to sit on the sidelines."

Elevation's first services started with just a few people in April 2011 at Taylor's home in Fenton. The church joined the Fenton Chamber of Commerce and began to network though social media sites like Google and Facebook. The word spread and more people joined.

The church moved to a local community center. In November 2011, it had a 'soft opening" at Rockwood Summit.

The school district charges the church about $500 a week, which covers the cost of electricity and cleaning. The church is subsidized by the United Methodist Church Conference of Missouri and donations from the congregation and other sources.

Elevation has no plans to leave Rockwood Summit for a long time.

"Our goal is to be effective," Taylor said. "That might eventually mean a permanent location. Right now, though, we're very comfortable at Rockwood Summit."