It has been 16 years since the baptist church has had a captain at the helm, but now Alan Cossgrove is becoming a familiar face in the community.

Mr Cossgrove will keep the seat warm until a permanent pastor can be allocated for the Cooper Street church.

But he says he has big plans for his time in the community.

"Church shouldn't be open for two hours on Sunday. There are groups in the community who can't afford a premises so we want to open the doors," Mr Cossgrove said.

"Our motto would be: 'the church in the heart of the community with the community on its heart'."

The church is currently running five weekly sessions of Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and Gamblers Anonymous.

"The big epidemic in any community today is loneliness. We need to reach out to those people, and offer friendship and companionship. We have to work out how we can help them," Mr Cossgrove said.

"We aren't just here for Sunday for people to come and worship. We want to find out how we can bridge the gap."

Parishioner Les Wells said the congregation was "quite excited" to welcome Mr Cossgrove.

"It's quite different after 16 years without a pastor," Mr Wells said.

But a new pastor isn't the only big change for the church.

The baptist church found a new home after a blaze destroyed their building on the corner of Hall and Quarrybylong streets, Aberdare in 2017.

Mr Wells said they had spent some time searching for the right home until they stumbled upon the former Presbyterian Church.

"It's the same age and has a lot of similarities to our previous building," he said.

"We decided we would go elsewhere but the congregation weren't very happy. Then we decided to check out this building and were very impressed.

"It's very exciting for our community. We should officially own this building in the coming months."