While some of them may have considered it the best way to spend their Good Friday, members of Easthaven Baptist Church in Brookhaven, Mississippi, dedicated a 150-foot-tall cross on March 29.
The cross, which is reportedly the largest cross in the state, is one of the newest of 14 others of similar magnitude scattered across the state. Hundreds attended the formal dedication ceremony. The cross, which cost approximately $200,000 to construct, was erected on the church’s property and is visible from I-55.
Jim Futral, executive director/treasurer emeritus of the Mississippi Baptist Convention Board, shared during the ceremony, “I can’t think of a ‘gooder’ place to be on Good Friday than at the foot of the cross, reflecting on the sacrifice that Jesus made for you and for me.”
Perfect timing
Pastor Hal Kitchings shared how the project has been in the works for the past two years.
“We’d wanted to have the cross up by the end of last year,” Kitchings noted, “but weather and other things kept that from happening. It ended up being completed right around Easter — and that was a big deal.”
While the church and many in the community have rallied around the project through various donations, not all of the media coverage has been what the pastor would describe as positive.
“It’s not my cross,” said Kitchings, referencing the headline “A pastor defends his cross.” “They say things like the cross is the largest one in the state, and that’s what they want to talk about.”
Kitchings shared about people in the community who had donated to the project, some anonymously, others in memory or honor of loved ones. “There was one individual who goes to another church but shared that God had blessed him financially.” That individual donated $65,000 toward landscaping and other needs.
Kitchings quoted 1 Corinthians 1:18, which is written at the foot of the church’s new cross:
“For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” (ESV)
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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story, edited for brevity and length, was written by Tony Martin and originally published by The Baptist Record.
