Making a Cross

When I first read Tony Miano’s two part (part one, part two) blog entry on standing on a street corner with a cross, I thought, I could/would never do that. Since then, I’ve seen a number of Tony’s additional posts as well as posts of several other brothers in Christ who have also made crosses and gone and stood up for Christ on street corners. I have gotten a lot of inspiration by Mark’s regular blog entries about his experience standing on the corner with his cross. I gleaned a lot of information from Jeff’s blog on how to make a cross and his experiences standing on the street with it as well.

Over the past couple of months, I’ve prayed about this and read blog posts and facebook updates by others that are on the streets holding crosses and standing up for Christ in that way. Day by day, I’ve felt God tugging at my heart and asking me to take the same stand. At the same time, I’ve been going door to door in Carrollton, Texas in order to reach the city for Christ. While doing that, I’ve also been praying about other ways to reach the city for Christ. It alls seems to be pointing towards the cross and using a cross to point others to Christ.

I prayed about what saying to put on the cross when I made one.  Tony’s says “Are You Ready” and Mark’s says that plus “Mark 1:15” which says “and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.'” (ESV). Then I read in Mark’s blog a comment that suggested the cross could say “Repent” and “Believe”. It hit me that that was the message to put on the cross!

I began thinking about how to make a cross. I started talking with some others about it. Some were supportive. Others not so much. Yet, the tug on my heart to make a cross and go stand on a street corner with it remained.

Over the past couple of weeks, I started looking at materials, stencils, etc.  I got an idea in my head of how to make it. Last week when my new ministry partner, Duane, was in town, I mentioned the idea to him and suggested that we could make a cross out of 2x4s that were at another friends house. Duane said, “let’s do it!” On Sunday we went to the local Home Depot picked up some stencils and decided it could be made with some 2×4’s. Then I picked up the 2×4’s from my friends house and brought them home.

So this evening I built a cross.

I used three 2x4s to make the cross. I was not sure exactly how big to make it. So I used an very precise way to figure it out! I put the stencil on the wood to spell out REPENT and BELIEVE and then figured out how much space I wanted between them. This made the cross bar 3.5 feet (42 inches).

With the width set, then the proportion to the height is roughly 3×5, so I made the height 5.5 feet (66 inches). This next picture shows the cross pieces laid out on the floor. I wanted the cross to be square. Not just one 2×4 nailed on top of the other. So essentially what I did was to lay the upright beam on the ground and then put the cross beam over it. I then cut pieces to go from the cross beam to the bottom and the cross beam to the top. These pieces were then nailed into place.

Finally, I cut pieces to go under the cross beam and nailed them in place. The cross beam slides into place and stays put. I had originally intended to put a bolt to hold the cross beam in place. But, that will not be necessary. The nice thing is that the cross comes apart so will be easier to transport in my car. Here is a picture of me with the cross.

The last step which is not completed yet is to put the words on it. I tried to paint “REPENT” with the stencils, but the paint ran under the stencil. So I cut a new cross bar and with the help of my son built a new cross bar. My wife is making cut out letters and will modge podge them onto the cross for me. One side will say “REPENT” and “BELIEVE” on the cross bar. The other side will have “WWW” and “COM” on the cross bar along with “After Life Catalog” going down. This is a reference to our outreach web site. So in addition to people being able to view the cross, they can see the web site and go look it up at home. This final picture shows how the lettering looks laid out on one side of the cross.

If all goes well, the lettering will be in place in a couple of days. Duane will be in town until the 30th. So sometime between now and then we will be on a street corner with the cross. I’ll post an update with our expereince when that happens! Your prayers are appreciated.