“Here’s the church, here’s the steeple” goes the nursery game that ends with joined hands turned inward to reveal “Open the door, here’s all the people.”
But what to do when the iconic building loses its steeple?
That’s what happened at Spur’s First Baptist Church when insurance required us to the congregation to take down its tall spire because it wasn’t properly grounded, according to pastor Rory Mosley. “But we wanted to figure out a way to make sure the building still bore the resemblance of an obvious house of worship, he said.
The idea came to build a cross and place it against the building, Mosley said. Members went in search of giant beams and found a generous man in Claude, Texas, who actually donated a few beams to the cause. Mosley resurfaced them and then hand-hewed them so they’d look old, and constructed the cross from them.
“Several men from our church (Willie Neufeld, Derek Bilberry, Chris Horn, Les Heflin) helped with adding lights to the back of it, building brackets, and installing it,” Mosley said. “It should light up every night provided everything goes according to plan!”
The cross beams are 13 inches square and made of white oak. The finished cross stands 17’6” tall and is 13 feet wide. Weight, said Mosley, “is anyone’s guess!”
