Horizon Christian Congregants Share 'The Way of the Cross'

Richard Deaton said his favorite part of his church’s annual cross walk is “watching the people’s faces” as they witness events unfolding through their tour of the makeshift streets of greater Jerusalem.

“People are really tough, like the bunch of bikers who came through last night, you’ll see them crying,” Deaton said. “And then you see the little kids, challenging us, as Roman soldiers [as we go about our work].”

For Deaton and his fellow Horizon Christian Church congregants, the annual “Walk the Way of the Cross” is their gift back to the community, a way to remember the Christian message behind the Easter season.

• For a view of the cross walk, visit .

“So far we've had 38 salvations and 50 redirections,” Dave Chamberlain, the event’s director, told his cast of congregants before the first tour of the final night of the 2012 cross walk.

"Salvations" refers to people new to Christ, churchgoer Dina Gerner said. "Redirection" means a return to the fold.

“So, we can bring people to Christ, that’s what we’re called to do,” Chamberlain added, in his speech to cast members. “It isn’t essential they come back to this building. It is essential that they maintain their relationship with Jesus Christ.”

If the event seems familiar to Brandon residents, there’s good reason. It does hark back to the “Walk Through Bethlehem” event that has been a perennial production at Kings Avenue Baptist Church. At one time, the event was hosted at Central Baptist Church.

“I was involved for years with the Central Baptist 'Walk Through Bethlehem,'” said Horizon Christian Church  Pastor Scott Riggs. “We thought we should do something for Easter, different, but still a full-on production.”

The aim was to “not just walk,” he added, but to also have the story, and the dialogue, “evolving around you.”

“We wanted it to be as realistic as possible,” from the triumphant entry to the Resurrection, Riggs said. “We’ve been building sets for three months, and 150 people perform. If we can bring one person to know the Lord and to have a relationship with Jesus Christ, then it’s all worth it.”

Having a vision is one thing. Bringing the production to life is another.

Riggs remembers the night when he broached the subject over dinner to Chamberlain, who immediately mapped out on a couple of napkins the preliminary plans for the cross walk.

“It’s a good opportunity to show people what Christ really meant to them,” said Brian Spurlock, who played a Roman soldier this year. “That’s the whole reason I do it, seeing the reactions on the visitors’ faces. It’s good to be allowed to depict [the Easter story] to people that way.”

The event, held on church grounds over Easter weekend and the weekend before, draws hundreds of visitors from the Greater Brandon community, who in turn lift the missionary mindset of the Horizon Christian congregants.

But that’s not all, Riggs said, noting that the production forges deeper connections and lasting friendships within the church itself.

“People who don’t know each other, or they knew each other only by look, by working on this together, now there are relationships forged, sometimes for a lifetime,” Riggs said.

That’s the case for Kathy Baughman, Deb Adams and Ruth Garcia, who in their costumes for their roles as Jewish women bearing witness to the carrying of the cross, took a moment to reflect on the walk’s meaning in their lives.

“It’s important being a part of the community, and if it brings people to Christ, it’s an awesome thing,” Baughman said.

Added Adams: “And the time we get to share, getting to know each other better, it’s absolutely awesome. It’s a real bonus.”

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What To Know About Horizon Christian:

(The following information was taken from the church's Web site. For more, visit www.horizonchristianchurch.com)

• Horizon Christian Church stands on a former orange grove in Valrico.
• Four decades before groundbreaking, in December 2001, the church's roots took hold in Brandon.
  
• In 1961, founder A.B. McReynolds planted the seeds for an independent Christian church. Thirty-three people attended the first meeting Jan. 29, 1962, beginning a monthlong revival in a cramped VFW Hall.
• Within two months, the originally named First Christian Church of Brandon purchased land on nearby New Hope Road. As construction continued, the first service was held there in May 1963.
• McReynolds led a succession of fulltime ministers at the church, which became known as a "preacher killer." That reputation began to fade Easter Sunday in 1994, when current minister Scott Riggs launched a record tenure in the pulpit.

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