Confirmation Crosses

You may have noticed the wall of crosses in the narthex above the table where you get your coffee or hot tea on Sunday mornings.  It’s easy to see them and think that they are just a design choice that someone made to fill up that wall.  And while the crosses are beautiful, and certainly have begun to fill up that wall, you should know that each cross is unique in design and was selected with intention.

Each cross represents a student that has gone through the confirmation process.  In 2022, our current Student Ministry Director, Peggy Ingram, began this new tradition.  She, along with one or two staff members, use their knowledge about the confirmation students and select a cross that they believe the student would like, but that also represents that student’s personality.  

But let’s back up just a minute.  Peggy and those staff members also reach out to various small groups, teams, or individuals, to ask if they would agree to pray over each confirmation student as they go through the process of confirmation.  Each student is assigned an individual or couple within the church that dedicates their time to pray for the student. Those prayer partners receive the cross that is selected for the student and they pray over that cross.  They pray for that student’s wisdom, family, grades, and anything else that the student might need prayer for.  It is a worthy and humble calling.

On Confirmation Sunday, these crosses are presented to the students.  However, the students do not take the crosses home.  The crosses are hung on the cross wall in the narthex as a visual reminder to us that these students are the next generation of the church, to continue to pray for them as they prepare to transform the world.  When these students graduate from high school, they will be given their individual cross to take with them wherever they go next with the knowledge that this congregation has faithfully and ceaselessly prayed for them.  And when these students look at their cross, they will know that they always have a home at Heritage.

So, the next time you walk by that wall, pause for a moment and look at those crosses.  Really see them.  They aren’t just decor.  They are students that we are raising up to transform the world with the love of Jesus.