First Baptist Church Holds Cross-Raising

Members of the First Baptist Church of Mesquite participated in an old-fashioned cross raising on Saturday, Nov. 19 in front of the church building on Hafen Lane in Mesquite.

The church members fashioned the crosses out of repurposed wooden utility poles. Then they worked together, in the old way by man- and woman-power to install them in front of the church.

Nearly a year ago, the church acquired the old ARCON building near the corner of Hafen Lane and Riverside Drive. The church traded the building with the city for their former church property on Hardy Way.

The ARCON Building was once a hospital/clinic/medical facility for the community. After Mesa View Regional Hospital was built, the location was occupied for a time by the Southern Nevada Health District.

Since the acquiring the property last year, the congregation has spent the past year in making renovations to the building. They have diligently remodeled the old doctors offices into a beautiful church setting.

But church members still felt that the outside appearance of the building had more of an institutional feel than that of a church. So the congregants went to work in addressing that issue as well. They recently finished installing new lettering designating it as “First Baptist Church”. Then the church members decided to install the three crosses.

The image of the three crosses runs deeper than just a symbol of the church and its Christian beliefs. First Baptist Church Pastor Bill Stevenson said that they were also part of an overall vision he had experienced for his congregation when he first began ministering at the church 20 years ago.

“Back in 2000, we started in this ministry with a congregation of only a handful of people,” Stevenson said. “At that time, I shared a vision with that group that we would someday have a ministry village to help fill the community’s needs.”

Stevenson said that his vision included three crosses set on a hill which could be easily seen throughout the community.
“In my vision, people moving here or passing through on I-15 would see those three crosses and know that Jesus lives in Mesquite, Nevada,” Richardson said. “It was a pretty strong vision.”

Stevenson recognized these three crosses which now stand in front of the church as a fulfillment of his vision so many years ago.
“We finally got the three crosses now,” he said. “Though they are not on a hill, still this site is on five acres. That is plenty to build our ministry village. So it is another step forward toward that vision.”
Stevenson said that the slogan for First Baptist Church has become: “Serving God by serving community.”
“That is our focus,” he said. “We have our eye on serving God by serving those around us.”

The church has already established the Virgin Valley Food Bank located on Second South.
The church also gathers used medical equipment to provide a donation bank for those in need of it.

“Those in the community who might need medical equipment of some kind, they can certainly check our campus at First Baptist,” Stevenson said. “That is the goal of our ministry village: to be a place where if someone comes to us in need of something we can help provide it. And we are only just getting started.”