October 1, 2026
DAHLONEGA, Ga. — When senior pastor Charlie Mayberry and deacon Carl Gibson arrived at Dahlonega Baptist Church early Friday morning to prepare for the weekend’s services, they noticed something unusual leaning against the front of the church.
It was a wooden cross.
“Early this morning, as Good Friday dawned, something special happened at our church,” Mayberry wrote in a Facebook post.
At first, Mayberry did not know where it had come from or who had left it. But as he and Gibson got closer, they saw a note handwritten on the cross.
Curious about what had happened, Mayberry reviewed security camera footage and found images of a young man walking across the church parking lot carrying the cross, placing it at the front entrance, and bending down to write a message on it.
The note said that the young man had carried the cross as part of a Good Friday tradition and hoped it might be a blessing to Dahlonega Baptist during Easter weekend. According to the note, the youth from his church carry the cross until they grow weary and then find a place for it.
At first, the church knew the young man only by the name he had written on the cross, Brendan.
“God drew Brendan to DBC,” Mayberry wrote. “He shared that he was leaving the cross in hopes it would bless us and that we could use it this Easter and hopefully continue its journey next year.”
The church decided the cross should become part of its Good Friday service. It was brought inside, placed at the front altar, and adorned with a crown of thorns.
“At the beginning of that service, we shared its story and read Brendan’s message aloud. It really touched all in attendance,” Mayberry said.
Through social media, the church was later able to identify the young man as Brendan Burgess, with Gibson helping connect the dots.
After Dahlonega Baptist posted images from the security footage, along with photos from the service, interest spread quickly on Facebook. Burgess saw the post and responded.
Burgess said he had no idea the church would use the cross he left in its service that same day, "but that’s super awesome and I love it! I’m so glad it’s got a good home!”
Burgess told The Christian Index on Tuesday that he has been taking part in cross walks for about six years through his home church, The Chapel at FishHawk in Florida. He said he built the cross himself, brought it with him to Georgia while attending a wedding, and intended from the start to walk with it and leave it somewhere.
Usually, Burgess said, the cross walk is done with a group, with participants passing the cross along as they get tired. This time, however, he was alone.
“I walked around the square, and then I just decided that’s where I was gonna leave it,” he said.
He was surprised by the response that followed. “Well, I didn’t expect all that for sure,” Burgess said. “It was pretty surreal.”
Burgess's father also commented on the church's Facebook post. “Every year we do a cross walk in our community and Brendan leads it,” Hootie Burgess wrote. “This year we were apart but he wanted to continue.”
The post drew appreciative responses from people who said they had been blessed by Brendan’s witness and by the way the church received and used the cross.
“You are a special young man. The Cross is a blessing to our church,” one commenter wrote.
Another said, “You are a true Follower of Jesus Christ.”
Others described Brendan’s act as “an incredible witness” and “a beautiful story told with this cross.”
Mayberry said Brendan’s act resonated with the church and the wider community.
“The arrival of the cross took on a tremendous amount of interest and excitement,” he said.
Burgess, for his part, said he does not want attention for himself. He said he hopes the cross walk serves as a simple act of outreach that points people to Christ.
“I don’t want any credit,” he said. “A lot of people will see it and ask, ‘What’s that for?’ and then they search it and figure it out.”
The church left the cross at the altar through both Good Friday and Easter services and plans to place it in the youth area. Mayberry said it had already blessed the church, and the congregation is now prayerfully considering where it might go next Easter.
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