about church of the cross

Church of the Cross began with planter, Zac Hicks, along with pastors Doug Webster and Jess Leslie, in the Summer of 2022. Beginning in the Fall, a Core Team of approximately 20 people met in the Hicks home twice a month to begin praying, studying Scripture, and discerning our vision and mission together in preparation for launch in the new year. In addition to preparing the Core Team for launch, the leaders of Church of the Cross spent the fall developing relationships and raising support from sister churches in Birmingham and the greater southeast. On January 8, 2023, Church of the Cross began weekly worship services in the fellowship hall of Cahaba Heights United Methodist Church.

Though we still very much feel like a church plant, in August 2025 we became an established local church in our denomination, which includes having a formal membership and local elders. Scroll down for more about us.

We exist to receive and proclaim the good news of Jesus,

to follow his way,

and to invite others to do the same.

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WHO WE ARE

leadership TEAM

Zac Hicks, Pastor
Jess Leslie, Pastor of Worship & Care
Natalie Lett, Student Ministry Coordinator
Nate Bass, Student Ministry Intern
Grayson Bartlett, Sunday Kids Ministry Coordinator
Kim MacCorkle, Nursery Coordinator

Church of the Cross is led by a body of elders called a “Session,” which is comprised of our two pastors, along with elders Gordon Bals and Carolyn Lankford.

what to expect

We worship at 4pm in the sanctuary of Cahaba Heights United Methodist Church. Our services are an opportunity to learn more about our values and liturgy, as well as meet some of the people that make up our body. Here are some things you can expect:

  • Coffee and snacks are available beginning at 3:30pm.

  • Our services last between 85 and 90 minutes.

  • We are liturgical: our services have an overall structure and shape. We often pray together the same prayers each week, we follow the church calendar year, and we draw all these things from the Book of Common Prayer alongside various global liturgies. Some of our liturgy is printed, but most of it is projected onto screens. Whether you’ve never experienced liturgy before or use it regularly, we aim to make this approachable.

  • We are sacramental: we celebrate the Lord’s Supper every Sunday.

  • We are Bible-based: we read passages of Scripture, and we preach sermons based on the Bible and centered on its main message: the gospel of Jesus Christ.

  • We value singing: within our liturgy we sing groups of songs ranging from historic hymns to modern worship music.

  • We value engaging our whole selves: we strive to participate fully—mind, body, spirit, and emotions—which means that we try to engage in various postures, like kneeling and lifting our hands, and fostering an emotionally healthy worship environment.

  • We are prayerful: in addition to our corporate prayers, we provide space for people to pray for one another, especially during Communion, believing that the Holy Spirit leads and answers all kinds of prayer—praise, thanksgiving, help, healing, confession.

Childcare: We value the sounds and noises of our little kids in worship and aren’t bothered by it. We have activity bags for young kids if they need them, we also have two nurseries (0-24 mo, 24 mo - 3 yrs) led by caring, trained, and qualified workers, overseen by our Nursery Coordinator, Kim MacCorkle.

We care deeply about the safety and protection of our children, and from the beginning we have adopted and abide by a strong Child Protection Policy, which we invite you to read.

what we believe

Church of the Cross is a Christian church in the tradition of the Protestant Reformation. We believe the Scriptures to be the infallible Word of God and our final authority in faith and practice, and we find the historic creeds of the early church (the Apostles’ Creed and Nicene Creed) to be vital expressions of the most important tenets of the global church universal.

We are a member of a denomination:
the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC).

You can read more about the beliefs of churches in the EPC here.