Birmingham Cathedral of the Cross pastor Mark Correll remembered at funeral

When megachurch Pastor Mark Correll came up with ideas to draw in the crowds, his big ideas often turned dramatic.

Correll, who was pastor of Cathedral of the Cross in Center Point from 1993-2007, died on March 18. He was 70.

Hundreds of friends and family gathered to remember Correll in a service March 24 that lasted more than two hours at Metropolitan Church of God.

“He was out-of-the-box, hair-on-fire, pedal-to-the-medal non-stop,” said the Rev. Armand Egnew, who was associate pastor at Cathedral of the Cross while Correll was pastor.

Correll once came up with the idea of decorating Cathedral of the Cross, an 8,000-seat circular building in Center Point, as the Roman Colosseum, “with lions, tigers and gladiators,” Egnew said.

“He put cars in the church and Harleys on the stage,” Egnew said of other themes for sermons.

For Halloween in 1994, Correll came up with a “Judgment House” featuring a wrecked airplane fuselage, a realistic-looking DC-3 protruding from the back of the church. It was called Air Omega Flight 777, a dramatization of an airplane crash and the afterlife to give people a taste of the ultimate fear - death and damnation.

Group tours arrived in the lobby, set up to look like an airport terminal. The group experienced a crash, then proceeded to heaven, and then to hell, where a demon flew down from a cable and knocked the pilot off a 20-foot stage drop onto a safety-padded landing amidst explosions. After they had hell scared into them, people participating in this evangelical version of the haunted house went to a counseling session where they were encouraged to get right with God.

It was so popular, the church had to take reservations at $3 per person, and more than 3,000 paid to go through it.

Egnew recalls the first sermon he heard Correll preach featured a box of “messages from Satan” on the pulpit with “return to sender” marked on it. Correll kicked the box into the audience.

People sitting close to the pulpit had to be ready, he said.

“He was going to hit you with something or kiss you on the head,” Egnew said.

When Correll became pastor of Cathedral of the Cross in 1993, he inherited a mostly empty 8,000-seat church in Center Point and a $14 million debt.

Correll quickly built back the membership and paid off bondholders over the next three years, taking the church out of bankruptcy.

By the time Correll preached his last sermon as senior pastor at Cathedral of the Cross in 2007, the church had weekly attendance of 3,500 and was one of the largest Assembly of God congregations in the nation.

“He unified the church,” Egnew said.

“He came with so much passion, so much energy,” said retired businessman Rod McSweeney, who was a member of Cathedral of the Cross when Correll was pastor.

McSweeney recalled going to do street outreach at the Five Points South fountain with Correll, who said there were satanic influences at work there. He had a gift for spiritual warfare against demonic influences, McSweeney said.

“That guy was fearless,” McSweeney said. “Our church became so bold, on fire for God.”

Correll was born Sept. 28, 1954, in Hazleton, Pennsylvania, was raised Catholic and served as an altar boy in his youth. Correll had an accounting degree from Pennsylvania State University and worked as a controller for a printing company for 10 years.

Correll gave up his business career to become senior pastor at Bellwood (Pa.) Assembly of God in 1988, then moved to Parkway Christian Fellowship in Huffman in 1990 to succeed founder Bob Smith as senior pastor.

When Correll was a child, his father was reading to him from the Book of Genesis when they saw a meteorite zoom down from the sky and hit a nearby tree. Correll went and got it, still smoking and warm, and the Hazleton newspaper did a story on him retrieving the meteorite. It was later given to Pennsylvania State University to study, said his son, Mark A. Correll, who spoke along with his sisters, Cassie and Bethany.

“I really believe there was a divine purpose to his life,” the son said.

Pastor Correll led 45 trips to Israel and knew the streets of Jerusalem better than he did Birmingham, he said. Correll and Sheryl, his wife of 49 years, traveled extensively. Correll took mission trips to Romania, Jamaica, Russia and Zaire as well as Israel.

In 2007, Correll stepped down as senior pastor of Cathedral of the Cross to become an international evangelist with plans to set up an Assemblies of God college branch in Israel.

But he soon found out he had Stage IV lymphoma cancer. He underwent treatment off and on for 17 years, rallying at times, defying the odds. Recently he got COVID and pneumonia and was unable to bounce back.

“He was so proud of his family,” daughter Bethany said. “My Dad’s life exemplified the love of Christ.”

Birmingham pastor remembered for popular megachurch decorations, sermons: ‘Unified the church’

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