HAMILTON — Jake Jacobs, director of church ministries for Princeton Pike Church of God, said his church family has offered to help Solid Rock Church officials in any way it can after the Monroe church lost its iconic King of Kings statue to a fire late Monday night, June 14.

“I know what a shrine that was to the community and also to everyone that would see it on the interstate,” he said.

Anyone who has seen the statue, he said, remembers it. For him, he said the “overwhelming response of Jesus with hands raised” causes him to want to worship and praise whenever he saw it.

“It would always speak all kinds of things,” he said, calling it a “reflection of something that just stays in your mind forever and ever.”

“What a piece of artwork that just gets your attention,” Jacobs said. “It’s something that when you see it, it’s always embedded in your mind.”

Indeed, the statue was memorable to those across the Tri-State.

It “was a landmark and it had such a good place on 75,” said Reily Twp. resident Marilyn Garner, 75. “It added to the city of Monroe.”

Said 41-year-old Oxford resident Kimberly McAllister: “When I heard about it, my first thought was ‘How am I going to find Monroe now?’ ”

Others had more dire reactions about lightning striking the statue.

“I think it’s a sign of the end of the world,” said Paul Wright, 21, of Oxford. “If lightning is going to strike God, then there’s no hope.”

Keith Lewis of Middletown showed up at the church just after 7 a.m. Tuesday with a camera in hand to take some shots of the remains. His wife, Stephanie, sent him.

“It has been a landmark in this area for a long time,” Lewis said. “She said she wanted picture of what was left.”

A guitarist, Lewis said he has learned to play comedian Heywood Banks’ song about the statue, “Big Butter Jesus,” and has also had his picture taking in front with his hands in the air.

Was the statue an oddity or inspiration to Lewis?

“Really a little of both,” he said, noting he doesn’t believe the nicknames were meant with any disrespect. “Kind of do hope they rebuild it.”

Church member Cassie Browning, 27, of Dayton, said she was driving north on I-75 on her way back from Tennessee when she and her family saw smoke and noticed the statue missing. “It meant so much to so many people,” Browning said. “The statue can be destroyed and gone, but Jesus can’t be.”