For more than 25 years, the work done by Jerry Naler and other members of Southside Baptist Church’s construction team has been powered by a cross — literally.
It’s 3 feet high and made of rugged oak, old red oak that has been in Naler’s wife’s family for more than 100 years. He painted it white and put some circuits on either side, and ever since, he and others have plugged their saws and drills straight into the cross.
Naler might hang it up on a wall or even outside on a tree, wherever works best. “He’ll hook that cross up … and then you’ve got about 10 extension cords going in all different directions,” said Dan Childs, a member of Southside Baptist for 25 years and one of the team’s leaders.
Each May around Memorial Day weekend, 35–40 volunteers — predominantly members of Southside Baptist and fellow Etowah Baptist Association church Bellevue Baptist, Gadsden — haul the cross and the rest of their gear to wherever the next sanctuary or fellowship hall needs to be built.
“We’re not very creative, except for Jerry’s cross,” Childs said.
Call it an industrial-size power strip. You can even call it a gimmick. Naler doesn’t mind.
It all started with one simple idea.
“We were just always talking about the power of the cross so much. My thinking was we’d put some power in the cross,” he said. “Of course, I didn’t know I’d be carrying it to so many places at the time.”
It might be Oklahoma, Ohio or a part of Mexico where cows roam the streets.
The missions team goes where it’s needed, plugging its tools into Naler’s unassuming cross and taking care of business.
This year, the team is staying a little closer to home and is scheduled to build a new children’s building for First Baptist Church, Flomaton, in Escambia Baptist Association.
Now 68 and retired, Naler mostly handles the sawing, saying he can’t climb like he used to.
“When we get up there, we set up a saw table and Jerry, he’s our saw guy,” Childs said.
The cross has been on 23 construction sites, Naler said. “It gets pretty skint up but people like the cross. They take pictures of it. The local people write about it. We’ve had all kinds of reactions.” (TAB)
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