Christian Billboards - Gospel Shotgun
There are new Christian billboards up around Reno encouraging motorists to “pray the prayer.” You know, the sinner’s prayer. These are the same people behind other Christian billboards in town (though it shouldn’t be confused with the God Speaks national ad campaign.
Folks have already said much about the shortcomings of the sinner’s prayer. Is faith directed to the words themselves instead of Jesus? Is there pressure to get people to say the words before they understand what’s going on? But seeing the billboards this time made me think about what our purpose is as the Church. Is it to get as many people into heaven as possible? Is it to save everyone we can? If so, then this billboard campaign is great.
But why stop at billboards? Where are our radio spots and TV commercials explaining the gospel and encouraging people to pray (and truly mean it!) the sinner’s prayer or at least something like it. Why are we wasting the Church’s money on anything else except getting people to answer the most important question in the affirmative: are you going to heaven?
[tags]christianity, gospel, marketing, evangelism[/tags]
Smalls says:
September 22nd, 2007 at 3:58 pm
I agree with both thoughts on your post. when I first prayed the “prayer” I felt duped. I was upset about a guy, as usual, and the person used the moment to ask me questions about if I believed in the things they had been teaching me about God, then they said, “well, lets pray!” And within a few minutes, I was walking back into the house with her arms around me saying” Jody’s part of the family now!” Then everyone was congratulating me. I had no clue what they were all talking about. But I never said anything. My first real prayer came about during my first winter retreat with EFree, all by myself, after learning what a Duloss was. That is greek for something like a willing slave. Total surrender.
So that prayer was more like “the prayer” We can’t just throw it around, we really need to make sure the people understand it.
And as for the ads, we do need to take advantage of all the media.
kenny says:
September 25th, 2007 at 7:57 am
I go back and forth, and sometimes I hate corny stuff, particularly stuff that may have a harmful side-effect, BUT, I’m currently favoring pretty much any expression that preaches the Gospel.
I’m basing this on 1) our inability to ever escape our fallibility, which means nothing we ever do is going to be quite right, and 2) the thing Paul said when he found out that some were preaching Christ from a bad motive, which was essentially ‘as long as Christ is being preached, then I thank God.’ (similarly, Jesus said ‘whoever is not against us is for us’).
Is the Gospel bigger than the sinner’s prayer? Yeah, but is the sinner’s prayer part of the Gospel? I think, ‘yeah.’
rob says:
September 25th, 2007 at 7:58 am
Being in marketing has giving me a bit of a different standpoint on these billboards. I feel as though they are a waste of time. I highly doubt that someone driving to work will be “convicted” and say a prayer because of a billboard. In our culture, times are changing. People are getting exhausted of the Christian influence. Moreover, it’s become apparent, especially at Coram Deo that servant evangelism is where it’s at.
jose says:
September 27th, 2007 at 11:18 am
I’m just not excited blanketing the city with the gospel via the media. They’re like gospel tracts to me. God can certainly work through them, but it’s better for me—for me—to share the gospel in an act of kindness.
It’s about $1000 to $2500 a month for a billboard in town with a contract for six months. What else could we do with $6000 to further the kingdom of God?
jose says:
September 27th, 2007 at 11:23 am
Kenny, I agree. Heaven is still part of the gospel. Being saved from God’s hellish wrath is still part of the gospel. I know that part. I’ve heard that part clearly since before I’ve been a Christian. I just don’t hear much about the other part.
kenny says:
September 28th, 2007 at 7:49 am
One problem with things like tracts and billboards might be that they actually build people’s resistance to Christ, the way an immunization builds a person’s resistance to a sickness. By giving people just a little, but not enough to really win them over, it might cause them to develop their defenses against more fully-fleshed out attempts to share the Gospel.
If $6,000 would buy a soul, I’d say it’s a deal. But, I don’t think it works that way.