Responding to Bad Billboards
Are billboards an effective way of advertising? Maybe they work for Toyota to market their new SUV, or Warner Bros to market their blockbuster summer film. But are they effective for a church? What about an anti-church?
In an article titled “Atheist billboard provokes Oklahoman Christians” the Associated Press explains how a billboard paid for by the local atheist club has provoked reaction from the community:
Nick Singer, the coordinator of a local atheists’ group called “Coalition of Reason,” recently received $5,250 from its national counterpart to erect the billboard along Interstate 44 near the Oklahoma State Fair, which opens Wednesday. Its message reads, “Don’t believe in God? Join the club.”
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Similar billboards were recently put up in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Texas and Washington.
“The billboard was designed to get a little bit of a response, but it’s not meant to be directly insulting,” Singer said. “It’s just a sign to like-minded people that we are here.”
I imagine that it’s difficult to recruit people to join this sort of club. Typically people join clubs with people who share interest in common activities. Someone might join a basketball club, but I can’t imagine someone joining a “I don’t play basketball” club. If someone just didn’t believe in God, I don’t think they would want to join a club based on that non-belief. Rather such a club would be based on anti-God (or anti-church/religion) sentiments rather than mere lack of belief. Lack of belief alone is rarely sufficient incentive to action.
Beyond that though, this story caused me to wonder how church outreach efforts are perceived by the world around us. Is putting up billboards with “Avoid Hell! Repent! Trust Jesus today!” really an effective way to spend money? This sort of message makes sense to someone who already knows who Jesus is, recognizes that such a thing as sin exists, etc. However to the vast majority of people in our society today this message makes no sense at best, and is considered offensive and deeply off-putting at worst.
Don’t get me wrong, I have no interest in diluting gospel truth. However, I agree with Greg Koukl when he said “The Gospel is offensive enough; don’t add any more offense to it. But we dare not remove the offense inherent to the Gospel. Our approach as ambassadors should always be temperate when possible.” We now need to be engaged in “pre-evangelism,” on one hand trying to wisely overcome the false presuppositions of our society while on the other hand seeking to overcome the negative experiences many people have had with Christians behaving badly in the past.
If you’re interested in learning a new approach to pre-evangelism (that doesn’t replace the “four laws” but rather opens the way to a person having a receptive attitude to it) check out the Soul Cravings Experience area of our website. Even a person who is negatively predisposed to faith, God, or the church still has soul cravings which cannot be adequately quenched by the things of this world, so this provides a window of opportunity to discussing the Person who gave them these cravings and is the only adequate fulfillment of them.
Other recommended resources:
- Having trouble talking to friends about Jesus? – Contact an online mentor to talk about it.
- Outreach in your spare time online – TruthMedia has many part-time volunteer opportunities available!
- Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing your Christian Convictions – A great book on how to discuss faith issues with others and how to respond to questions or objections even when you don’t have all the answers.
