Billboard controversy

When was the last time you saw a church advertise on a bulletin board as you were cruising around town? A church in Houston used billboards creatively to advertise a new sermon series that they were starting on marriage. They rented several billboards around town and simply put on the billboard the website www.mybadmarriage.com. They then set up a very attractive website at that address that included many funny stories and jokes about marriage and an overview of the upcoming message series with an invitation to attend. Did it work? In the two weeks the billboards were up, their website got more than 1,000,000 hits. As people drove by the billboards every day, curiosity got the best of them. Was this some poor dude who was married to a real loser and was airing it all out or was this the mastermind of a divorce lawyer who was trying to drum up business? Whatever the motive, over a million people surfed their way to their site and as a result they had more visitors for that sermon series than any other they had done previously.

Recently, a church in Mishawaka, IN tried the same thing. This is a church that I am somewhat familiar with as it is very close to where I use to pastor. In fact, Bryan Nelson who is our Worship Arts Director here at Grace Church, and I visited this ministry last summer. Granger Community Church and Pastor Beeson is getting ready to start a new series on what the Bible really teaches about sex. The series is also designed to help unbelievers see their need for a personal relationship with Jesus as well as learning Biblical principles of intimacy. They have rented four billboards around town. The billboards have a picture of two sets of feet sticking out from bed sheets with the only wording being the website that is something like http://www.mylamesexlife.com/.

As you might be able to imagine, these billboards have created some controversy. In fact, just last week, Pastor Beeson was interviewed nationally on the FOX News morning show. I was unable to watch the interview but my wife did and told me that it was terrific. She said the Pastor Beeson did a wonderful job of sharing what the intent of the entire marketing plan was all about – introducing people to Jesus Christ.

So, did Granger Community Church cross the line? Well, we could debate that all night. Personally, I appreciate their attempt to get lost people under the sound of the Gospel. After all, the Bible has much to say about the topic of sex. For some reason we have the mistaken idea that all that the Bible says about sex is “Don’t do it unless it’s with your spouse!” The truth is that the Bible has much more to say about creating fulfilling intimacy in one’s marriage. It’s a study worth communicating. Our world desperately needs to hear it. So does that mean that Grace Church is going to slap up controversial billboards in a marketing attempt to bring more people into our church? We may use billboards. We may use lots of tools. But let’s never forget that the number one reason why people who do not attend church stay home on Sunday isn’t because they missed seeing a billboard or failed to get connected with a creative marketing tool. The number one reason why unchurched people do not go to church is simply this . . . because nobody ever invited them. Folks, like it or not, you are the best billboard Grace Church has!