I’ve been doing a lot of thinking recently about the value of billboards for ‘religious’ advertising.

I was curious to learn on the weekend about this new campaign by an Islamic group to “find common ground between Christians and Muslims”. It reminded me of a few other billboard campaigns in Australia and around the world, and inspired me to see what others had done.

Here’s a collection of Islamic, Christian and atheist billboard campaigns. If you’ve seen others, feel free to share them by posting a link in the comments section below. What do you think about these campaigns?

Don’t believe in God? Join the club.

Read more about this campaign here.

Jesus loves Osama.

Read more about this campaign here.

We are all atheists.

This campaign ran other creative – check it out here.

Poor Joseph.

Read more about this campaign here.

Jesus: a prophet of Islam.

Read more about this campaign here.

Satan hates life.

Read more about this campaign here.

You know it’s a myth.

Read more about this campaign here.

God is.

Read more about this campaign here.

My lame sex life.

Read more about this campaign here and here.

Want a better world?

Jesus.

I agree. This billboard is an eyesore.

This weekend, my church ran a Winter Appeal – collecting food, toiletries, clothing and money for those in need this winter, to be distributed by Anglicare. We produced postcards and did a letterbox drop to invite the community to participate. By the looks of the piles of bags in the office this morning, the appeal was a success.

However, I got thinking yesterday (admittedly a little late for this year’s appeal) about how these appeals can be used more effectively by people in our churches.

I don’t know if this is true of your church, but most of the people who attend Church by the Bridge don’t live in the local area. Their neighbours won’t have received a postcard with the details of this appeal. And while we promote the appeals to the people in our local community (with growing awareness and engagement), there is a lot of potential to use these appeals to develop relationships in the communities where the members of our church live and work.

So here’s an idea – produce two postcards.

1. The first postcard is for the local community and distributed via letterbox drop, to let them know that there is an appeal and they are invited to participate (i.e. the same postcard and approach used this year).
2. The second postcard is for church members to hand out to their neighbours (e.g. slip under the door of other apartments in the building) and colleagues. The call to action is a little different – “my church is running a Winter Appeal to collect toiletries, clothing and money for those in need this winter. If you’d like to participate but can’t deliver to the church, please feel free to give your donation to me, and I’ll take it in on your behalf.” The postcard could include space for them to write their contact details and the dates when they can collect goods.

The benefits of this second approach are:

• Connects people with their neighbours (e.g. people could knock on nearby doors and hand people the postcards personally), providing the opportunity for ongoing relationships.
• Promotes the good work that Anglicare is doing, to a broader range of people than just those people who live in the parish.
• Provides people with an easy way to participate and help those in need.
• More donations are collected for Anglicare.

What do you think? Would this approach be worthwhile?

‘I Wish This Was‘ is an interesting concept of civic engagement. You can order blank stickers (see examples below), and then stick it on an abandoned storefront with the details of what you’d like to ‘move in’ there.

Can you imagine if our churches were such a positive influence on our local communities, that people actually wanted more churches to exist?! If we were seen by the local community as more valuable than a grocery store, or a shoe store, or a news- agency?!

Sadly, we’re not there yet. But this project reminds me of what churches are called to be – not a hideout for Christians, but a beacon of light, hope and justice in a dark world.