The latest poster from Outreach Media – the first of a two-part set focusing on forgiveness:
Tag Archive - posters
Not another brochure
When I’m considering offline (i.e. non-internet) ways of promoting activities at church, my default position is to consider postcards (usually A6), as well as posters (usually A1 and A3).
It’s encouraging to see how other churches are exploring different print formats for their communication. Here’s one from Kirk Place:
Have you got any examples from your church’s promotion?
Offended and confused by blasphemous church poster
I first came across this poster on Steve Fogg’s blog. It’s currently displayed outside St Matthew-in-the-city church in New Zealand:
My first reaction on seeing this billboard was ‘blasphemy’. God didn’t sleep with Mary. To suggest that He did (and that’s how I understood the poster) is just offensive.
Is this what you think the poster is communicating?
The church has written an explanation of the poster on its website. After reading the explanation of the poster I still had no idea what the purpose of the poster was – in fact, I felt more confused! So I kept reading and discovered that this church describes itself as ‘progressive‘. Not sure what this means? I didn’t either, but according to the website:
“Progressives are more interested in spirituality than right belief or proper worship. The identity of Progressive Christians is centred in ethical living.”
Doesn’t sound like Christianity at all.
It’s a shame (but not surprising) that this kind of non-news about a non-Biblical message gets media exposure, for example:
- ‘Judgement swift for church’s saucy billboard‘ on Channel 7′s Sunrise.
- ‘Kiwi Catholic outraged at church billboard depicting Mary and Joeseph after unsatisfying sex’ on the Herald Sun.
- ‘Mary and Joseph post-sex billboard upsets Catholics’ on news.com.au.
- ‘Mary and Joseph poster sparks unholy row‘ on ABC Online.
- ‘Joseph, Mary in bed billboard set for NZ‘ on SMH.
- ‘Risque Christmas billboard causes outrage‘ on Times Online.
It’s a shame when the real controversy – the startling truth that God was born into our world to save us – will barely get a mention in the mainstream media this Christmas.
Sigh.
…
Other Christian blogs and websites are discussing this poster too, check out:
- Wishing you a ‘progressive’ Xmas
- Progressive Christianity??
- ‘Poor Joseph’ advertisement provokes worldwide fury
The following quote from the blog above, is a good summary:
“Archdeacon Glynn Cardy and St Matthew-in-the-City have got their much-longed-for debate. But it is not about the miracle of the Christ-child and the wonder that God became man: it is not edifying and does not in any sense bring glory to God. It is a tawdry, crude and gratuitously offensive ejaculation which resonates with a sex-obsessed age and lacks only used condoms strewn over the duvet in a Tracey Emin fashion.”
Poster: Too brainwashed to read the Bible?
This month, Outreach Media has released a poster that is sure to raise a few eyebrows and cause a bit of a stir. The poster questions who has and is forming your opinion about Jesus and Christianity, and challenges the viewer to read the Bible – the reliable, authoritative, God-inspired best-seller – that’s all about Jesus. The poster will be displayed outside 100 churches across Australia.
Here’s the poster (click on the image below for a larger view):
A couple of additional resources accompany the poster:
- Notes – explaining in detail what the poster is about. Check out the notes…
- Resources – a page of resources that respond to some of the critical claims made about Christianity. Check out the resources…
- Media release – distributed to national media. Download the media release…
- Banner – to be used on websites to promote the poster and campaign. Please let me know if you’d be interested in displaying the banner (125 x 125 pixels).
Apologetics posters that speak to passers-by
Back in May I wrote about some posters my church had produced to display outside church, to let passers-by know about what’s happening (read ‘Grab the attention of passers-by‘). Recently my church has ventured into a new type of poster.
The posters seek to succinctly respond to some of the common questions or criticisms people have about Christianity. For example:
Q: Hasn’t science disproved Christianity?
A: Science assumes order and uniformity in the world, and provides ways of understanding what normally happens. It doesn’t ‘disprove’ the miracles recorded in the Bible, since these are examples of God at work in the world in ‘unusual’ ways which we would not be able to predict. Science doesn’t set out to answer the bigger questions such as ‘Why are we here ?’ and ‘How should we relate to God?’ and cannot do so. To find the answers to these questions we need to look at what God himself has said in the Bible.
The posters are very simple – the emphasis is on the text. Here’s an example (click on the image for a larger view):
Other questions (and answers) include:
- How do we know God is there?
- How can God allow suffering in the world?
- Isn’t a Christian just a good person?
- Aren’t Christians just a bunch of hypocrites?
- What about people who have never heard of Jesus?
I’m not sure exactly where these questions and answers were sourced from – we didn’t write them! However, I’ve seen them on several websites, including Christ Church Gladesville and Grace Community Church.
I have again been amazed at how many people stop and read the posters – another great opportunity to share the gospel and engage with people in your community.
