Driving along the interstate at 75 mph, or so, for over 20 hours in 7 days allows my mind to wander. Dangerous activity I know, but the girls have outgrown License Plate Bingo. So, I am left to myself for hours and my mind has a tendency to focus on the surrounding countryside. What I kept noticing on our recent trek to Florida and Charlotte, NC was billboards. Now these are either a source of inspiration or irritation. You’ll have to wait for the inspiration, right now let me share my irritation.

I kept reading “Gospel Billboards.” Some of them are thought provoking, but some of them are just downright lame. For example, I read a billboard that announced, “Repent and Believe!” I would call this Head-On Collision Evangelism, and I just don’t get it. I mean, the average lost person is going to say, “Repent? What does that mean?” And, “Believe in what?” I find that a billboard like this falls short on a couple of accounts.

First, I don’t think God intends for His precious gospel to be a head-on collision. I do believe He intends for us to have meaningful interactions with people and this takes time. Without any interaction with people and without an explanation of who Jesus is, what He did, and what separates us from Him in the first place they won’t understand the gospel.

Second, throwing these messages at people in this way desensitizes them to the real meaning of repentance and belief. It robs believers of the opportunity to sow the gospel and water the seed. This will lead the unbeliever into thinking that if they can talk this way (i.e., “I believe” or “I’ve repented”) then they must be a Christian. But we all know that just talking the talk doesn’t make a person a genuine follower of Jesus Christ.

Now I would much rather see “Gospel Billboards” than billboard advertising sleaze, booze and drugs. However, I just don’t think the average Sally and Joe who are driving like maniacs with kids in the backseat screaming at illegal decibels because they are hungry and their diapers are full are going to look at these billboards and say, “Yeah, that’s what I need to do.”

Grace & Peace,