This graphic is a combination of the 'twin themes' of our Gospel Advertising Campaign:
• From our church perspective: we are wanting to 'Do Something More For God';• As far as 'the man in the street' is concerned, the message is:
"CONSIDER CHRIST:
In a world without Direction, He is The Way;
In a world without Certainty, He is The Truth;
In a world without Hope, He is The Life."
(John 14:6)
Each day I receive the devotional comment 'Days Of Praise' in my emails. Yesterday's was especially interesting, given the fact that it deals with the text that is the mainstay of our 'Consider Christ' Campaign – John 14:6.
The comment read:
Life's Uncertainties
April 29, 2009
"Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?" (John 14:5)
Many times along life's way we fact uncertainties, opposition, and even doubt; when we do, it is helpful to recognize that those who lived with Christ when He was here on earth faced the same perplexities. His answers and assurances to them in John 14 are meant for us as well.
"Let not your heart be troubled," He said (John 14:1) – an emphatic command which could be rendered: "Don't continue to be troubled."
The solution: "Ye believe in God, believe also in me."
We believe God can supply all the answers to our troubles. But Christ is God! He is the solution. He is "the way, the truth, and the life" (14:6), and is the only solution, for "no man cometh unto the Father, but by |him|."
He is the Way: "In my Father's house are many mansions. . . . I go to prepare a place for you. And . . . I will come again, and receive you unto myself" (14:2-3). Whatever else may befall us, our destiny is sure. His reputation is at stake, for He has promised a place in the Father's house.
He is the Truth: Peter had just been informed of his coming denial (13:38), that he would openly assert a lie. Jesus said He is "the truth." "The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but of the Father that dwelleth in me" (14:10). Words and thoughts not in accordance with His are not "truth," we can be sure of that.
He is the Life: Speaking of His imminent death, Christ said, "Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow me afterwards" (13:36), indicating their own eventual persecution and martyrdom. Yet their ultimate victory, as well as comfort (14:16-18), were assured.
How can those things be? "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name," Christ said, "that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son" (14:13).
JDM
The graphics for our Gospel Campaign will be based on the design above. The Campaign is set to begin on Monday, 7 September 2009.....and with it scheduled to run into October, the 'autumnal' colours should suit extremely well. Another reason why this design was favoured was the warmth of the colours. We reckoned this was suitable to convey our message. Comments are welcome!
From the earliest days of planning this campaign, we have been aware of the need to find a design that will express the message of our main theme (John 14:6). This basic design will appear on each piece of our advertising literature – church banners, billboards, shoplites, buses, gospel tracts, website, etc – and will be instantly recognisable wherever it is used.
Due to the fact that an Information Leaflet is due to be printed this week and released at our next Presbytery meeting (Friday, 1 May 2009), our basic design must be finalised this weekend. Two graphics teams are hard at work on this project ... as I write!
The first official donation has been received to commence our fund for 'Doing Something More For God.' An extremely generous donation of £1000 has been made by a young couple in order to get the fund started. We are delighted to receive this and are quite overwhelmed by their desire to see this project succeed to the glory of God.
A necessary question is ... “How can we finance this project?” The following figures are current estimates (in some cases figures have been firmed up): - Leaflets/DVDs telling our people of campaign (10,000) ............ £1000 - Banners for Churches (£150 x 70) ............................................... £10,500 - Website (procure domain and cost of design) ............................. £1000ADVERTISING PACKAGE Including Billboards, Shoplites and Bus Ads .................................. £28,377PROVINCEWIDE TRACT DISTRIBUTION Royal Mail ‘Door-to-Door’ Delivery (to all 741,000 homes) ........... £28,9002 x Gospel Tracts (1,000,000 copies) .............................................. £27,500TOTAL .............................................................................................. £97,277Some additional costs will have to be factored in: - Hire of Regional Venues (School Assembly Halls) - Cost of producing a Free DVD
Therefore OUR TARGET OF ........................................................... £100,000
HOW will we raise this amount of money?• We remind ourselves that, within the Free Presbyterian Church, money raised through our churches for the 'Tsunami Relief Fund' quickly topped £100,000.• Also, the British Humanist Association in Great Britain managed to attract a sum of £140,000 for their 'Atheist Bus Campaign.' Surely we can equal, if not exceed, that?!
• Therefore our appeal is being made to every member and each congregation - this target figure of £100,000 is an investment for the future! • 10,000 Free Presbyterians X £10 each = OUR TARGET.
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WHERE MAY I CONTRIBUTE?
* For people in the United Kingdom, please take note of special offerings for this Fund that will be announced in your local Free Presbyterian Church, and look out for special envelopes that are being printed and will be distributed through your local fellowship.
* For our overseas friends (and several of them have already asked me how they can make a donation to this campaign). I discussed this matter with the Treasurer of our Ulster Presbytery. His thought is that a donation using Paypal is probably the easiest and most cost effective method for overseas donations. This method can be used even if you do not have a personal Paypal account. Paypal allows you to "use your credit card or bank account (where available)."
This payment option can be accessed by clicking the "Donate" button towards the top right hand corner of the following page on Sermon Audio:
http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?sermonid=411091814132
All such donations will be officially acknowledged.
Various stages are planned for the campaign:
1. STAGE 1 ... CHURCH BANNERS & INTERNET SITE
Banners will be provided for all our Churches. These will advertise the campaign, carry the theme for our outreach, and have one line that churches can use to advertise any local missions / services. An internet site is in production; we envisage this containing a small number of gospel tracts and a few short video clips.
The domain name is: www.considerchrist.info
2. STAGE 2 ... BILLBOARD & SHOPLITE CAMPAIGN
7 – 20 September 2009:
The second stage in the Gospel Advertising Campaign will involve placing our adverts for a two-week period on several Billboards (largely in the Belfast area) and 60 Shoplites (outside main shopping centres province-wide).
3. STAGE 3 ... BUS CAMPAIGN21 September – 4 October 2009:
Weeks 3 and 4 of our Gospel Advertising Campaign will centre on buses. Some facts to consider:
• Each day, 1600 buses travel throughout our country.
• The average bus journey is 20 minutes.
We plan to place adverts along the side of 300 buses, and inside a further 300 buses - 600 in total. This will mean that major - and many minor routes - throughout the country will be covered by the message of the Gospel of grace.4. STAGE 4 ... GOSPEL TRACT DISTRIBUTION
The first tract will major on John 14:6. The ‘first leg’ of the tract distribution with use the Royal Mail's ‘Door to Door’ Service. There are 741,000 residential properties in Northern Ireland – we aim to place a piece of gospel literature into each one of them!A further 250,000 tracts will be printed for churches to distribute in their areas. These will be distributed over the same 4-week period that the Bus and Billboard Ads are being featured, and will have a little space on the for local church information. This is another 'window of opportunity' for people to get involved with this campaign; by printing stickers for back of tracts / placing them on tracts / giving the tracts out in your local area ... .
5. STAGE 5 ... REGIONAL GOSPEL RALLIESDuring Weeks 3/4.Major
centres in the various regions across the Province have been chosen for regional rallies .... all churches will be assigned a rally to support. This is an excellent opportunity for churches to meet up within their own geographical area - and for our people to invite friends and family along!6. STAGE 6 ... LOCAL MEETINGS / MISSIONS Many churches will have Harvest Services and Harvest Missions planned. These can be advertised when other literature is being distributed - and details printed on the banner outside the church.+++ Other stages may be possible, depending on finance.
