A couple of years back, Fran and I volunteered to pick up some unwanted billboards from St Columba Presbyterian Church in east Auckland. The idea was we would use them to brighten up the frontage of our own church. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Now we have a billboard on the fence, dating from the Harry Potter film era, that reads “Harry: You are the potter, I am the clay.” And I must admit I’m starting to cringe more whenever I see it.

Church billboards have been in the news a lot lately. St Matthews in the City here in Auckland never fails to offend with its Christmas and Easter billboards, the excellent God Marks campaign has received a lot of favourable publicity (see May NZ Baptist), and now we see a church in Tauranga getting into trouble over one if its billboards.

DB Breweries has warned Bethlehem Community Church that it has copyright on its now famous Tui “Yeah Right” billboards. The church put up a sign reading “Atheists have nothing to worry about! Yeah Right,” then received a call from DB’s lawyer.

At the risk of upsetting church people, I have to say I think DB has a valid point. For years people have been copying its “Yeah Right” campaign and I’m actually surprised it has taken this long for DB’s lawyers to react.

Fran and I run a community newspaper so we understand how important intellectual property is. All we do is put words on newsprint, which in itself has no intrinsic value. The value of our business is in the brand. That’s all we have that we can put a monetary value on.

Churches need to be respectful of other people’s property, intellectual as well as otherwise.

I do like the God Marks campaign, however, for two reasons.

Firstly the messages are genuinely thought provoking. Yes, sometimes they have a humorous element but there is always a message in them that is worth pondering. And the simple white writing on a black background is both striking and a great metaphor – the word of God as a light in the darkness.

But – with that notable exception – I wonder if the whole church billboard thing is in danger of being overdone. It’s all starting to look a bit too try-hard. Are churches so desperate to get people through the doors that they have to rely on attempts at billboard humour to make us sound fun and relevant?

God is not a marketing brand and I don’t believe he should be reduced to a sound bite or slogan.

Perhaps it’s my Catholic background, but I was brought up in a tradition where church buildings were places of enormous reverence. They were monuments to man’s love of God and, in the case of the great cathedrals, a reflection of the extraordinary gifts that he has given us.

Yes, I know, we are Baptists and we don’t do cathedrals, but we still shouldn’t lose sight of what our buildings are for.

It may sound boring but my belief is that our church frontages should be used to tell people what’s going on inside. What’s happening and when. Times, dates, events. And phone numbers for people to call.

It’s our people, not our billboards, who will bring the message of Jesus to those walking and driving past the doors.

– Duncan Pardon