A Southern Baptist church plant in Reno, Nev., has come up with a plan to counter the hateful messages touted by frequent protestor Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church group: Rent space on a billboard to proclaim God's love for the people of Reno."Out here, a lot of people are just kind of ignorant to the Gospel," Mike Stewart, pastor of Discovery Fellowship, said, referring to a cultural lack of knowledge regarding true Christianity. "If they know anything about God, it's either He's indifferent or He's angry or He hates women."
So in a staff meeting at the church, the idea of renting billboard space was conceived. The church learned they could rent space for $7,000 for 16 weeks, and they quickly raised the funds.
"I've heard people say that money follows vision, especially compelling vision, and within two weeks we paid cash," Stewart said. "It came from people within our church, people who know of our church but live across the country, and then the Nevada Baptist Convention helped out too."
Now the proclamation "God loves you, Reno," along with the Discovery Fellowship Web address, is one of eight messages that rotate on a digital billboard on a well-traveled thoroughfare in Reno.
More Good News on this story from Baptist Press.
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