Back when we were driving to North Carolina over Memorial Day weekend, we saw a church called Friendly Baptist Church, and on its sign, right under the name “Friendly Baptist Church,” was this welcoming message: “For the wages of sin is death.”
Nothing says “friendly” like eternal damnation, wouldn’t you say?
I’m guessing the town name was “Friendly,” and the church name probably didn’t make anyone from the area do a double take. But combine that with the friendly nature of the sign, well, let’s just say I was disappointed I didn’t have my camera out.
It reminded me of these two billboards we always see in Ohio on the way back to Kentucky from western Pennsylvania. Finally, after about ten such road trips, I got some photos. (I actually would have missed them on this trip, too, since I was reading, but J remembered that I’ve been wanting a picture, so he pulled the car over suddenly when he saw them and nearly gave me a heart attack.)
Pardon the dark graininess of the picture, but it was a stormy day and the dark clouds made my camera upset. Here’s what you see first:
And then about a hundred yards down the road, you get this one, my favorite:
I had a friend in junior high who shall remain nameless (I have not heard from her in decades and find it unlikely she will ever discover this blog, but still) who tried to convert people by starting a conversation like this: “Imagine burning forever.”
First of all, nobody can really imagine that. Second of all, what the heck?
*Sigh*
Nothing says “let’s be friends” like eternal damnation.
Texas Schmexas 
Before I was a believer this was the same question that someone asked me to try and convert me. It did make me think. I always wondered too why chritians would talk about hell and eternal damnation when trying to convert and not about the good news of Jesus Christ.
I used to have a t-shirt that said “God scares the Hell out of me” though it is true, it probably didn’t give people a warm fuzzy feeling. I really wore it to make Christians uncomfortable and hopefully get non-Christians to react and maybe start a conversation.
I also saw a sign recently at a church that said something like, “keep talking on your cellphone while driving and you will meet God”
Gen and Stephen,
J and I just finished reading The Unlikely Disciple by Kevin Roose, a book by an Ivy League college student who goes “undercover” at Liberty University and learns about being an evangelical. There’s an interesting section on proselytizing–he goes on a Spring Break trip to Daytona Beach to “spread the Gospel”–and it is interesting hearing his take on it as an outsider. You might want to check it out.