For more information about the "God is Still Speaking" Ad campaign you can visit: the God is Still Speaking website

You can review both the TV ads and two new radio ads.

Where do we go from here?
Prepared by Ron Buford
December 10, 2004

God is Good....all the time!
And all the time . . . God is good!

My heart is full of thanks to God who (pardon my vernacular) "showed up and showed out" before our very eyes. We have seen the hand of God at work. It is "good and right that we give God thanks and praise."

I cannot stop praising God at this point because if I held it in, "the
rocks would cry out" and I don't want the rocks to cry out for me and my held-in praise.

This week, I'm reading the canticle of Mary in a new way and recalling the words of Yvette Flunder from a recent sermon, "Honey, if God tells you to run toward a wall, expect God to cut a door."

God has cut a door for us and led us into a new room of promise. We should not take this lightly.

What's in the room?

What to expect over the next thirty to sixty days

The UCC tells more of the story. In the first phase we have gone
broadly, it is now time to go deep with strategic precision - addressing
areas that need additional work. Because of the nature of the CBS and
NBC refusal, emerging from bias and a disproportionate focus on the
" gay" issue, we will have to tell the rest of the story. This is where
the PR work really begins.

How do we tell this story? Recognizing that the impact will not be as
dramatic, between now and December 22 we can employ the following
tactics to make significant headway, building upon the Phase I
foundation:

Release stories
o Focus on "the other people turned away"
o Local setting driven; give local churches a template to use
o Training our churches to eliminate our own social "bouncers"
o Web deacons - Elders and bouncers - What an odd mix!
o Demand for new church starts, infiltrating the culture by
planting churches
o New radio spots

Short-term Challenges (30-60 Days)

Staying "on message" despite the pressures. It is vitally important that we remain focused and "on message." We must be clear and unapologetic about our message . . . .
o We welcome everyone, no matter who they are or where they are
on life's journey
o Our history is rooted in standing for freedom of speech and the
free exercise of religion
o Who we are is not better, it's simply who we are
o We have a right to tell the world who we are
o The bouncers are not symbols of other churches, but of the
alienation others experience and is based upon our focus group research
o We do not allow others to define us