wfn.org | Times Square billboard will show United Methodist message

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Oct. 16, 2003 News media contact: Linda Green7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn. 
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NOTE: A photo illustration is available.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - The United Methodist Church's message of "open
hearts, open minds, open doors" will be featured on one of the world's
largest electronic video signs in New York City beginning Nov. 15.

The welcome message and images from the denomination's Igniting Ministry
media initiative will be seen on the 7,000-square-foot multimedia billboard
in Times Square through the end of November. The Times Square display spans
28 floors of the Reuters and Instinet building.

"The Times Square billboard will help to tell the world that the United
Methodist Church talks to people at street level. That concept - reaching
people where they are, not just on Sunday, but every day - is core to United
Methodist beliefs," said the Rev. Larry Hollon, top executive of United
Methodist Communications, which administers the Igniting Ministry initiative.

"This is one more way we can reinforce to all people who see the sign that
the United Methodist Church is about open hearts, open minds and open doors,"
he added.

Both the location and the dates of the display are significant, Hollon said.
"Times Square represents, for many, the cultural epicenter of the world, and
the run encompasses Thanksgiving Day, when the Macy's parade passes by."   

The most recent United Methodist television ad, "The Gift," will run on the
display's central portion in a 30-second format 10 times daily between 6 a.m.
and 2 a.m., for a total of 144 times. Additional images from Igniting
Ministry print ads also will be featured. 

The new display is not the first such Igniting Ministry venture in New York.
The campaign erected an outdoor billboard with the theme, "Fear is not the
only force at work in the world today," a block from Ground Zero, soon after
the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. 
United Methodist Communications launched Igniting Ministry in 2001 to raise
awareness of the denomination through a series of national cable television
commercials. The campaign also includes radio spots and non-broadcast ads,
matching grants, training resources and a Web presence. The church's top
legislative assembly, meeting in 2000, approved funding the initiative with
almost $20 million for a four-year period.
"Igniting Ministry is about more than television," Hollon said. "It is aimed
at creating an awareness of who we are as United Methodists. This new
opportunity builds on the success the campaign has achieved in the past two
years." 

Since Igniting Ministry's debut, more than 92 million people have seen the
"open hearts, open minds, open doors" messages, according to the Rev. Steve
Horswill-Johnston, a 
UMCom staff executive who leads the effort.

Details on the Igniting Ministry campaign are available at
www.IgnitingMinistry.org. 

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This story was adapted from a United Methodist Communications press release.

 
 

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United Methodist News Service
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