When Bob Nolan’s children were students at Victory Christian Academy, he encountered a familiar, inspiring sight each day as he headed east on Highway 82.
A billboard owned by Living Faith Tabernacle with a portrait of Jesus watched over a cemetery.
An artist and person of faith, he always admired the billboard’s beauty and message.
“I bring glory to God through my artwork because it always lands in perfect places that I really don’t plan on,” Nolan said. “… Every day, I came from (Columbus) to Victory twice, and passed the billboard. I used to look at it and think, ‘That’s a real blessing to everybody to drive by and see that. Someday, I’d like to do something like that.’”
Nolan got his chance.
Since the original billboard’s installation 33 years ago, decades of wear had reduced the billboard to an unrecognizable mass of blank space.
Fittingly, the church chose that point to resurrect the image of Christ on the billboard, and it turned to Nolan for the task.
“I thought, ‘That kind of tells a story,’ because Jesus was 33 when he was crucified,” said Merita Williams, co-pastor for the church and daughter of its founder, James Gardner. “It’s kind of like, ‘Wow!’”
Gardner founded Living Faith Tabernacle in 1964. He served as the pastor until his death in 2021.
Rather than see the church her father had worked so hard to build shut its doors for good after his death, Williams and her husband Anthony stepped up. They also had some encouragement from the church members.
“We never really planned to become pastors,” she said. “That was not something we had really talked about. But after my dad passed away, the church came to us and asked us would we take it and become the pastors. We knew that we didn’t want it to close, that was for sure.”
Once they got started, the church underwent some remodeling. One of the first things Anthony said was, “I want to fix that sign.”
“People have told us, down through the years, how much it has meant to them,” Merita Williams said. “One lady said that she would pass it every time she went on a trip. She lived in Tuscaloosa and when she would go home, she said she would always pass it. She said how much it just ministered to her.”
Nolan knew the Williamses and he has painted numerous murals for churches. This one, he said, is extra special.
“I felt really blessed doing this,” he said. “I felt like God was leading me to do this. … It really feels like God put me into the ministry without me realizing it. I am very happy and blessed. I am looking forward to great testimony coming from this. Not really to me, but to the church.”
While the billboard is posted outside by the highway, the project also had a lasting effect on those inside the church as well. Members of the church’s congregation, which has grown in recent years and typically has 60 to 70 people attend on Sunday, took interest in the project.
“It also means so much to the congregation,” Merita Williams said. “(Nolan) was painting it in the fellowship hall. Every service, I would see members of the congregation, before they would leave, come all the way up front and go around into the fellowship hall. It meant a lot to me that they were so excited.”
Members of the church even helped install the sign.
Williams summed up the entire experience in five words.
“It’s just a God thing.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 44 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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