Matthew West and his team had a creative idea when they realized his album would launch during an election year — yard signs across the nation, not to promote a political candidate but to encourage prayer. Their concept has taken off. The signs don’t list West’s name. Instead, they simply say: Don’t Stop Praying. Of course, that’s the title of West’s popular song, but it’s also a timeless message that Christians have embraced for centuries.
To most passersby, particularly those who don’t listen to Christian music, the signs are an encouraging reminder to pray.
“This has turned into a pretty exciting movement,” West told Crosswalk Headlines.
“When I think about election season, and I think about driving down the street, I see all these different campaign signs in people’s yards, and everybody’s got their slogans, and those slogans can be divisive. And one person’s offended by the other,” he said.
“What should the campaign slogan of the Jesus follower be? What is a way that we could be a light in a dark world right now with a message that points people to Jesus?”
“We had this vision of yard signs all over the country that just said, ‘Don’t Stop Praying.'”
The yard signs, available at DontStopPraying.com, have proven to be popular.
“People have been picking them up by the thousands and putting them in their yards,” he said. “We had a church in Wisconsin that just ordered 1,000 of them and passed them out to all of their members. It was a Catholic church, too.
“I got a text from a buddy of mine who is a recording artist who was on tour in Wisconsin. He’s like: ‘Dude, I just drove down this road in Wisconsin and saw about 300-yard signs that all said, ‘Don’t Stop Praying.’ It’s just so cool when a song takes on a life of its own and becomes a movement.”
Christians in America, West said, need to stand up for truth and to testify: “There’s a God who hears [you] when you pray.”
“Pray for healing in our land,” he said. “Maybe think about putting a yard sign in your yard and encourage people — let people know where your faith is. We need to be bold in our faith, like Daniel, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.”
WATCH: Matthew West – Don’t Stop Praying (Music Video)
Photo Credit: ©YouTube/Matthew West
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
