What's the deal with all those religious billboards around the Bay Area?

A Gospel Billboard in San Francisco. A Gospel Billboard in San Francisco. Photo: Annie Vainshtein, SFGATE Photo: Annie Vainshtein, SFGATE Image 1 of / 23 Caption Close What's the deal with all those religious billboards around the Bay Area? 1 / 23 Back to Gallery

If you're like me, you might have noticed religious billboard ads seem to have proliferated around the Bay Area. I've seen them all over my morning commute and encountered one on a recent trip to Sacramento that made me especially curious. "After you die," it professed in large block letters, "you WILL meet God."

The ads have been spotted in several locations around Oakland and San Francisco, so my first assumption was that the billboards were being put on by a local or California-based mega-church. But I figured my questions were better answered through a call to the toll-free number itself, so I dialed 855-FOR-TRUTH.

Within seconds, an automated voice listed off a few of the paths I could take while on the call. I could learn more about the gospel billboards, listen to brief explanations about each billboard's messages, or, if I were feeling lonely or discouraged, I could press 3.

I began with the billboard messages. The voice listed nine of the ads I could choose to learn more about, including some I'd already seen, like "There is evidence for God" and "Beyond reasonable doubt — JESUS IS ALIVE!"

I thought it might be nice to talk to a representative. I spent 10 minutes on the phone with Benji, who didn't want to give his last name. I found out Benji was a call center operator based in Indiana. He's part of a small group of 10-20 men who field these calls from all over the U.S. for an organization called Christian Aid Ministries.

Christian Aid Ministries was founded in 1981 as a Mennonite-Amish ministry organization. With headquarters in Berlin, Ohio, it's a distributive nonprofit for Amish, Mennonite and other conservative Anabaptist groups and individuals around the world. Anabaptists are a Christian movement widely known for its rejection of infant baptism, who believe that a valid baptism can only occur when the person consciously decides to have one.

According to its website, CAM has staff and distribution networks in Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Haiti, and Kenya, among others. Charity Navigator rated CAM an 84.5 out of 100.

Benji told me the organization puts billboards around a number of highly populated cities in the U.S. and Canada. Anywhere, he said, where people seem to be "walking away from God and truth." Gospel Billboards has CAM's billboard locations available on a map.

I asked if there were any female call operators and he told me no, but offered to put his wife on the phone if I preferred to hear a female voice. Benji said the call center receives about 300 calls a day but only about 130 of them are serious callers.

"A lot of them are people who want to know how to get to heaven," Benji said. "Right before you called, a girl asked how she can be saved."

According to Jim Bennett, an associate professor of religious studies at Santa Clara University, advertisements like these are an example of a trend among religions in the U.S.

"In the U.S., there has always been a commercial or market dimension to religion," Bennett said. "Just like a business or any other organization that's trying to get customers, churches had to compete to get people."

Bennett says that for at least 200 years, churches have been adept at using commercial techniques to win converts and engage with mass media. Music magazine Fader analyzed the spread of religious billboards and found that 2016 was the largest year yet for spending on billboard evangelism. Their reporting also found that non-theistic organizations said they were encountering far more challenges getting their messages onto billboards.

CAM's billboards are seen by more than 8.9 million people daily, according to the organization's 2016 report. Phone team members also had more than 20,000 conversations by phone.

What strikes Bennett is Christian Aid Ministries' use of billboards over newer forms of technology. But studies show that people are spending more time out of the house, traveling and commuting.

"In the middle of the valley of I-5, those are likely to be very intentional or best practices," Bennett said. "They're not coincidental or random."

Bennett says conservative Christian groups in particular have been savvy at embracing new forms of technology as part of their PR campaigns. People like Pat Robertson, the chairman of the Christian Broadcasting Network, were far quicker than 'mainline' Christians to harness radio and television stations as mediums for their messages.

History tells us religion and billboards are a symbiotic pair. Remember 2011's two apparent "judgement days" — the costly publicity campaign put on by Oakland-based Harold Camping of Family Radio? People all around the U.S. were told the world would come to its end on May 21. And then Oct 21.

The world is still going on, as far as I know. But billboards sure seem to work.

Read Annie Vainshtein's latest stories here. Send her news tips or bad haikus at avainshtein@sfchronicle.com.

