Most Route 7 commuters know the quirky landmarks between Burlington and points south by heart: the camel that grazes with sheep, the colorful Adirondack guideboats and the burned-down BBQ place, to name a few Ferrisburgh favorites. Seven Days intern Meredith White, who lives in Middlebury, has logged many hours on Route 7 this summer. She decided to pull over recently and get the scoop on another landmark: the eye-catching sign with the ever-changing slogans outside a little white church in Vergennes.
Victory Baptist Church’s marquee stands triumphantly alongside Route 7 — triumphant because Vermont’s 1968 billboard banishment made marquee ministry a challenge for Pastor Tim Taylor.
“This is actually a very expensive sign,” he told me when I met him in the church’s dusty gravel parking lot. “It’s not easy to get marquees in Vermont.”
The church’s roadside real estate makes attracting congregants easy. After miles of serene countryside landscapes, with nothing but clouds and cows competing for drivers’ attention, the marquee is almost impossible to miss. Windows down, WVTK crooning and miles of roadway to eat up — what better time to consider accepting Christ into your life?
Not that the Victory Baptist Church is hungrily scouting converts. On a recent day, a whole busload of churchgoers waited in the parking lot. Taylor said it was only after 9/11 that he appealed his initally declined sign permit request.
“We needed a message of peace and hope to minister to the community,” he explained.
And voilà! Request granted.
“We try to do a little bit of humor, a little bit of Bible, and a little bit of community,” he added. The flip side of the sign pictured above currently advertises enrollment in the church’s preschool. And if the lack of secularity hurts your eyes, there’s always the nondenominational diversion of the Green Mountains to the east.
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My dog thinks I’m ”golden”!
Great little story. My kids go to the preschool and I drive south every day past that sign. Very fun!!
Cali thinks you are a great story writer.