Connecting people to Jesus with the help of a Pontiac grille

  • February 8, 2010
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An interesting combination of auto technologies, welding and the Bible has made its way to the front of the Smithville Mennonite Church. Pastor Todd Martin has been using the unique setting for a series of sermons on the Beatitudes since he unveiled the Pontiac grille with working headlights Jan. 17. Martin approached Wayne County Schools Career Center junior auto technologies instructor Rich Shetler, a church member, about using the front of a 1967 Pontiac as a visual aid. He originally wanted to jumpstart a car during the sermon, but decided that might be too dangerous. “I had seen the Pontiac hanging on his barn,” Martin said of Shetler, and wondered if Shetler could come up with a way to power the lights. Shetler accepted the challenge, and was determined to make it work. He took the front of the car to the career center, and his junior students started cleaning it up and wiring it. In order to display it in the church sanctuary, it had to be mounted in some way. That’s where welding came in. Senior welding and metal fabrication students, with instructor Mike Boggs, built a metal stand for it, then the Pontiac was hooked to a battery so that the headlights would work and the hazard lights would flash. “It made for an astounding visual aid,” said Martin. “Every Sunday, when someone read or spoke the Beatitudes from memory, we hooked up beatitude mobile to the beatitudiary (the battery).” He emphasized to the congregation that spiritual batteries can also run low or be dead, and they should get hooked up to the Beatitudes. “The lights are so bright that they blind the people in the balcony,” Martin said. The sermon was filmed for the church’s YouTube channel, SMC sermons. “The camera man was blown away,” said Martin, and kept zooming in on the car during the sermon. The sermons can be viewed by going to the Internet YouTube Web site, then “SMC sermons” to access the church’s channel, and “The Blessed Battery of the Beatitudes Series.” They can also be accessed through the church Web site at smithvillemennonite.org. “It is genuinely cool when you watch the YouTube video,” said Martin. “Thanks to all the kids who worked on it. It was an exceptional effort. We will use it for 10 weeks. It has worked really well.” Martin was encouraged by the response of the congregation. “We are a diverse congregation,” he said. “The response was just incredible. People came up and were looking at it, saying, ‘This is amazing’.” “We’re trying to make it interesting to come to church,” said Martin. “Our ultimate goal is to connect people to Jesus.”


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