No Other Name and The Miracle That Brought Jesus to Times Square

Some of the most powerful brands, big shows, well known celebrities, and the ever popular New Year’s Eve party have all made their way to the Big Apple, New York City. Yet very seldom have we heard about a signage take over on the jumbo billboards in the beating heart of the Big Apple, Times Square and where Jesus’ name fills the atmosphere. But now, a shift has taken place!

It all happened on April 24th 2014 at 9:15 pm when a looping reel of “No Other Name,” and “Jesus” invaded New York’s Times Square for one full hour.

Who’s responsible? How did it all come about? Hillsong, the massively popular international worship-driven ministry whose upcoming album and accompanying conference also called, “No Other Name.” Jay Argaet, the Communication and Art Director for the group reported that the vision for the album’s title came from Pastor Cassandra Langton.

Having the idea, I believe was one aspect but it was then left up to the skillful ingenuity of Argaet to further transform the idea to choose an iconic location such as NYC Times Square and to fill billboards with the artwork “No Other Name.”

According to Argaet, they [Hillsong] got an amazing package deal from an advertising agency that fit their budget and everything was scheduled for 12:30 am.

Certainly, one would have to agree that it was definitely not peak time and not many people would be around to witness what was about to take place.

And then, it did not happen! What went wrong? Did God have a hand in the glitch? Was there an even greater plan that Hillsong and their advertising agency did not know of, but God already knew about? Let’s see!

Sure enough, the omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent God had the perfect plan and when He intervened via technical glitch, the advertising agency made it up to Hillsong by giving the group 21 billboards at a fraction of the regular price, for an hour, and added to that to have the video running live on the screen for the same duration, FREE of charge!

Argaet detailed the reactions of dazed onlookers on his blog and can be quoted as saying:

It was a moment I will never forget. Most interesting of all were the murmurs from onlookers, as they talked amongst themselves trying to work out what ‘company’ was being promoted and why there was no ‘brand’ or ‘logo’ attached to the ‘ad.’ Connecting the different frames from the video and realising that the phrase”No Other Name” was referring to the name Jesus.”

There are two scripture verses that have resonated with me today as follows:

“…that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of those in heaven and on earth.” ~ Philippians 2:10 NKJV

“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” ~ Acts 4:12 NIV 

Indeed I call this the miracle that brought no other name and Jesus to NYC’s Times Square!

The new Hillsong Worship Album is scheduled to be released in July.

photo  – Hillsong Collected