Anyone driving past The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' new temple in Twin Falls this week probably saw Jerry Holt, waving a sign directing drivers to www.sacredorsecret.com.

In 2005, Holt helped other Lighthouse Christian Fellowship members distribute 20,000 copies of a videotape questioning many LDS tenets throughout Twin Falls.

It was the start, he said, of his efforts to reach out to members of a faith that leads its own people astray. Careful to point out that he was not protesting the temple, Holt said on Thursday that he and his fellow Christians in the group simply want to start a dialogue with local Mormons about inconsistencies in their faith.

"We're not here because we hate them," Holt said. "We're here because we love them."

Over the next month, members of Lighthouse, Immanuel Lutheran, New Hope Community Church and First Assembly of God Church plan to stand outside the new temple, handing out tracts questioning the LDS faith and directing people to a Web site with similar writings.

Down the road, Jim Valentine of Milwaukee, Wis., spent about as much time relaxing in a camping chair as hopping up to try to pass out brochures and tracts to people arriving for tours. A self-described Christian consultant, missionary and spiritual worker, Valentine said he has done similar work at other temple openings and offered his services to Holt and his comrades.

Not everyone realized what Valentine was there for - one car mistook him for a parking attendant. But he'd had several good conversations with LDS officials and others since Friday, he said.

"A few people have been rather tart with us," he said, noting that the Twin Falls temple seemed to attract fewer non-Mormons than others he'd been to.

The demonstrators aren't being paid, Valentine said. Holt, in fact, used vacation time and said he'd have to be back to work on Sunday.

And the church doesn't seem to mind them being there. The Mormons staffing the meeting house were very cordial, Holt and Valentine said, providing water and restroom access. And Mormon representatives, in turn, said the demonstrators are behaving themselves.

"They've been wonderful," local LDS spokesman Terry McCurdy said, noting that he hadn't read their literature. "What they're doing is exercising their rights. We respect those and have no problem with that at all."

It took about one week for a problem to surface. Police visited the area on Thursday morning after the demonstrators shifted a couple of feet onto the grassy area between the public sidewalk and the road circling the temple.

Valentine agreed to move back to the sidewalk, though he told officers he believed he was in the right, and that he was concerned the city would eventually kick him off.

"I don't like my rights changing," Valentine told the officers who responded.

Meanwhile, church members researched public property lines in the area to ensure both groups were following the law, McCurdy said.

"As long as we know what we're supposed to be doing, we'll do it," he said, calling the incident a minor issue. "We had hoped nothing like that would happen."

Not to say McCurdy seemed pleased with everything the local church groups have planned. Thursday also marked the first of four evening discussions on Christianity, Mormonism and the differences between them. The first speaker, Daniel "Chip" Thompson, was called to preach to Mormons in Ephraim, Utah, many years back, Holt said. Future speakers have similar backgrounds.

As with the demonstrators, McCurdy said the evening speakers were just the churches exercising their rights. But, he said, he hopes what they're telling people is accurate.

"Any time we open a temple, a lot of times those types of things happen," McCurdy said. After all, he said, many churches can be "very aggressive about what they're doing."

Nate Poppino may be reached at 208-735-3237 or npoppino@magicvalley.com.