Thanks for your reply but that is what I have as well unfortunately as a watch a session trace the config template will run until the normal cisco prompt disappears (after entering banner motd or login line). Once the normal prompt disappears the config template stops running so all the message lines aren't entered and it eventually times out. I have tried putting in the lines like above..I have tried ${CRLF} after each line and I have tried using the string @LoginBanner and providing the entire banner that way as well. I have even tried embedding the ^C beginning and ending inside the string line to see if it would paste it all in at once with no luck.
Anyone willing to share a working banner script?