MondayMorningInsight - Leadership & Encouragement for Church Leaders

A Church Sign Primer

Posted by: Todd
Posted on: Fri, September 23, 2005
Viewed 210
(9) comments so far

Have a great weekend!

Todd

FOR DISCUSSION: What's the most obnoxious church sign you've ever seen?

It’s Friday, and I’m kind of in a kick-back mode; so I thought I’d post this (right after the ‘pitching the tent’ entry!). I’ll probably be in big trouble. Bob Hyatt at Bob.Blog has a great primer on church signs. You know, after reading some of the church signs Bob shows (and some that I’ve seen personally), I’m wondering if anyone is really putting on their thinking caps when they decide what to put on their sign…

Comments

if you want a Globally Recognized Avatar (the images next to your profile) get them here. Once you sign up, they will displayed on any website that supports them.

Jon McInnis on Fri, September 23, 2005

We had a church right next to our Bible college that ran the following two signs the weeks of our summer VBS:

WHERE DO YOU WANT

TO SPEND ETERNITY?

SMOKING OR

NON-SMOKING?

and the next week:

SMOKE NOW

BURN LATER

Who are these signs supposed to be for?
bernie dehler on Fri, September 23, 2005

“Church parking only…”

I didn’t know you could park a church…
chris on Sat, September 24, 2005

There’s a church not far from here with a sign that says

“git er done for God.”

Never buy a church sign… then you have to figure out something clever to say every week.
Danny Daughtridge on Mon, September 26, 2005

I am continually frustrated with the way churches use signs! They always seem either angry and judgemental or sickeningly punny. Or both. I am amazed that churches feel that their sign sermonizing is actually going to cause people to pull over and come to church. I’ve never heard of that happening, but I would welcome any such stories.

By far the funniest sign I ever saw was on Easter Sunday a few years ago. It read: “He is not here…He is risen.”
Pastor Kelly on Mon, September 26, 2005

I saw a funny one. “Looking for a sign from God, here it is, ‘Go to church!’”
bob klinger on Mon, October 10, 2005

Having spent the last 20 years trying to help churches understand the importance of good signage, I’m tickled and troubled by how insensitive and “ Christianeeze” some of the church signs are today. There are some great books available with postings well done and categorized for easy use. E-mail me if you’d like a list.
cbc on Fri, December 09, 2005

Pastor Kelly wrote, “Having spent the last 20 years trying to help churches understand the importance of good signage…” My opinion is the best way to help is to tell them not to use any type of marquee.

But if they must, there is only one statement I have *ever* seen that is honest: “Sign Broken. Message Inside.” All of our signs are broken, and we are in danger of complete irrelevance to the culture we live in. Hopefully we still can communicate the message, but it won’t be on a marquee.
cbc on Fri, December 09, 2005

oops. make that “Bob Klinger” said.
Brian Millican on Tue, February 21, 2006

PASTOR KELLY, can you send me that list of books for church signs? To be honest, I am tired of trying to come up with a clever sign week after week ... can you help? God bless.