Church Signs - Blessing or Bane, Good or Bad?

"Free trip to heaven, details inside,"  and "Santa never died for anyone" are definitely cliché, but that's not my strongest feeling about church signs. I'm a little torn on whether they help or hinder the church.

Credit: au_tiger01

I'm ambivalent about church signs, because they're only as good as the people who choose what to put on them. I'm not going to get into a discourse on denominations and who's right and wrong here. I'm just going to look at some things churches might want to consider when deciding if they should have a customizable sign, and what to put on it if they do.

My first question is, should you have a sign? I honestly don't see any harm in a sign, in and of itself. The thing about things (objects, feelings, actions, etc) is that they're rarely ever good or bad by themselves. As the only lifeforms capable of true choice making, we decide how we're going to use a thing, and for what reason. For example: A gun isn't good or bad on its own. It's the choices people make on how to use them that are. A gun can be used to get food for one's family, or it can be used to take the life of another person for a purely selfish reason. The gun had no say in how it was used, but the person using it did.

So, back to the sign.

Credit: funkblast

A few questions to ask when deciding whether to get a sign are:

• Why do you want a sign? 
• If the answer to this is something like, "Because all the big churches are doing it," or "such-and-such church down the road got one," you may want to do some praying and see whether it's an expense your church can afford for what look like frivolous reasons. 
• If it's more like "to let visitors know what we're up to," or "to share an encouraging word," or "to make it easier for passers-by to know when we meet," you're probably in a better ballpark. Dictionary.com defines a sign as "a notice, bearing a name, direction, warning, or advertisement, that is displayed or posted for public view," so if this is the kind of information you want to share, a sign may be a good idea.
• Who will be in charge of what goes on it?
• It's usually not best for any organization, let alone the church, which people are constantly trying to find fault with, to allow just one person to decide what the non-believing public sees of them. Sure, it's tempting to allow just the Pastor or worship leader or youth leader to have at it, and correct them if something they do isn't exactly right. But, again, the world has a microscope on us and one poorly thought out message could spell disaster.
• Conversely, the entire church or board of directors doesn't have to vote each and every time the sign is changed either. It's probably best to assign two or three people to pray and then decide on the content of the sign.

My other question is, what exactly is going to be on the sign? This is where I'm ambivalent about them. I'm all for sharing scripture or encouragement, but the signs that say things along the lines of "repent or you're going to hell" (paraphrasing), or do the cliché word plays and Church-isms thing don't really serve to advance the gospel, in my opinion. I don't hold to the "you have to get your hands dirty to pull people out of the mud" idea of stooping to the level of the world when you're trying to reach them. Jesus never acted like those He was with at Simon the leper's or Matthew's house. Instead, He was an example of how to love people where they were, but not in the way they expected.

The "best" of wordplay AND cliché...
Credit: au_tiger01

Some of my favorite signs have been ones that shared a verse that spoke to my spirit exactly when I needed it. And there is plenty of reason to advertise church events, service times, sermon topics, and contact information in a physical, easy to see medium. Signs can be thought-provoking without being provocative. We're not here to pick a fight, but to do our part as beggars and tell others where to find true food. Signs can help us to be a blessing, but we can quickly become a bane if we're not considerate.

I listened to "Missing" on Memento Mori by Flyleaf while writing this. You might like it.


I may not have it all figured out, but I do say what I think. If you have any questions about faith in Jesus, don't hesitate to email me. It's my job to help you out. Have an idea for me? Let me know in the comments! If you see any spelling/grammatical errors, PLEASE let me know in a comment. I expect others to use correct English, so I should too. Twitter: @GetItReallyReal Please subscribe and/or share.