If you’ve driven by the church facility in the past couple weeks, you may have noticed I’m not being welcomed anymore — by which I mean the sign no longer says “Welcome Pastor Michael Strickland!”
In truth, I had assumed someone was in charge of the sign and would change it, but it turned out that the “someone” was me and I just didn’t know it. This was not something I realized or asked about until recently. Oops. Sorry.
For now, we are celebrating the Agape graduates and students on the sign. In a couple weeks, we should change the message again. And while I’m wanting to cultivate conversations with church leadership about how we use the sign, I also want to expand that dialogue to all of you as well.
So far as I am concerned, the content of a church sign matters less than that it is being changed regularly. That change signifies activity, and can help make a building that is dark and silent for much of the week seem much more “alive” to the community around it.
Beyond that, I think it is important the church family has some general agreement about what the sign is actually for, lest those differing expectations provide soil for the seeds of division. While I am sure you all have seen countless church signs in real life and online, here are some general categories of church sign content
Advertisement of specific church activities that are intended to be more embracing and accessible to the broader community.
Witty or punny jokes. (Some agreement needs to be achieved regarding the subjects on or off limits)
Inspiring or challenging quotations: bible verses, spiritual writers, secular authors, movie characters, famous persons from history, etc.
Signs that somewhat directly reference current events. Some well-done examples I’ve seen include “Blessed are the whistle blowers, for they play the music of salvation” and “Do justice, love mercy, abolish ICE” and “We support the separation of church and hate.”
Obviously, there can be a rather wide range even within these categories, such that some sort of direction can be helpful as I/we move towards changing the sign more regularly.
Give it some thought, and reach out and let’s talk. I’d genuinely love to hear from you.
Remember, we’re all in this together.
Pastor Michael