Your church signs inform your members and first time guests where things are and how to get there.
Your first time church visitors need signage in the church to know the locations of places: restrooms, children’s ministry, bathrooms, auditorium, welcome center, sanctuary. .
When was the last time you evaluated your current church signage from the view point of a first time visitor? [Read more…] about Weekend Task: Follow Your Own Church Signs
Out of sight, out of mind.
That statement is true with the visibility of your church.
If people can’t see it or find it, it’s out of their mind.
This doesn’t work.
Do people know your church exists or where it is? Read this story of one person knew nothing about the church on the corner.
In summer 2009, I preached at a Christ Presbyterian Church in the well-developed suburb of Fairfax Virginia. Their pastor has given me permission to name them and use their photos that he took below.
The church was located on a principal 4 lane highway on the corner of an intersection with a traffic light. A new shopping center (strip mall) is going up right next to it.
Driving north on the main highway, the church was entirely invisible.
Mature trees blocked nearly all visibility of the edifice from the road way. The trees dominated the visibility and appeared to dwarf the giant structure behind it.
Driving south, the church is also invisible until you are at the intersection. The lot next to it still has not been developed and is full of mature trees that block visibility until one is nearly upon the church. They likely don’t own that land, so there is no real solution there.
Possible Solution: trim or remove the mature trees, replant ones that doesn’t grow so tall and have such a huge canopy. Work with an arborist to do this in a safe way and an appropriate time. Some locality’s have zoning laws that require county permission to remove trees, so make sure you check with your local regulations.
The large brick church sign was well positioned under the tree.
But the bronze letters on the brick sign had weatherized to the point of blending in with the brick.
Likewise when one could see the sign at the intersection, the lettering couldn’t be read.
Here is a photo of the sign lettering:
The pastor and I talked about this during my visit, and he scheduled a workday to at least change the lettering with the goal of making it more visible from the road.
Here is what they did with a little bit of exterior paint:
I first visited the church during a Monday through Friday work day. The visibly dominate doors and entry way to the facility led my eye directly there — that of course was the entrance to the comfortably sized foyer with the sanctuary off to the left.
What wasn’t visible however, was how to find the office. Since I was with the pastor when I arrived, we walked to a side door off to the right side. That was the entrance to the office — in a completely unexpected direction.
Possible solution: Clearly mark the office entrance for those who come quietly during the week seeking assistance, or for delivery people dropping off shipments. This is more important if your offices are in the former manse or parsonage.
Is your church visible from the street?
Does it have appropriate and quality signage?
Is your sign perpendicular to the street for drivers, or parallel with the street (when people used to walk to church).
What did you discover? What can you do to remedy this?
PhotoCredit: Carbonnyc
You’ve got to see this collection.
Fellow Blogger Tony Sisk seems to find some good ones.
I thought the ones I found were just about as awful as can be, but this one takes the cake (the one in the image about 1/2 down): The Rambling Prophet: Lousy Church Signs!!!. Don’t let it mess up your Sunday.
Here are a few typos:
Images found in the Flickr Group for Church signs.
Uhh… Should we be doing that in church?
Originally uploaded by Diamondduste
One should always proof read their church signs.
This bad church sign was an awful choice of words.
A church that took over an abandoned post-office turned the exterior into a nice presentable building.
It looked sharp, clean, and with fresh paint and landscaping.
Since the church was in my normal commuting patterns, I would drive by at least 3-4 times a day.
The facilities renovation attracted my attention.
During the renovations, a Spanish language sign for the church went up and my interest grew.
But the church sign had no service times, just the church name.
I tried to notice when people seemed to gather at the church — it was hard to say if there were any gatherings during the day or week.
I tried to find the church’s website via Google — none existed.
One day, I drove into the church parking lot, to see that no service hours were posted on the door.
The only sign on the church door was the phone number for the church office.
I called the number and got a generic message.
Something like “Hi, and thank for calling XYZ Presbycostal church of Nowhere. Please leave a message.”
No service times left on the telephone voice announcement.
I left a message in both English and Spanish requesting a call back with service times.
I made sure to leave a phone number.
Weeks pass.
No return phone call.
Once again, I call a few weeks later. Same routine.
No live person to answer the phone, no service times in the automated answer.
This happens two more times over the course of several more weeks.
After what feels like three months, I finally get a return phone call from the pastor, telling me about the Sunday morning service and its time.
We make it to the morning service.
If we had not been determined to visit, we would have gone elsewhere because it was too hard to find the time for worship services.
Clocks Photo credit: Eyesplash via cc
Phone Photo Credit: Khánh Hmoong via cc
This morning, I was talking to a fellow about where he lived.
He had moved to the area from out of state, and had been living in his home for under 1 year.
“I live down the street from the church.”
I asked, “What church is that?”
His reply: “For the life of me, I’ve never been able to figure it out. I can’t find a sign.” [Read more…] about What church is that?
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