Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Church Sign Evangelism

We've all driven down the street and seen those church signs that cause us to do a double-take. For reasons inexplicable to me, some churches are convinced that their evangelistic needs are well-served by publicly displaying such convincing arguments as "Stop, Drop, and Roll Won't Work in Hell" and "Santa Claus Never Died For Anyone."

Well, our Church History professor here at Rochester College, Keith Huey, is a man with way too much time on his hands. Recently a new website was brought to his attention where individuals can create their own church signs (www.churchsigngenerator.com). Thus it became something of a moral imperative for him to spend an afternoon devising a variety of church signs, which subsequently found themselves taped to various doors all over our office building. I include some of my favorites below. If you are bothered by any of these and wish to voice your displeasure, I can gladly supply you with Dr. Huey's email address.

Keep in mind, these are FAKE church signs and are not to be assumed to bear any resemblance to any actual churches living or dead.













However, my personal all-time favorite FAKE church sign comes courtesy of "The Simpsons," which I have adapted below:



Of course, after I mentioned this to the esteemed Dr. Huey, he felt the need to adapt it to his own purposes as follows:

11 Comments:

At 12:52 PM, Blogger Jim said...

I think Stop, Drop, and Roll is my all-time favorite for signs that I've actually seen in real life.

Pop Culture and Christianity! I'm looking forward to reading what you have to say. (And I may just go out and buy Televised Morality: The Case of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

 
At 12:58 PM, Blogger Jim MacKenzie said...

My favorite was the one that was put on my sister-in-law's door at RC (Cathy MacKenzie - registrar): "Jesus died for all... Yes, even Canadians." very funny.

It is an interesting form of evangelization though...

 
At 2:04 PM, Blogger Ron Cox said...

Hey, I actually attended that Church of Convenience! It was cool! (The communion flavored Slurpee wasn't a bit hit, however. Next time, Real Wine!)

 
At 4:26 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

As a non-blogger coerced into viewing this page, I just want to set the record straight . . .

The churchsigngenerator website is very fast, very easy to use . . . that is the only reason I, with such a dearth of time on my hands, could express myself in such a medium.

Keith

 
At 8:06 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

First time I have seen Metallica referenced on a church sign, they were my fav band in the 80s.

----------------
Sign generators:
www.customsigngenerator.com

 
At 12:30 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Has anyone ever actually read a sign in front of a church and thought to themselves "Hey, that 'KJV only' comment is real convicting"?

The day after Columbine happened our local mean-spirited Baptist church decided that they could fix everything with this sign. KIDS DON'T NEED GUNS, THEY NEED THE 1611 KING JAMES VERSION BIBLE IN SCHOOL. It was at that moment that I would not have minded if the government banned Churches from having signs at all.

John

 
At 11:03 AM, Blogger Jared Cramer said...

Keith: Very funny. We all know what you really do in your office.

Yeah, I did one of these a few months ago. :-)

 
At 2:05 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Keith Huey is evil. Can we put that on a sign?

 
At 10:31 AM, Blogger Bruce said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

 
At 10:34 AM, Blogger Bruce said...

Allow me to be the modern contrarian, but people love these signs! Of course these messages are far too pithy and campy to speak to our arrogant, intellectual, high-brow selves but that's OK. Just because our pride doesn't allow us to see them -- not everyone, thank God, is like us. I've heard from several non church attenders who actually look forward to reading these things. Of course they are not post-modern but most people aren't anyway ... not that there is anything wrong with that.

 
At 11:47 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

The site's creator noticed that he was getting a bunch of links from a prominent racist web site. He then set it up so that whenever someone clicked through to the church sign generator from the racist web site, the fake church sign says "RACISM SUCKS", regardless of what they enter. His blog post is here.

 

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