Church Signs

It drives me nuts everytime I see a church sign with those cutsey sayings posted on them. One in Palm Bay today says “Praise without ceasing”. The Bible verse actually says “Pray without ceasing” which is a command to Christians. But the church changed it. Who even knows what it is supposed to mean. Is it still a command to Christians? Is it an advertisement that their church (a charasmatic church) is doing just that during their worship services?

Worse is when I see those little clever sayings like “Forbidden fruit creates many jams”. Ugh. Some of them are flat out pleas for people, apparently anyone, to come and fill the pews. “Try our Sundays. They are better than Baskin-Robbins”.

There ought to be a law.

What really irks me though is when I think that these pastors are charged with “teaching the Word” — not boistering their attendance levels or being cute and clever. With the terribly limited space on these signs (which cost more than $2,000 to install), you would think they would at least put a verse of the week on it. But I guess that might just offend some people. Christians are supposed to be non-offensive, right?

What if a church just put this verse on their sign and left it on all year? “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.” (Romans 1:28). At least most everyone would have learned one verse by the end of the year - whether or not they went to church. And some might have actually bothered to contemplate what it means, or looked up the verse on their own and maybe even read the whole chapter.

And even if that didn’t happen, at least the pastor and his staff couldn’t be held to blame if people remained ignorant of the Bible. But modifying the Bible and coming up with little clever, modernist sayings (bumper sticker nonsense) seems to me to say you think that your own religion is cool and hip and funny. Gee, no wonder men are absent from churches in droves. That’s like the Best Buy Geek Squad promos - but at least they admit they are geeks. I’d rather see a pastor be serious and preach some “shock and awe” than to see childish sayings like we are all a bunch of neanderthals who just need to be “teased” into coming to church.

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