God Is

I know we have all seen those pictures of those church signs, some of them cringy, some of them beautiful, some of them are only used to advertise the times of the service and the name of the pastor. Much like the churches themselves, some use the platform to promote the gospel, some use the platform to promote politics and some just use the platform to promote themselves. I have always been fascinated with church signs, mainly because I love words and I see it as an opportunity to share 1 or 2 sentences about your heart as a church.

I drive by some churches and they use their sign as an opportunity to guilt you into attending. I drive by some churches and they use their sign to guilt you into giving money. I drive by some churches and they use their sign to encourage you to bring your friends. I drive by some churches and they use their sign to promote their next big event. They all interest me because someone that attends the church thought “this is what I want the people driving by to know”.

I know the saying is “don’t judge a book by its cover” but I won’t lie, I judge a church by their sign. If the sign comes off as harsh or manipulative I automatically assume it is a church that wouldn’t love like Jesus. When I see a sign that is trying so hard to blend into the culture around it, I assume that it is not a church that preaches the gospel. I really hope to be proven wrong in these assumptions but before that could happen I would have to drop my pride and attend a service.

I say all of this so I can share this story. When I was 10 or 11 my family was asked if we wanted to manage the church sign at the church we attended at the time. Even then, I remember being so excited at the possibilities. We could use this to encourage people, we could use this to make people want to attend, it was so exciting. We went to Lifeway Christian Bookstore and bought a book of church sign quotes. I wish I still had this book so I could give some examples from it but what I remember is the feeling I got looking through it, nothing resonated with me.

All of the quotes in the book felt so far from genuine, I was too young to know why it didn’t feel right but I knew that none of these things were honest. They were either a play on words to be funny or a cliche statement that sounds good but doesn’t help in the end. I couldn’t decide which one to use.

We get to church for the Wednesday evening service and we go to ask the pastor what he thinks should be on the sign for the first week. He looked at me and said “God is”. I thought it was an incomplete sentence at first and I was confused, I waited for him to finish, God is what? That was it, there were no more words.

I asked him why “God is” and he said because “God is”. We had those two words on the church sign for weeks and we heard numerous stories of people driving by who were encouraged by those simple words. I was still too young to fully grasp the significance of that statement but I knew it was genuine. God is.

God is good

God is faithful

God is love

God is forgiveness

God is a God of second chances

God is a good father

God is so much bigger than the boxes that we put him in and so much bigger than the letters on church signs . God is a shoulder to cry on when we just can’t bear the weight of the world any longer. God is bigger than my pride or my judgement of different members of the body. God is unity. God is community. God is love without an agenda. Simply put, God is.