Signs

I’m not sure why I do this, but maybe you’re like me and do this too. Do you ever make sure and read every church sign that you pass by? I do, basically because there are so many funny ones and then there are the one’s that say, “hey we put a lot of thought into this.” You know the ones that I’m talking about, like the one that says: “sign broken . . . message inside.” Or maybe you’ve seen the cheesy one like I saw this week that says: “if you can’t pray a door open, don’t pry it open.” That’s just funny; it doesn’t even make sense to me. But like I said before, maybe you’re not like me, maybe, just maybe, I am the type that gets pure joy out of the witty, or unwitty thinking of others. It gives me great joy to be able to remember these signs that then be able to tell my wife, or the other youth pastors here about them.

I recently moved and when I did my commute changed. The sad thing about this commute change is that I don’t get to pass by the two churches that always have the best signs. Now on my commute, I don’t get to see any church signs.

So what am I really getting at here? Well, last Friday I had to go to the eye doctor for my yearly exam (6 months late mind you) so I could refill my contacts. On my way to the eye doctor I passed a church right up the street from where I was going. This sign gave me something to really think about while in the waiting room.

Here’s what it said, this is all it said on this big sign: “Visitors Welcome.”

Now I know you were probably expecting something more spectacular, but that’s it: “Visitors Welcome.” I can also hear all of you out there saying, “Adam, that’s a great sign, its showing that visitors are welcome at that church.” Here’s the thought process that my mind went through when I saw that sign. I started thinking about what did that church do to make it necessary to put a sign out that tells visitors that they are welcomed at this church?

It may be absolutely nothing that they did, but why must we even have signs that say anything like that. Shouldn’t that be assumed? Now, I know the old saying if you assume you make a, well you know the rest. I mean, shouldn’t that be a known fact that visitors are welcomed? Shouldn’t we as Christ followers make it a point to ensure that when people do visit that they feel so welcomed, that they go and tell people how welcomed they felt? Would that make it unnecessary for us to have a sign outside that tells people they are welcomed to come?

I know I shouldn’t get this way when I see these things, but I just do. I want Jesus oozing out of me so much that people feel welcomed whether it is at the grocery store or when they walk into my church building. I want people to walk away knowing that there is love in this place. I don’t want a sign to tell people that there is love because we welcome visitors. Maybe I’m wrong here, but I just think that God wants us to love people so much that there is never a time that anyone can second guess whether we are warm and welcoming to our visitors.

My thought is this: When will we stop just putting out signs and really start just loving people?