Volley #4

Volley # 4: No Sign of an Episcopal Church in Town
Check out your church property: is the main sign identifying the church building (where worship actually occurs), placed to be noticed, or placed NOT to be? We Episcopalians are past masters at hiding ourselves from people who don’t already know us. Contrary to all logic, we have some churches in this diocese with signs that are discretely located so that they will not be seen until the church has already been found and the car stopped!
Sure, the church sign looks great tucked into that inset of the church building, placed at parallel to the church wall, or perhaps even attached flat against the church wall. That means it is perfectly readable—to someone who has already located the building, parked the car, gotten out, and found the main entrance. But the newcomer who has no idea where the Episcopal church in town is located has passed by and is now checking out the larger “Methobapterian” church down the street, which has a large, lighted, readable sign right out on the church lawn facing traffic.
Let’s drag those church signs out and place them in view of the people who need to see them! The little swinging metal signs we are ordering are great for directing people toward the church from the edge of town and from intersections leading to us, but they are not intended to be the main church sign. And here are some additional points:
• Light the main sign if at all possible. People pass by on Saturday night, too, and we do have evening events. (Solar-energy spotlights are available.)
• Choose a simple, easy-to-read lettering, and stick to it. Banish Gothic Texts! No one can read them!
• Include “Episcopal” in the church name. That is who we are.
• Make the worship times large enough to be seen from a moving vehicle.
• Don’t bother with the name of the rector, unless he is famous, or perhaps if she is a woman (which might attract the inquisitive). Otherwise, it isn’t “first view” information.
• Include the congregation’s web address. A majority of first-time visitors now check out the website first, before they ever attend worship.
• Don’t use jargon like “Eucharist” or “Rector.” Once inside, people begin to learn our terminology, but the sign out front is not the place to hit them with it.
• Do include brief parking directions, such as “Parking in the Rear.”
I don’t know if we’ll ever get to the point where the attendant at every Seven-Eleven knows that there is an Episcopal congregation in town, and where it is. Maybe we could get to the point, though, where most people looking for us don’t have to stop at the Seven-Eleven to ask.