With the Blues in the playoffs, makeshift signs in support of the team have gone up all over St. Louis and across Missouri.  One church managed to get in a shameless plug for the Blues while mentioning Jesus.

Love’em or hate’em, church signs are a part of our culture in Missouri.  Festus is no exception.  I must admit while being a Baptist, I may notice church signs a little more than most.  Even so, I still believe everyone looks at them regardless of what denomination they are.  Some are simple while others maybe try a little too hard.

A few years ago, I noticed two churches on the same street in Festus had their interchangeable signs showing very similar messages.  So, what was a radio reporter to do?  Write up a story on it, naturally.  Here it is as it was November 2013.  Look for added commentary in parenthesis.

“Different Denominations, Same Message”

Church signs.  Sometimes used to invite the community to church events. Other times Bible verses are quoted to be an encouragement to those passing by.

But I’ll let you decide what it means when two different denominations less than a half mile from each other have the same message.

Near the railroad tracks on North Mill in Festus, the sign outside First Christian Church-Disciples of Christ says, “When life gets too hard to stand – kneel.”

And on the same stretch of road, the old Presbyterian Church, now New Testament Baptist Church, at the corner of North Mill and North 2nd street, has this message, “For long-standing problems – try kneeling.”

I discovered this – only by coincidence – when I was driving to a Wednesday night Bible Study that I attend south of Festus. (This comment was an attempt to give me some credibility to be able to talk about church signs. If you haven’t guessed by now, I’m a Christian. Life note: We moved our family to Crystal City in 2016. We also still meet in Festus for Bible Study.)

If you think about it, illuminated church messages are like the original church twitter feed. That made me wonder what other interesting church sign messages are out there in Google land. I found a site called beliefnet.com (which is no longer in operation) that pictured a long list of clever sayings. Here were some of my favorites…

Church shopping? We’re open Sundays.

Sign broke. Come inside for the message on Sunday.

God wants full custody, not just weekend visits.

Cars are not the only thing recalled by their maker.

And the best one…

Without Jesus, there would be hell to pay.

What’s your favorite sign message?  Comment below or @ me on Twitter @chatwithstumac.  #churchsigns #church #signs