Silent Words Loudly Spoken

Book excerpt: Like a miniature billboard, the church sign offers an unparalleled opportunity to promote God's kingdom beyond the walls of the congregation. Thousands of cars pass each day with potential readers of its content, so the church sign has the potential to be a powerful pulpit from which silent words are loudly spoken, communicating brief but significant messages of God's love to a spiritually thirsty world. Silent Words Loudly Spoken provides a wealth of fresh and inspiring messages that will maximize the impact of your church sign. With more than 700 uplifting, thought-provoking statements conveniently formatted to easily fit most church signs, it contains enough material to last several years. A humorous but pithy "Ten Commandments for a Good Church Sign" offers plenty of specific nuts-and-bolts advice for making the most of this powerful but sometimes overlooked ministry tool: Phrases should be short enough and letters large enough for effortless drive-by reading. Messages should be changed regularly, especially date-specific ones. "In-house" announcements better suited for the church bulletin should not be wasted on a disinterested public. Give the gift of a positive, inspirational message; negative statements turn off those the church wants to attract. David J. Claassen has been the pastor of Mayfair-Plymouth Congregational Church in Toledo, Ohio, since 1975. He is a contributing editor for his denominational magazine (The Congregationalist), and writes a weekly inspirational newspaper column. He is also the author of Object Lessons for a Year (Baker). Claassen is a graduate of Central College and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.