Donald Seitz had suffered through a long day during a bad week at his office on Nashville\u2019s famous Music Row.<\/p>\n\n
On his way home from a business call, he drove past the Greater Pleasant View Baptist Church in Brentwood, Tenn. As usual, the no-tech sign out front offered a folksy thought for the week. This one caught his eye.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cHe who kneels before God can stand before anyone,\u201d it said, in black, movable letters inserted by hand into slots on a plain white background.<\/p>\n\n
Seitz pulled over and got out of his car to study the sign.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all about timing,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve driven past thousands of church signs in my life, but this was the right sign on the right day. It got me. That\u2019s the thing about these signs. They grab you when you least expect it. They move you, somehow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Before long, the president of Redbird Music crossed the line between intrigued and somewhat obsessed.<\/p>\n\n
Along with his wife and their young son, he packed their car full of camera equipment and \u201clots of sippy cups\u201d and hit the road. His goal was to find as many of these old-fashioned signs as possible \u2014 the kind that say things like \u201cCoincidence is when God chooses to remain anonymous,\u201d \u201cExercise daily, walk with the Lord,\u201d \u201cGod answers knee mail\u201d and \u201cGive God what is right, not what is left.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
They spread their trips over three years and Seitz stopped keeping track of the miles after they passed the 20,000 mark. The result was \u201cThe Great American Book of Church Signs,\u201d which contains 100 photographs taken in nearly 40 states. The pilgrimage, he said, was like reading \u201cone long American sermon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Seitz did have questions. He wondered if these signs are still common at rural churches, but rarely used by city megachurches. Also, do some denominations embrace them, while others they are too simplistic? Would he find a red-church vs. blue-church pattern?<\/p>\n\n
Many of his preconceptions were based on his experiences living and driving in the Bible Belt, especially two-lane roads in the Southeast.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThis book could have been done in Tennessee, alone. In fact, I think I could have done a whole book in Nashville,\u201d said Seitz, laughing. \u201cIn this part of the world, you can throw a rock in just about any direction and hit four or five churches that have these signs. \u2026<\/p>\n\n
\u201cChurch signs are more common in some places than others, but if you keep looking you\u2019ll find them at all kinds of churches all over the country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Thus, the Harmony Hill Church of God in Fayetteville, Tenn., proclaimed, \u201cFaith is a journey, not a destination.\u201d But Seitz also found a sign that said, \u201cLove God with all of your heart, then do whatever you want\u201d in front of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York, New York.<\/p>\n\n
The Tompkinsville (Ken.) Church of Christ\u2019s sign warned rural drivers that, \u201cA dam holds water back. It\u2019s not my last name. God.\u201d On the other side of the doctrinal aisle, the sign at the South Church Unitarian Universalist sanctuary in Portsmouth, N.H., announced \u2014 with typically broad-minded sentiments \u2014 that, \u201cTrue religion is the life we lead, not the creed we profess.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Seitz said he was surprised that he saw very few signs that included political themes, although it was easy to read between the lines of one that said, \u201cThe Ten Commandments are still posted here.\u201d It was <\/p>\n
also easy to interpret another marquee that stressed, \u201cGod is not a Republican or a Democrat.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
This is not advanced theology. The message on a typical sign is only eight words long and is the product of a volunteer\u2019s clever imagination, research in old church bulletins or, in the digital age, a quick search on the World Wide Web. Most combine a chuckle with a moral message that strives to appeal to strangers as well as members.<\/p>\n\n
After all of his travels, Seitz decided that the archetypal church-sign message was this one: \u201cLife is fragile. Handle with prayer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s succinct, it has that little pun in there and it\u2019s powerful, if you think about it for a minute,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s the essence of a good church sign message. That\u2019s what you\u2019re trying to do \u2014 get people to stop and think for a minute.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Donald Seitz had suffered through a long day during a bad week at his office on Nashville\u2019s famous Music Row. On his way home from a business call, he drove past the Greater Pleasant View Baptist Church in Brentwood, Tenn. As usual, the no-tech sign out front offered a folksy thought for the week. This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[42,114,216,1534,444],"class_list":["post-1422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-advertising","tag-bible-belt","tag-church-life","tag-evangelicals","tag-humor"],"yoast_head":"\n