When choosing a sign for your church, you want to positively represent your congregation to the public in order to attract interest. Church signs should be inviting and send the right message about your faith and your community. There’s no one way to design a church sign—it really depends on a variety of factors. Let’s take a fresh look at church sign design.
Deciding whether to add messages to your church sign
Clever sayings on church signs get a lot of attention. In fact, when most people think of church signs, they immediately call to mind the letter boards and LED boards displaying memorable slogans. Some of this attention is good—and some may be not-so-good—so if you’re trying to be clever, you want to think carefully about the message you’re conveying and if it’s right for your congregation.
Should you be displaying clever messages at all?
Some churches want to be a bit cheeky in order to get their personality across. For others, this might be the wrong tone, but your messages don’t have to be funny. For instance, you could show a new Bible verse that’s relevant to the sermon each week—or a simple message of “Our doors are open” if you want to welcome new visitors. It’s also a great way to post your mass times or announce events like bingo or potlucks.
Is LED right for your church?
Using an LED board to display your messages definitely makes them hard to miss, but if your church’s style is more traditional than modern, LED might be too flashy. Using a letter board avoids the flashiness of an illuminated church sign, but they’re more laborious to change manually—with a digital message board, you can update your message from a computer or phone within seconds. Message boards can be added to monument signs, which typically sit at eye level and will therefore be just as inviting as your messages.
Traditional carved signs for traditional churches
Displaying messages on a board—whether it’s a simple letter board or an LED board—may not fit your church’s atmosphere at all. For traditional and more ornate churches, your perfect sign may be traditional to match. Carved signs are especially classic and can be added to a monument sign that matches your church’s architecture. If your building and landscape incorporates stone and brick, your monument can as well. You may opt for a small and subtle carved sign rather than one mounted to a monument—but monument signs come in all shapes and sizes, so they can be small and subtle as well. To make your carved sign even more elegant, you can use gold-embossed letters.
When thinking about carved signs, you may immediately think they’re carved out of wood—but many modern signs are made with High Density Urethane. This material has the same classic look of wood but is more durable and better equipped to handle rough weather conditions so your church sign remains aesthetically pleasing and inviting through rain, sleet, or snow.
Pick the church sign that’s right for your congregation
By talking to a sign designer with experience creating church signs, you can get a better idea of what other churches of your denomination and size are doing. Ultimately, however, you have many options when it comes to choosing a sign for your church—the decision just needs to feel right. There’s no reason not to try something different and new for your church if you think it’ll get across the message you want to convey!
