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Imagine seeing a picture of your church's sign on the front page of an Australian newspaper. That's what happened to Mike Murphy, pastor of First Baptist Church in Crawford, Texas.

On a November morning in 2000, Murphy arrived early at the church and changed the message on the marquee to reflect the outcome of the previous day's election. He took the black movable letters and spelled out "Crawford Texas, Home of President George W. Bush," and then left to drive his morning bus route.

When he returned to the church, his wife called. "You might want to change the sign," she said. Murphy turned on CNN and saw the election still had not been decided. He grabbed more magnetic letters and went out to correct the sign. Moving his previous message up a row, he added a new row at the bottom and with five letters he spelled out a single word: "Maybe."

The sign was photographed by a Ft. Worth photographer, and then picked up by Reuters. The next day the picture appeared in major newspapers around the world. "A family from Waco was in Australia and they saw the picture on the front page of the newspaper and brought it back to me," says Murphy, who has quite a collection of clippings.

Your church sign may not be seen in Australia; but its message has the potential to reach more people than almost anything else your church does.

The first church signs were located near the main door of the church and contained basic information such as the church name, service times and the name of the pastor. "Early signs were parallel to the street and intended to be read by those walking by or riding a horse," says Dr. L. James Harvey, author of 701 Sentence Sermons and 701 More Sentence Sermons, both by Kregel Publications. "Later signs were lighted, contained sermon titles, and were turned so they could be read by those driving by in cars."

As signs became easier for motorists to read, "The whole purpose changed," says Verlyn Verbrugge, pastor of Woodland Drive-in Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and author of Your Church Sign (Zondervan). "Now you have signs used as a marketing device to draw attention to the doctrinal stance of the church." Many churches have gotten creative in how they use movable letters to create customized messages.

"The adding of 'sentence sermons' is, as far as I can determine, a relatively new (last 10-15 years) trend, and it's rapidly growing," says Harvey, who defines a "sentence sermon" as a brief statement that contains an important truth. "I coined the term because if done well each sentence sermon 'preaches' a self-contained truth."

"I think the most effective signs are those that give passersby something to chew on," says Tina Rabb, who coauthored the book The Proverbial Marquee: Words to Drive By, with Deborah Davies (CSS Publishing). "Sure, you want the message to be a quick read—it has to be, considering its fleeting exposure—but after the initial 'I get it' moment, you want a mulling moment to follow."

A good sign triggers people's thoughts, and causes them to wonder. Verbrugge says, "It should draw attention to the church, motivate them to read their Bible, and make them think about something more spiritual than the traffic. It should bless people, challenge them and be an evangelistic tool for church marketing."

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