A visitor attended our morning worship service this past week. She was greeted by one of our elders and mentioned that she was looking for a conservative church for herself and a young adult daughter. She drives by our church, which is in a residential area, on her commute to work. A simple vinyl banner on our property caught her eye, led to an internet search, and ultimately to her visit.
Our church facility has road frontage on two major thoroughfares and has afforded us the opportunity to utilize 4X8 banners to make various statements. The most recent set of banners have a bold green background with these words: “Standing on the Bible since 1782” and the web address for our denomination. Our hope was to create interest in our church by making a very bold but generic statement. Most people don’t understand church-words that mean so much to us.
We wanted these recent banners to let our passers-by know something most basic and of greatest importance about us: we are part of a church that has been “Standing on the Bible since 1782”.
Many people are looking for a church that is conservative, Bible-believing, and has reverent worship. A good number of churches in our area, whether mainline or contemporary, are driven by a set of standards that don’t sit right with people. They can’t put their finger on the issue, but they know something has gone wrong.
As the Lord would have it, a brother who has been kicking our tires for several years and has just left the local mainline Presbyterian church, was presented for membership in the service.
Our visitor’s story was unknown to me at the time of our new member presentation. I made mention of the banners, our brother’s difficult decision to leave his church of 40-plus years, and the fact that we have actually stood on the Bible since our forbears across the sea established a biblical church in the 1500s in Scotland.
A simple set of banners can convey something that strikes a chord in people and blesses them into eternity. Maybe our idea and small successes can be duplicated in your church setting? Most of all, let’s keep standing on the Bible!
Rev. Bryan Crotts is the pastor of First ARP Church in Burlington, NC.
Thank you, brother, for those encouraging words. We are praying for you and your congregation!
That’s a great idea, Bryan! I praise God for what He’s doing in your congregation.