Yard Sign Push Back

Our FACE YOUR FEARS yard signs have become the talk of the town. I was at a luncheon at LCBC last week and one of their staff members asked if we were doing anything special for Easter. I told him about our signs and he replied, “Those signs are yours? I see them all over the place!” I was also at a funeral this week and had someone not from our church comment to me about the yard signs. In fact, I had someone from our church say they passed one of our signs all the way up in Pine Grove and another person say they spotted one clear out in Chambersburg. But, as you can imagine, not all the feedback we are getting is positive. This week we also had the following e-mail sent to the church as a result of our signs:

“Shoulda known all those signs were for religious reasons. being in lititz surrounded by money hungry menonites. anyway, i fear no god, or death. only thing i fear is what going on with health coverage, how im gonna pay rent next month, where the next 400 dollar grocery tab is gonna come from to feed 5 people. where the next jobs gonna be. can you do that? if i join your church and act like im afraid of death and fear your fake god are you gonna pay for all that for me? or are you just gonna keep asking for my money so you can keep building your church bigger, and bigger, and bigger AND BIGGER AND BIGGER. like all churches do? thought so.”

That response confirms many things. It confirms first of all that our signs are worlking and that we have chosen a topic – fear – which is a real issue in our country today. People are scared. They’re scared about the economy; they’re scared about the job market; and they're scared about the changes taking place in our healthcare system. So our topic has hit the bulls-eye!

It also confirms that many people are blaming God for the woes and fears we are all facing. That’s why it is so important for us to be faithful to proclaim the hope that we have in Jesus to our community. That’s why even these signs are important because God is using them to open up dialogues with people who are hurting and who are searching. So I replied to the above e-mail with this simple response:

Thanks for taking the time to send your e-mail to our church. My name is Scott Distler and I am the Sr Pastor here at Grace. I can fully understand your fear regarding many of the things going on in our country from the economy to the job market to the changes being made in healthcare. I share many of those same fears and concerns. I also agree with you that, unfortunately, many times the church has come across as a selfish organization that only seems to be trying to get in the pockets and purses of people. I can assure you that this is not the case here at Grace Church. In fact, I would love to have you attend one of our Easter weekend services (April 3 – 5pm; April 4 – 8:30am; 10am; 11:03am) to see for yourself. If you do, I would also love to have you send me an e-mail afterwards to let me know what your experience here at Grace was like. That would be very beneficial to me. Give it some thought and again, thanks for the e-mail.