Handheld signs are a powerful tool for making people feel welcome at your church. The signs pop and stand out from the surrounding parking lot, trees, and cars, and more than just present a splash of color, they draw attention to the faces of people on your team who are holding them.

While it may seem obvious how to use a handheld sign, here are some ways to encourage a new team member to make the most of the opportunity to welcome your guests, and some design choices that can help your signage stand out.

The goal of your handheld welcome signs is to attract attention to the people holding them so that they can be friendly faces as your guest's first impression.

9 Ways That Your Church Welcome Signs Can Make The Biggest Impact On Your Guests:

Have Volunteers Hold The Handheld Welcome Sign Below Your Face

The real purpose of the sign is to grab attention, not to be the attention. The real attention needs to be on the smiling face of the person who is holding the sign. A guest at your church isn't going to feel welcome because of a sign as much as they'll feel welcome by having a person greeting them.

Volunteers In Group At Your Church Parking Lot Entrance

If one person holding a handheld sign draws attention, then a whole group of people holding signs draws that much more attention. Having a group of volunteers together also keeps the energy high as they're enjoying each other's company between cars pulling in, and they can look after some logistics together like checking that each person's sign is facing the right way up!

Choose Contrasting Colors In Your Handheld Sign Design

If your team is going to be standing at the edge of your parking lot, choose a design that isn't going to blend in like a grey or black sign. If you're in a parking garage with white or grey concrete walls and pillars, choose bright colors to contrast easily. If your church parking lot is lined with trees or hedges, stay away from green backgrounds, and explore bright blue, orange, or purple.

Consider where your sign holders will be standing, and what's around them - the side of your building, trees, cornfield, other buildings in the area - then choose colors that will complement or contrast those, not blend in.

You Don't Have To Choose The Same Font As Your Logo

Not to say you can't, but if your logo font is hand-brushed, or has a lot of intricate detail, it may not work well for a handheld sign in your church parking lot that someone may read for 1-2 seconds as they're driving by. In this case, the design is defeating the purpose.

All of the designs in our catalog can be customized any way you'd like, and keep in mind that our designers have intentionally designed these handheld signs in a specific way on purpose.

Choose functional over design so that your message is clear.

Less Is More in Handheld Sign Designs

Your handheld sign artwork needs to be read in about 1 second as someone is driving by. "Welcome Back" is a great example of a clear message that a lot of churches want to communicate: "If you've been to our church before, we're really happy that you came back!"

Remember what handheld signs are not: Announcements or information. They are to bring a quick smile to someone and attract attention to the excited person who is holding the sign. Create your artwork that that intention in mind.

Choose The Right People To Hold Signs In Your Church Parking Lot

We might instantly think that the friendliest people who are always smiling make the best sign holders. This is often the case, but if you have team members who want to stop and hug people through their car window, or want to get into really in-depth conversations with other sign holders, then you're going to have an issue with traffic flow, or distracted team members.

Maybe Another Job Is A Better Fit?

If you find someone who really wants to dig into deep conversations or get to know people, then a great position for them in your first impressions team might be the person at the information center who helps guests get their gift and find a small group.

They may also be a fit at kids check-in. Someone who meets a family and makes conversation as they guide them through the registration process, and shows them to each of their kids' classrooms.

The inverse is also true.

If you find someone with a great smile and high energy, but they just have an awkward time making conversation with a new guest, you may have identified a great opportunity for them to hold a sign and wave at cars pulling into the parking lot to make a positive first impression there.

Get Handheld Signs That Are Meant For Outdoors

This one may seem obvious, but don't assume that anywhere you can buy a square sign is making them out of a material that is made to withstand some elements. Even if you don't plan to have people out holding signs in the rain (who would?) you'll still want them to be water-resistant in case it suddenly starts raining and your team runs in from the parking lot.

Having signs that are not weather resistant means even a few raindrops, a splash from windshield washer fluid, or a spilled coffee can ruin the artwork on your handhelds.

Rounded Corners

You might think we're getting into the weeds here, but all it takes is one gust of wind and a handheld sign goes flying across the parking lot towards someone's car or worse, someone's kid.

Want to leave a poor first impression at your church? Jab someone with the corner of a sign when they get out of their car, or scratch up their hood.

Rounded corners may sound like a small detail, and let's hope it never happens at your church, but the chance it might isn't worth the risk.

Have Multiple Welcome Signs For Variety

If you've been in your communication role for any amount of time, you'll already know that people tune out repetition. If every Sunday, it's the same person holding the same sign by the parking lot, it will start to blend in with your church members' Sunday morning routine.

Create variety by having different people at different entrances and switch up your signs from location to location and person to person. One week have "Welcome" handheld signs and the next week have a design that matches your sermon series, or event (Like Happy Mothers Day, Fathers Day, or Merry Christmas).

You can also change your signs from season to season, and since our handheld signs are made of high-quality durable material, you can save them from one year to the next.

FAST Design And Shipping!

Choose any handheld sign from our catalog. If you'd like to order as is, we can get it printed and in the mail to you the following day. If you'd like customizations, our design team is ready to help at no additional charge. Once your design is approved, we can get it printed and on its way to you right away.

Get started Ordering Your Handheld Signs!