JOE KELLY                     
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Column for 5.16.12
While driving south on Genesee Street in Utica on Sunday, May 13th, I saw a message on the outdoor sign at Trinity Lutheran Church.

I liked the message so much I stopped the car and took this picture: (see picture 1 below)

The following day, May 14, while driving through Boonville, I saw another sign and another message, this one on the United Methodist Church on Main Street. I liked this message, too, so I stopped and got out of the car and took this picture: (see picture 2 below)

I’ve been collecting messages from the signs outside of churches for many years. I write them down and stick them in a file. Actually, I used to do it that way. These days I type them into my cell phone and e-mail them to myself.

Some messages on those outside church signs are thought provoking. Some are serious. Some are funny.

Some, such as this church sign message, are a play on words: Have Your Faith-lift Here

Once on a winter trip in Vermont, I saw this message: Come Inside. God is Warm.

And while vacationing in Florida, on a very hot day, I saw this message outside a church in Tampa: Cool Sermon Inside.

People who know of my collection send messages to me, thus enabling me to devote a column, from time to time, to church message boards. Or as Blanche DuBois once so famously said in A Streetcar Named Desire, “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.”

Me, too, Blance, at least when it comes to writing columns about church message boards.

Here are some of those messages:

Our Boss is a Jewish Carpenter

A Clean Conscience Makes a Soft Pillow.

Get in Touch with God through Knee-mail

A Hug - One Size Fits All

What Sunshine is to Flowers, Smiles are to People

Find Love Within

Feeling Down? Look Up.

Happiness is an Inside Job

Fight Truth Decay

Each Day is a Gift From God. That’s Why It’s Called a Present

Exercise Daily. Walk With the Lord.

The Most Important Things In Life Are Not Things.

God is a Know It All

Need a New Life? God Accepts Trade-ins

Luck Has Nothing To Do With It

Rainbows - A Gift From God.

Without Jesus, There Would Be Hell To Pay

And then there is the anti-sign message: Sign Broken. The Message Is Inside.