Almost everybody who uses exit 151 on the Parkway to get to and from Montclair has noticed the signs. “Gave Up Changing the Sign for Lent.” “Think It’s Hot Now…” and famously (because it wound up on the Today Show) “God Has No Favorites. Sign Does. Go NJ Giants.” They’re almost always clever, forcing me into a split-second decision every time I pass by: stop so I can take a picture, or move onto my destination. I always wondered who dreamt the signs up, and yesterday I got the pleasure of meeting him. The man behind the sign is Rev. Glenn Ferguson, who has held the pulpit at the Watchung Presbyterian Church in Bloomfield for the past 22 years. He’s modest, soft-spoken and has an office filled with replicas of penguins. “They remind me of people,” he said. “At the same time they look dignified, they’re also very silly.”
The signs, Rev. Ferguson says, are sometimes original, sometimes suggested by parishioners (usually after trips down south, where funny signs are common), sometimes cribbed from books or the internet. “If you think it’s hot…” was not original, but the Giants sign was, as was the follow-up the next week: “Maybe God does.” And the two-punch isn’t uncommon. Rev. Ferguson once put out a sign that merely said “Why” and then, the following week, another sign that said, “Why not?”
“It spoke to the existential part of me,” Rev. Ferguson said. “I had somebody actually come to church because of that one. But he never came back.”
It turns out that for Rev. Ferguson, just as with us at Baristanet, humor is a two-edged sword, garnering ire as well as praise, and there are also, in church, the equivalent of slow news days.
“I was having a slow day and I put up, ‘Never eat powdered donuts when wearing a dark suit.’” A woman wrote to him saying, “No wonder your church is dying,” and suggested a sign merely saying “Praise God” would be better.
“I wrote back and said God has a sense of humor,” Rev. Ferguson said.
He also caught flack for a sign that suggested, “Plant a tree you’ll never sit under” and for one that said, “Save gas money. Don’t go to the shore. Come to church.”
Again a nasty anonymous note, this one from someone who complained that “if that’s your kind of God” — one who would discourage beach trips — he was having none of it.
“To me, it’s simply a pleasant way to have a lesson,” Rev. Ferguson said. “I want people to think, have a laugh. That’s all.”
The sweetest story involving the sign was a fellow who asked if he could use it to propose marriage to his girlfriend, who passed it every day on the way to work. It said, simply, “Will you marry me” and the asker stood next to the sign to make sure it registered. And yes, she stopped. And said yes.
Ha, can’t believe I’ve never noticed the signs. I’ll have to start paying attention. Who couldn’t use a chuckle when going to/returning from work?
I have seen these now and again and gotten a chuckle. Will also have to pay more attention. The fact that people took the time to send mean-spirited, anonymous notes tells you that the sign is working.
Love these signs. Love this guy. Won’t go to church, though.
That proposal story is pretty cool. Guys who propose at a sporting event to be seen on the jumbotron and get a round of applause? Not cool. Lame.
“Almost everybody who uses exit 151 on the Parkway to get to and from Montclair…”
Does that mean they finally finished construction on the exit 151 off ramp?
No, but if you’re heading to Montclair from the north on the Parkway, you can still take exit 151.
I’ve never noticed. I don’t pay much attention to church signage.
I’m surprised I never noticed the signs, but I agree wholeheartedly with Rev. Ferguson that God has a sense of humor. Good for him for using humor to get his message across.
“God Has a Sense of Humor…”
She has to.
Presbies are not widely known for their sense of humor. So Reverend Ferguson seems a prominent exception, though his toying with the signage would never fly in the Vatican-like precincts for worldwide Presbyterianism of Scotland.
The use of the phrase “just as with us,” however, was quite a stretch. One even smacking of mild desperation by the Baristas.
I’ve noticed these signs – brightens my day.
You’re a smart man Conan.
Zeus has a better sense of humor but not nearly as good as Odin’s.