New Sign lighting, ice cream social

For more than 20 years, Friendship United Methodist Church, 305 E. Boughton Road, Bolingbrook, IL 60440, has been know as the “church with the sign”. Church members and the youth of the church post messages weekly that are uplifting, challenging, thought provoking and sometimes funny. Now, they can be known as the “church with the ‘new’ sign”.

To celebrate the completion of a nine-month project from inception to completion of construction of the twelve foot by ten foot sign, the church is inviting the Village of Bolingbrook to an ice cream social on August 12, 2012, at 7:30pm.

“We’ll meet on the front lawn of the church, and have an old fashioned ice cream social, giving everyone that attends a chance to eat ice cream and pastries, meet the people of Friendship, hear a short history of the old sign and witness the lighting of the new sign at dusk,” Rev. Kyunghae “Anna” Shin, the church’s pastor, said.

According to the pastor, it’s not unusual for someone to call the church office and say “thanks” for a specific message that helped or inspired them. “When explaining just which church we are, saying “the church with the sign” always does the trick. Yet during this reconstruction we have been both surprised and deeply moved by how many calls we have gotten from our neighbors wondering if we had been vandalized and inquiring about plans for the new sign.”

Rev. Shin credited the church’s Trustees with developing the design of the sign, and constructing the new one so it met the Village’s requirement to fit the original sign’s footprint. “The officers and staff all felt it was time to update the sign to our more modern name and logo; and increase the amount of room for our weekly messages,” Rev. Shin stated. 

 A contest was held among church members to select the first message that will be posted from among five submitted. “The winning message truly reflects the basic tenets of our congregation and faith,” Re. Shin said, “and its how we open every service at Friendship. The sign will read ‘New Sign, Same Message. God is good, all the time.’”

 Village officials have been invited to attend and reflect on the 30-year heritage of the church.