A friend brought up this question today as we drove past a large church, which had a yellow road sign reading “church” a short distance away from it. This might be a regionalism for Texas, because I can’t think of anywhere else I’ve seen them and I can remember if she said they exist in Arkansas or not. We speculated that the signs might alert people to expect traffic on Sunday mornings, but we could easily be a million miles off base with that. Does anyone know why churches, unlike most other buildings, are marked this way?
Does ‘Sunday Driver’ get your attention?
Schools, churches, playgrounds, and anything else that produces a much larger volume of traffic (vehicular or pedestrian) than the surrounding neighborhood may be marked with a road sign.
From the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD):
http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/kno-millennium.htm
Basically, the Church sign warns you to expect traffic entering the roadway, and possibly a large number of pedestians.
I saw a “CHURCH” sign in Pennsylvania last week. In our case, it was quite helpful, since we were looking for a church (we were going to a wedding), and the sign alerted us to it before we saw the building at the top of the hill.
I wondered about the sign as well, since I’ve never seen one in Minnesota (or anywhere else, for that matter.) I would guess that it’s so you are on the lookout for people possibly milling about the area on Sunday morning, especially since the building itself is not immediately apparent…and it serves as a useful guidepost to those who may be lost (perhaps spiritually as well as physically.)
I concur with Tamex; they are signposted because people might want to find them, same as schools, hospitals, town centres, government buildings, sports stadia etc.
According to most municipal zoning codes, church directional signs located in the public right-of-way are illegal. Churches are bound by the same sign regulations as secular entities. However, enforcement action could open up a whole can of worms. In any small town, several of the town commissioners or councilpeople will likely belong to one of those churches with an illegal sign; enforcement action won’t cost a planner or code enforcement officer their job, but it’s often more trouble than it’s worth. There’s bigger battles to fight, which are much easier to win.
In talking with many planners and code enforcement officers, their policy is usually “leave the really old signs alone, and go after new signs that pop up.” In the Bible Belt, there’s essentially no enforcement, period.
According to most municipal zoning codes, church directional signs located in the public right-of-way are illegal. Churches are bound by the same sign regulations as secular entities. However, enforcement action could open up a whole can of worms. In any small town, several of the town commissioners or councilpeople will likely belong to one of those churches with an illegal sign; enforcement action won’t cost a planner or code enforcement officer their job, but it’s often more trouble than it’s worth. There’s bigger battles to fight, which are much easier to win.
In talking with many planners and code enforcement officers, their policy is usually “leave the really old signs alone, and go after new signs that pop up.” In the Bible Belt, there’s essentially no enforcement, period.
…on a slightly related note, around here (suburban Washington, DC) you can also find “official-looking” signs for churches that are not intended to be warnings (the way the yellow diamond-shaped signs are.) These signs are brown (like signs for museums and parks), and indicate that there is a church this way or that way, e.g.,
Calvary Baptist Church
3 Blocks
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They definitely have the appearance (font, color, materials, reflective properties) of the other signs on the road, and so do not appear to fall into the category of advertisements. They often share signposts with traffic signs (speed limits, etc.) Does anyone know how installation and maintenance costs are handled for signs like this? Surely someone has thought to challenge these signs if public money is supporting them, but maybe it can be justified as a public service to visitors/newcomers, assuming no religion is given preference over any other.
In the UK, ‘Church’ signs will often appear as part of larger road signs at junctions (you know, with directions and distances for all routes) - but so do Mosques and Hindu temples, it’s just to help people find where they are going (physically, not spiritually).
No, it’s to warn you of all of those good christian folks roaring out of the parking lot after church. 
Similar to signs warning you of ‘trucks entering the highway’.