FRANKLIN, TN — The hospitality committee at Cornerstone Community Church has entered its third year of deliberations over a visitor parking sign, a project first proposed in October 2023 and described at the time as “straightforward.”

The sign, intended to reserve two spaces near the main entrance for first-time guests, has been redesigned eleven times, referred back to the facilities subcommittee four times, and tabled once due to a scheduling conflict with the harvest festival. No sign has been ordered. No spaces have been designated. Visitors continue to park wherever they find room, unaware that a committee is actively caring about them.

“We want to get this right,” said Donna Fitch, 61, hospitality committee chair. “A sign is the first thing a visitor sees. It communicates who we are as a church. You can’t rush that.”

Current sticking points include font selection, whether the sign should say “Visitors” or “Guests,” the theological implications of the word “Reserved,” and whether two spaces is enough or, as one member argued in February, “sends the wrong message about our growth expectations.”

“We’ve been welcoming people for two thousand years. We can take another quarter to finalize the color palette.”

Facilities coordinator Mark Osei, 48, confirmed the two spaces in question have remained empty most Sunday mornings while the committee continues its work.

At press time, the committee had formed a three-person subgroup to explore whether a second sign, pointing to the first sign, might also be warranted.