The Suburban Christian mentions an interesting phenomenon that has to do with churches and—to some extent—marketing:

Another megachurch example of parish localism happened at Rick Warren's church, Saddleback Church in Orange County, a totally suburban environment. After 9/11, Saddleback provided lawn signs to their church members. The signs said "Pray for Peace" or something like that. Folks went home and put the lawn signs on their lawns. As it turned out, people saw these lawn signs pop up all over their neighborhoods, down the block, across the street. They discovered that all these other Saddleback Christians lived in the same area. They had no idea that these neighbors were Christians, let alone went to the same church! And out of that a lot of local small groups were developed, and people became intentional about creating community in their local suburban neighborhoods. Not only did this help them connect with Christian friends that were nearby, these groups had better evangelistic witness and ministry impact in their neighborhoods.

Wonder if that would have happened 100 years ago. Jump over to read the rest of the post.

I have a sticker on my journal from my church, which happens to be a rather large church in the area. About once a month I'll get a knowing nod from someone or a "Hey, I go/went there!" In a way it's almost like a code word or a secret handshake for social situations. I'll admit, it's kind of pleasant to have an instant 'in' to talk with people about faith matters.

Anyone else experience something similar? Other thoughts?