LearnSigns 012: Church Signs

Hello! Welcome to LearnSigns.com lesson number 12.

In this lesson we are going to talk about church signs. Church signs. These are words that you would use in church. Now, some church words are used differently in different types of churches. Depending on the denomination or the type of church. And, so what I am going to teach you is what we use in our churches. But this is not necessarily the way it is done in every church. And, even among—I am a baptist—even among Baptist churches, the signs can be different from one church to another. So, these are not…most of these are absolute. There is a way to do them. But there are some of these signs, and I will show you that, that very even among just people that I know and then into other churches. So just be aware of that and be careful when you are doing signs in church or when you are talking about church-type words. Just be aware that there are different ways to do it. And it’s OK to learn another way to do it. That is perfectly fine. The way I am teaching you is the way I do it and the way the folks I hang around do sign language. But you may be learning signs from a different region and the Deaf will do it a different way. That is perfectly fine. Learn from them. What I want to give you is the basics to be able to communicate, but certainly you can learn much more vocabulary by just interacting with your friends.

Alright? So let’s get into this.

As we start talking about these first few words we have the word GOD and JESUS and CHRIST. These signs, while they don’t mean anything to you right now, they are just hand gestures, they do mean something to us. So…like you would respect the name of God in spoken English, you should do so in sign language as well. So you doing God’s name in an irreverent or flippant way in sign language can be offensive to people. Even though to you it is just a hand shape or hand movement. So be aware of that whenever you do these signs.

GOD GOD

GOD – I do it where I take my B-hand is out here in front and it kind of comes back towards me and down. Sometimes you will see it done where it comes from the side and comes down. That’s fine. But the idea is that GOD comes down to us. GOD

JESUS

JESUS – You are going to use your sensitive fingers. So you take your 5s and you bend your middle fingers in and you are going to touch the palms of your hands. JESUS. JESUS – show the nail prints in the hands.

CHRIST

CHRIST – This is the letter C, and if you are right handed you are going to place it on your left shoulder. And then you come down to your left hip. CHRIST. And this is based on the word KING. You do the same thing with the letter K. Right-handed put your K on your left shoulder and then bring it down to your right hip. If you are left-handed your KING starts on your right shoulder, your opposite shoulder, and then down to your left hip: the same side. Now the word CHRIST is with the letter C.

HOLY SPIRIT

HOLY SPIRIT – This is the word HOLY, and this is one of those you will see done a couple of different ways. I do a little circle and then CLEAN. Or you will see it as the H drawn across the palette, like you are doing 1 WEEK or 2 WEEKS. So this is HOLY or HOLY (like CLEAN). And then SPIRIT, SPIRIT is the numbers 5-8 on both hands. SPIRIT. HOLY SPIRIT. HOLY SPIRIT.

BIBLE – This is JESUS’ BOOK. JESUS’ BOOK. JESUS BOOK is BIBLE.

CHURCH

CHURCH – Take your letter C and you’re going to put it on the rock. “On this rock I will build my church.” CHURCH is the C on the rock.

SIN

SIN – I don’t really have an explanation for this sign. I don’t understand why we do it this way, but we do. It is the letters X, so you have both of your Xes. You are going to start right here at your chin and it comes back slightly. Back and then goes out in a circle. SIN – And you do this once or twice for the word SIN. SIN

GRACE

GRACE – There are many different ways to do the sign for GRACE. Here are the two that I use. Take the cup and put it over your heart. And then the letter G you are going to pull it out and kind of splash it back. GRACE. GRACE. Another way I do GRACE is, it is the letter G again. You are going to draw a small sun and then splash it onto yourself. GRACE GRACE – God’s GRACE is given to us. GRACE

MERCY

MERCY – This is your sensitives fingers. You are going to touch your chest like at your heart area. You rub down and then you come out and you spread the MERCY on the other person. MERCY. Again your sensitive fingers. You touch your chest at your heart area and then you put the MERCY out there. This is also the word to PITY. To PITY someone. It can be used sarcastically, “Aww, you POOR BABY.” POOR BABY. MERCY.

HEAVEN HEAVEN

HEAVEN – You will see this done many different ways as well, but the idea is that you kinda build up to something up there higher. Then you put a roof on it. Or, sometimes you will just see it straight across. The way I do it is that I have my horizon. I am going to go beyond the horizon and build a house. HEAVEN HEAVEN

HELL – Now this is the word HELL as in the place, not the curse word HELL. I am not going to teach you that one. Alright. HELL. You can do it a couple of different ways. One is to do red and then fire. HELL. Or, the other is to point down forcibly, point down forcibly and then do fire. HELL. Again this is the place.

PUNISH

PUNISH – You take your fist here and the idea is you’ve got a person, got his legs sticking out there, being held by the neck and you are beating him. PUNISH. PUNISH. You take and whack the person. The little person’s legs hanging out and you whack him. It is just this right here PUNISH. PUNISH.

REPENT

REPENT – I haven’t taught you the word yet for CHANGE, but CHANGE is the X. X on both hands, and you are going to put the base of your palms together. Right there at the wrist. One palm facing you and the other palm facing away from you. Now you rotate your palms around so that the one that was facing away from you is now facing you and vice versa. CHANGE. That is with the X. CHANGE.

Now there are several different meanings for the word CHANGE. We will deal with that later. This is the word CHANGE. Now, if you do it with the Rs that is the word REPENT. To CHANGE your mind or CHANGE your ways.

Alright. So these are church words. Let me go through them again for you.

GOD

JESUS

CHRIST

HOLY SPIRIT

BIBLE

CHURCH

SIN

GRACE or GRACE

MERCY

HEAVEN

HELL or HELL

PUNISH

REPENT REPENT

Alright. Now these are words related to what we talk about church often. I will do a video later of words that are religious words. Different religions, different denominations. So I will give you a video on just those types of words as well. There are many words that seem to be very focused to church ministry, to worship and those kinds of things. We may do several videos that are specific to that. But here are your basic church words that you will want to know.

You can find information about these words at LearnSigns.com/12. This is lesson 12, so you do LearnSigns.com/12. If you want to watch the videos with the captioning on them, I have the closed captioning on the YouTube version of the videos which is embedded at the website at LearnSigns.com. So if you are having trouble, if you are hard of hearing and learning signs and having trouble reading my lips. Then you can get the captions at YouTube or at LearnSigns.com in the video that is embedded there. Thank you for watching. I look forward to having you in the next lesson.