During the BYU-Idaho Devotional on Oct. 13, Jarrod Guddat spoke about welcoming visitors at church. Guddat is the director of the BYU-Idaho Support Center.
He spoke about how the tagline “visitors welcome” came to be on meetinghouses of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He said an assistant to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles asked a graphic design group at the Church to design one in 1975.
“The purpose of the new signage was to help passersby know that they were welcome to attend and worship with members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” Guddat said.
As a convert to the Church, the topic of welcoming visitors is especially meaningful to Guddat.
“During my teenage years I had been a welcomed visitor in the church and even after baptism and my first authentic testimony, I continued to be a welcomed visitor as I settled into my new faith and church experience. My ward fully embraced the Visitors Welcome theme,” Guddat said.
In an interview with BYU-Idaho Radio, Guddat shared why he chose this topic.
“Our meetinghouses and our chapels need to be very welcoming to anybody and everybody that is trying to seek the Lord… Whether they’re a member of the church, whether they’re a friend of the church, [or] whether they’re just curious about religion, our buildings should be places they feel safe to come and explore their faith and their religiosity,” Guddat said.