CHRISTMAS RIBBONS 

Once our leadership team had decided the theme we would focus on this Christmas was ‘Belonging: Christmas is Community’, I had an idea for how we could depict this visually using ribbons, a sign of connection between the congregation and the crib, and also pointing us towards the risen Christ. During Advent this year our sermon series drew a parallel between the scene of nativity and the scene of eternity, and the fact that before the crib and before the throne we are invited to come and belong. The ribbons represented the journey to Belonging we all are called to take.

Many of you have asked how we did it! Having envisaged the concept I then thought it might never get off the ground (pun intended) due to the prohibitive cost of hiring scaffolding. However, having talked the idea through with our Message Academy students who help us with Fuel on Fridays, one of them made a comment that led to our solution: throwing 28 rolls of ribbon over the support pole in the centre of church. Our extremely handy churchwarden Matt joined me in attaching each piece of ribbon to a weighted tennis ball before throwing the ball over the pole. We bought double the length of ribbon so it could loop over the pole and attach both ends to the wooden batten at the front. This meant buying double the amount of ribbon (a total of more than 700 metres) but no need for scaffolding or working at height! Thankfully Matt’s throw is much better than mine... in our test run it took me around 20 minutes to successfully clear the support pole with a tennis ball. It turns out throwing a ball 23 feet up in the air is harder than you think it’s going to be.

What was so amazing about this project was the way that God then spoke to us through some of our prophetic prayer teams and through Julie in our Christingle planning meetings. Julie had a strong picture of the pathway into church being lit up from below and those who were coming to church being led up towards Christ. And back in the early part of 2019 our prophetic prayer teams recorded they saw “a delta across the nave [which] splits into a number of tributaries” and “along each tributary people are walking towards the altar”. The ribbons echoed the concept of these tributaries along which people were being drawn to Jesus.

I’m very grateful to be part of a church where people are hearing the voice of God and where we can take creative risks to present good news in a way that is beautiful and compelling.
 
Jonny Davies