ART IDEA FOR THE CHRISTIAN YEAR
We appreciate the ideas and leadership provided by RW. Thank you for all you do. Here's an idea for you! The pictures illustrate a theme that was incorporated in our worship planning for Advent through Pentecost, We began with a Praise Service just before Advent illustrating the Christian year, including the appropriate liturgical colors. With banners hanging throughout the sanctuary, we began our Advent series focusing on the messianic promises in Isaiah. Utilizing the imagery of the "stump of Jesse," we secured a gnarled stump as a place for children's messages as well as a point of interest and teaching. By the time of Epiphany, it began to "sprout" green shoots. As we entered each season of the year, a new dimension that emphasized the color of the season was added to the stump.
By the time of Pentecost, the stump had sprouted a healthy vine that entwined the cross and began to grow into the sanctuary. With doves, butterflies, caterpillars, and blossoms, there were many visual lessons for young and old.
The stump has since been retired but served as a powerful metaphor for our congregation as we journeyed through the liturgical year.
Henry Lengkeek
Haven Christian Reformed Church
Zeeland, Michigan
http://www.havenchurch.org/index/htm
IDEA FOR SHARING BANNERS AND OTHER ARTWORK
I have used many ideas from RW with my church's worship planning team. We love all of the help we can get. Last year we dug up an older RW (September 1991) and used a banner for Advent that added something each week. 1 happened to know that my sister's church in Michigan had used it a year or two before and was not using it again, so I asked if we could borrow their banner if we paid shipping. They agreed and we had a wonderful banner without the time and expense of making it. This year we so liked the angels in your September 1999 issue (RW 53) that I called Cascade Fellowship to see about borrowing the symbols they had made out of copper. They would have been happy to loan them but someone else had gotten to them first. My point in all of this is that it is wonderful to share our resources. It's silly to spend a lot of time and energy making .something that is silting unused in someone else's closet. Has RW ever considered the possibility of setting up a website on which churches could list banners or other visuals that they would be willing to loan to other churches?
Just a thought!
Karen Van Bemden
Cragmor Christian Reformed Church
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Thanks! We'll acid this to the list of ideas we're considering when we're able to expand our website. -Ed.
LIKES MUSIC LISTS
I appreciated your annotated lists of organ and piano music (RW 53). I ordered $230.00 worth!
Thank you!
Esther Manni
Kalamazoo, Michigan
WANTS GRAPHICS ON THE WEB
We are using the Hosea series for Advent and yon delightfully included those black-and-white graphics for use with the series. They aren't terribly easy to access, though. They are angled on the page, which makes scanning them in difficult, and you didn't put digital versions of them on the website for us to download. Next time it would be great to make a file copy of the graphics available on the web. I post my sermons on the web; it would be great to also use the graphics as part of the web version of the sermons.
For this series I used the graphic as a visual on the overhead during the reading of the text and the first part of the sermon. Visuals make a big difference both for visual learners and the young (which is part of the reason your magazine isn't just text). Having visuals with the series helps pull the pieces together.
Paul Vander Klay
Sacramento (Calif.) Christian Reformed Church
www.sacramentocrc.com
Mr. Dean Heetderks:
Thank you for the Alpha and Omega banner (on the back cover of RW 53). We are so pleased with the result. We used the banner for a series on Revelation. We made the banner first in different colors, then we got the color copy from the website and liked it much better. We did not get the pattern; my husband is really good at drawing. We've been making banners for a long time.
We're looking forward to seeing other banners on the back of RW If you ever come out to our town, you are welkoni to stay here. Lynden is sometimes called the "Jerusalem of the West."
Ada Voskuilen
Lynden, WA
firstcrc@juno.com