I hope you all have been having a splendabulous Epiphany Season. We have been working hard for the last month on the banners you see above. We will be incorporating them into our Sunday worship beginning this Sunday. They will be strategically hung on the perimeter walls of our worship space as stations for our people to visit during our time of worship response after the Word and during Communion. Eucharist literally means "thanksgiving," and so each of these banners represents an opportunity for us to actively give thanks to God for who He is and what He has done. We're not introducing anything new with the launching of these worship stations, we're just giving our people visible and textual (Scriptural) representations of what they already do. Hopefully, God's Word and the enhanced look of our worship space will encourage even greater participation by our people.

Notice that the hands images on three of the banners come up from the bottom of the banner, representing the acts of worship we offer to God: Offering, Prayer, and Song. The Sacrament of Communion is a different activity, representing the greatest of actions, namely the act of God giving Himself to us as a Sacrifice for our sins. The hands on the Communion banner come down from above, because Communion represents God's gift to us. That just tickles me.

Under each of the Offering banners will be offering boxes for people to give during the time of response. (We already have "Worship in Giving" banners there, but we're replacing them with the new ones.) Under each of the Prayer banners will be prayer ministers who can pray with anyone during that time. Under each of the Communion banners will be communion tables with the elements for people to take. In addition to those tables we will have tables around the jet stage (we seat in the half-round with the preacher in the center of the people), and servers will hold the trays with juice cups and crackers, looking into the eyes of each worshiper who comes forward, speaking, "The body and blood of Christ, broken and shed for you." The Song banners will hang on each side of the stage and at two rear perimeter spots. Anyone who comes in will know immediately what we do in this room when we gather for worship.

If any of you would like the PDF files for the banners, I'd be happy to give them to you. Ours will be two feet by five feet.