Church Banner Distinctives – part 2…get the Banner you want.

Here’s a list of the types of banners you’ll find as you travel the interwebs, and their pros and cons.

Printed Vinyl – These are great for outdoors. When you need to promote a VBS or a special occasion at your church like Christmas / Easter programs, these are perfect! Not recommended for use inside the church for anything other than a short term promotion.

Printed Fabric – These banners are fairly inexpensive and you can print pretty much whatever you want on them. They are single layer fabric with just a rolled hem all around and need to be pulled tight by a stand. That’s where they get expensive. A stand for these banners can be anywhere from $50 to $200 each.

Embroidered – Machine embroidered banners are the Rolls Royce of the banner world. This is the way banners were made in times past, and still are produced by some companies.  However, they are very expensive! A professionally made 48 inch by 24 inch banner can run about $1,200.  Even if you have very talented seamstresses in your church who you think can do this kind of job, they will most likely tell you all about the problems, with fabric puckering and machine stress in making these types of banners.

Embellished – This has the attributes of the embroidered banner, but uses modern materials and construction to cut production time and achieve stunning effects.

Making the perfect Background is critical.

I will spend more time talking about the embellished banner since that is our area of expertise.

The main difference you’ll notice when viewing an embellished banner is in the different fabrics and materials used, and how these elements reflect and react to the ambient light in the room. Ambient light is not direct light, but indirect. These banners can “come alive”, when a printed banner, which may have a beautiful graphic, will appear “flat”.

A Variety of Fabrics create eye-catching details!

Usually the only sewing that goes into the embellished banners is in the background itself.

There are varying degrees of quality with embellished banners. Two factors are involved here, first the quality of the materials. Top quality materials hang better, wear better, show better, and cost more.

Second the care, methodology, and expertise of the workers who make the banner. In our experience it takes years to become a master banner maker… and that’s if you are mentored by a master!

An Embellished Church Banner can last for many years. We have customers that set-up and take-down every Worship Service year in and year out. Banners that we made in 1995 still look great. Proper storage and handling are important, and we look forward to a future blog to explain how to care for your banners.

Banners "Come Alive" with Fancy Fabrics!

Our hope is that this blog has helped you to understand what types of Church Banners are available… and what will be right for you.

At Christian Banners for Praise and Worship we are here for you. Please leave us a comment below and let us know what you would like to see in our next blog.

If your thinking about purchasing Embellished Banners for your empty church walls,  please visit us.

Church Praise and Worship Banners can help focus our wandering minds on God, His Word, His Promises, and His Attributes.

And that’s a good thing…  Praise HIM!

Church Banner Distinctives… or How to know what you’re looking at!

Looking for a banner for your church?
Are you a member of a banner committee who is trying to get a grasp of what’s available and why the prices for worship banners vary so widely?  Read on I think we can help you.

Important - Select the right Banner Company !

You see all types… of banner companies on the web. Some good… some not so much. It’s really all about what you’re looking for. Worship Banners run the spectrum from paper or felt glued to a background, all the way to hand appliqued and hand embroidered banners.

In years past it was usually the ladies of the church who would get together and make the most beautiful banners ever! Groups of ladies (men are allowed also) are still working today producing fantastic banners.

What has changed is time available for the banner ministry… it’s hard for people to dedicate the time and space for a banner ministry.
That’s where a professional banner company can help the banner ministry of your church. Many times it takes purchasing some banners for your church to get the ministry rolling. A good way to do this is with a memorial fund; people see the banners, how they transform the church, and they want to get involved.

These Worship Banners will be seen by all!

What to look for when choosing a banner company:

• Make sure they have actual pictures of the completed banners.

• Look for customer reviews and testimonials.

• Make sure the company has a phone number and you actually can talk to people who can give you specific information to help you.

• A good company should be able to supply you with fabric samples, designs, and information to help you in your selection.

You’re taking a big step ordering a banner that will be displayed before the whole church body, so make sure you are comfortable with the company you choose to work with.

Another good thing to ask is “what if we don’t like the banner?” find out what the return policy is.

Check back next week for part 2 …when we will discuss the specific materials and construction of different kinds of Church Banners!

Christmas Banners in September?

Planning which Church Banners you need for the upcoming season

Yes, I know it sounds crazy but now is the time to start thinking about your Christmas Banners. This is especially true if you are working with a Church Banner Committee as it always takes longer to make decisions when many people are involved. Here are some things to think about when planning your Christmas banners, Advent banners and church Christmas decorations.

Church Christmas Banners in a Christmas Cantata

Talk to the right people

First, ask your Pastor what theme he is going with this year and if he has any special verses or graphics (Shepherds, Star, Wise Men, Manger, Angels) he wants the congregation to be focused on during this season.

Second, talk to your Minister of Music about these same things. These two people will most likely already have talked to each other about their plans for the season and the Music Minister, being more artfully minded (no offense here, really) will have some great ideas too.

Another Committee?

Third, take this information to the Banner Committee, Pray, ask God for direction and soft, yielding hearts for the committee members. Now it’s time to start brainstorming. Write down all the ideas, let people make sketches, gather all this info and put it up on a board and have the individual members explain what their idea is and why. After this is done it’s a great time to end the meeting. End in prayer and ask everyone to go home and think about ALL of the ideas presented and be ready to come back next time ready to work together.

Large Christmas Banners on show

Design and Budget

By the next meeting you should have a general idea of where you are going with your Church Banners for Christmas. Now you can start discussing colors and banner designs. If you are having these banners made by a professional banner company, this would be the time to contact them and have them take your information and come up with a design for you. Be sure to find out if they charge for design workups, this can be costly( did we mention we don’t charge our customers for this?). Be aware that if you are going to have your banners made professionally, these companies start getting pretty busy by the end of September, so make sure you get in there early as you will want these banners ready to hang on Thanksgiving weekend.

When the question arises “Where can I buy a Christmas Banner for my Church?” we hope you will visit us.

Nice Set of Christmas Church Banners on display

Banners for a church with short empty walls

Problems with blank, empty, bare, vacant, church walls?

This is before banners... pretty empty huh?

We have been working on a worship banner project at Community Baptist Church in Battle Ground, Washington.

This church has 9 foot tall side walls before the ceiling starts it’s slope up. Up on the stage area is a beautiful draped cross in the center and two large blank walls on the left and right.

The right side wall is used for the projector screen and the left side wall is empty. There are also two more small front walls on the sides of the stage that are the same 9′ height  as the side walls.

Empty walls = Worship Oportunity !

We have a lot of empty space to work with!  Here is what we did….

The large left side center front was of course going to be the focal point and could hold a banner height and width of 4’ x 7’.

The front side walls and side walls could hold eight more banners with a height and width of 3’ x 4’. These can hang high enough on the 9’ walls so the fringe came down to 55 inches which is high enough to be out of the reach of small children.

This church does a lot of community outreach. They run a food bank and cook meals for the community 3 days a week. They also run a program called SAFE Ministries to bring people freedom in Christ from drug and alcohol addiction.

Praise Banners change the look immediately !

The direction we decided to go in with banners for this outreaching church was to proclaim the names of Jesus.  Who He is.  That He can be trusted to heal people and change their lives.

So, we went with a large “JESUS, He is the…” for the large front side wall and then His names with verse references for the other eight; “KING of kings” and “LORD of lords” Rev. 17:14, “Savior” Titus 2:13, “Deliverer” Romans 11:26, “Redeemer” Job 19:25, “Shepherd” Hebrews 13:20, “Messiah” John 1:41, and “Advocate” 1 John 2:1.

We have had lots of positive feedback from the Pastor and his wife as well as many members, staff, and churchgoers.

Worship Banners add a whole new feel

The Music Leader said “This is great. Now we can see the Worship Banners as we praise Him!”

One of the main reasons to have church banners is to help people to focus on God and His attributes.

Blank walls offer a great opportunity to elevate praise time in your sanctuary. Colors, shapes, and sizes of your Christian Banners can be styled to fit perfectly in your church.

We would love to help you create the perfect church banners for your church… just come visit us and see the worship banners we have created!

When you sit in this sanctuary now you are surrounded by praise banners proclaiming His names, what and who He is for everyone who trusts in Him.

And that’s a good place to be!

Praise Him !

Praising God with Banners - way cool !

Christian Banners for Praise and Worship gets started

Sheri and Tom (left) meet Don Moen

Christian banners began in 1995 when the music minister of our church asked us to make some Worship Banners for a show he wanted to do called “God With Us” by Don Moen.

He played us a video from a show he saw of this program at a different church which had banners in a procession of God’s names during the music. It was very impressive!

Don Moen performs with our banners in 2003

It took us over a month to make five praise banners for our show. But the show turned out to be a great success! We soon made a website for the church banners and a church in Africa wanted to buy them, so off to Africa they went. We continued to get orders for other banners and the business grew. In 2000, Tom had to come home and work for his wife because the business was getting so busy.

It has been such a blessing to make banners whose sole purpose is to get people focused on Him, who He is, and what He’s done for us. We made so many banners for our first church and saw what a difference it made for the congregation. The pastor would be doing a sermon series and would want a few verses the congregation to focus on, or grapes and wheat for communion, or water for baptism. There were just so many things from God’s word to bring focus to.

Every banner has been made by hand right here in our shop. Some are fairly simple and some have been very difficult, but each one has been made to bring glory to Him who deserves all our best.

Check back here often. The next subjects we’ll be covering are “Decorating the small church with praise banners”, “Decorating the large church with praise banners”, and “How to hang church banners”.

If you need to buy church banners please visit us!