Christmas starts with Christ

                                                                                                                              30 October 2009

In the November issue of Inspire, Mike Elms of ecumenical charity ChurchAds.net introduces a campaign to put Jesus back at the heart of the Christmas season, which has the full support of Church Army.

Designed to run for at least five years it features the line ‘Christmas starts with Christ’ and sets out to re-tell the nativity story in a modern, secular context. Bus shelter posters will display a painting by the renowned artist, Andrew Gadd, in which he depicts the traditional nativity scene in what he believes is the modern day equivalent of a stable – a bus shelter.

Radio commercials light-heartedly set the nativity in the context of a soccer match, a horse race, a police car chase and even the Christmas pop chart countdown. ChurchAds.net - who created the adverts - comprises senior communications officers from the Anglican, Methodist and Baptist churches, and from Church Army, Salvation Army and Evangelical Alliance, together with Christians working in secular media, communications and advertising organisations.

To get involved, just visit the web-site: www.ChurchAds.net. From there churches can buy a poster site on a bus shelter nearby or, in the case of rural churches, in their local town for just £105. Churches Together organisations might like to buy several sites. Radio campaigns can be bought in a similar way. There are also numerous materials to download, all free of charge – including the poster artwork and radio commercials. You may like to play the commercials at one of your worship services and adapt the poster artwork into invitations to those services.

To read the Inspire article go to Church Army online.