I started this website in 2001 because I had learnt a lot of things about worshipping with flags and banners. I went to a conference and came home throughly frustrated. I wanted to share what I had learnt but did not have the opportunity. I cam homw and come on woman you know how to set up a website get on and set one up and sahre what you know.
My intial problem was what on earth do I call thsi collection of things. No one else seemed to know so I came up with the term Worship Tools. It made sense as they were tools that helped me and others worship. Worship comes out of a heart that loves God, and worship tools are simply the things that add to the expression of it. It still surprises me that other people picked up the name and used it too.
Changing seasons
My first venture into making Worship Tools was making banners by hand, well I had a sewing machine to helpme. I cut out letters, pinned them and sewed them on one by one. It would take me two or three days to make one banner. Sewing at that time helped keep me sane as I definitely was not thriving as I found being married to someone with a mental health issues very difficult.
Mercifully that season is over. These days I am more at home at a computer than a sewing machine, and when I sat down and asked myself how I could get back to banners, I thought about getting them printed. After all I had done that with mugs on another site. I looked to see what could be printed to make banners and the answer surprised me. T-towels.
Banners with minimal sewing
Every banner in the shop starts life as a printed T-towel. It is printed on demand, which means it is made when you order it rather than sitting in a warehouse. There are over 40 designs. Some are just words, like Glory Glory Glory or Enter His Gates with Praise. Some are just images, like the dove outline or the grapes of the vine. Most cost £15.99.
When it arrives you fold over the top edge spend a few minutes sewing it in place to create a tube that you can put a piece of smooth dowel into. You do not even have to cut the dowel as you can buy pieces already cut to 50cm long. (I found a pack of twenty for just over £20, so about £1 each on Amazon). I was so pleased to find them as this solved the probem of how was I going to cut it myself. I had some white macrame yarn that I could cut to size using the lid of a storage box. That way they were all the same length. The cord is folded over the dowel and that is stitched into place. To make it pretty I added a beed to each end. It is the ready to hang up anywhere you like. Over the end of the pulpit, on a cupholder screwed intoa piece of wood, on a Christmas wreath hanger over a door, a sucker hook on a window. You can even use a hair elstric to fasten to a broom handle or curtain rod and walak around with it. I have written the full instructions here.
Once you have more than one there is the question of where to keep them. That is why there is a Worship Tools carry bag as well.
Five pounds with a purpose
This is the part that matters most to me. At least £5 from every order goes into a fund to give seed money to people with mental health challenges who want to start a business. I know what it is to rebuild a life after trauma, and I have come to believe that broken people can only build broken businesses unless someone walks with them while they heal. Read more about why.
So a banner on your wall does two things. It declares who you belong to every time you walk past it. It also helps someone else take a step they could not take on their own.
Which truth do you need to see hanging up this week?