Names of the Messiah Banner

This is a digital product. At the time of purchase, you will download a ZIP file to access the downloadable digital files. No products will be shipped.

Our Names of the Messiah Banner celebrates the various names for the Messiah from Isaiah 9:6 (though we have chosen to use inclusive language for the names). This banner is a hand-drawn illustration that comes from our Names of the Messiah Coloring Posters; you can see the full poster set here. When you order the banner version, you'll receive the illustration in various formats, so it's incredibly adaptable for your community and their needs.

The Names of the Messiah Banner can be used for a worship activity for children, a bulletin cover, a large coloring poster that your community could color leading up to Christmas, or a fun art project to send home to families.

Instead of the traditional names from Isaiah 9:6 (Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace), we use the following names: Wonderful Counselor, Strength of God, Eternal Protector, and Champion of Peace.

What You Will Receive

Upon completion of your purchase, you will receive a link to a ZIP file which includes the following:

• Coloring Pages & Posters: We include both the Adobe Illustrator files (for the coloring poster sizes) as well as PDF files for you to take to a printer (or print from your own home or office if you have a large format printer). They are formatted in the following sizes: A4, 8.5˝ x 11˝, 11˝ x 17˝, and 24˝ x 72˝ (or on two 24˝ x 36˝ posters).
• Mosaic Poster Tiles: This exciting new format allows anyone with a printer at home to print out poster tiles and create a giant coloring poster at home. These poster tiles are formatted for both US Letter (8.5˝ x 11˝) and A4 paper sizes and come in a smaller Family Size (uses four or five sheets of paper, depending on the paper size) as well as a larger Group Size (uses 36 or 42 sheets of paper, depending on the size of paper). To learn more about our Mosaic Poster Tiles, check out our blog post here.
• Image File: In case you want to use the image in your worship bulletin, on screens in your sanctuaries, and on the web, we have included it as a B&W JPG file as well.
• Info PDF: This informational PDF will give you helpful details on getting the files printed, as well as instructions for how to print and assemble the Mosaic Poster Tiles.

How You Might Use This Product

Here are a few suggested uses for this product:

• Print out a 24˝ x 72˝ giant poster for your youth group to color and fill in, and send the 8.5˝ x 11˝ versions to do at home.
• Use the Group Size of the Mosaic Poster Tiles to create a giant piece of communal art; have individuals color the tiles and bring them together to make your mosaic. Or email the tiles home to families in your congregation, and put the tiles together when you come back together to worship.
• Send the Family Size of the Mosaic Poster Tiles home with families so they can create large posters to display in their homes or windows.

Let your imagination run wild as you think of the many ways you could use this resource.

More Info

Theology Behind the Posters

Inclusive Language: We strive to create all of our resources here at Illustrated Ministry using inclusive language. We don't do this just to be politically correct, but because we believe it's important theologically not to continue to use only masculine and patriarchal language for a God who surpasses all of those categories.

Inclusive Language in Isaiah 9:6 specifically: We love Handel's Messiah and because many of us grew up listening to that, or because we heard the King James Version of the text growing up in churches, we might be more familiar (and maybe more comfortable) with using the names of Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace. However, we wanted to find a different translation for those names because of our commitment to inclusive language, which we did in the Inclusive Hebrew Scriptures. The names we use in these posters are as follows: Wonderful Counselor, Strength of God, Eternal Protector, and Champion of Peace.

We think a brief theological note from biblical scholar Walter Brueggemann's book Names for the Messiah might be helpful:

"Christians have claimed from their beginnings that Jesus was the Messiah foretold in the Hebrew Scriptures...Jesus did not replace or deny the expectations of a messiah previously told. He fulfilled them...Isaiah 9:2-7 is a well-known oracle, a divine utterance...that uses four royal titles...As we ponder the use of those titles with reference to Christmas and the birth of Jesus, two things become clear. First, in the witness to Jesus by the early Christians in the New Testament, they relied heavily on Old Testament 'anticipations' of the coming Messiah. But second, Jesus did not fit those 'anticipations' very well, such that a good deal of interpretive imagination was required in order to negotiate the connection between the anticipation and the actual bodily, historical reality of Jesus.

"The oracle of Isaiah 9:2-7 is well known among us because of Handel's Messiah. The oracle did not anticipate or predict Jesus. There is no doubt that it pertained to the eighth century BCE, the time of Isaiah the prophet. While the oracle might have been utilized to announce and celebrate the birth of a new royal prince in Jerusalem, namely Hezekiah, it is more probable that it pertained to the coronation of the new king." (Brueggemann, Walter. Names for the Messiah: an Advent Study.)