We'd like to help!

There is no copyright on Walk Through Bethlehem, and many churches across the nation have their own versions. In 1997, a church in Florida helped Shirley Hills get started with its biggest project in history. The event has transformed our church, serving as a catalyst for rapid growth, church harmony, and an ambitious building project.

In appreciation, we offer any help we can to churches trying to host such an event. If you'd like our script, our drawings, or a new DVD packed with short and long highlight videos of the 2006 WTB, our very first WTB in 1997, and several other related video items (testimonies we've used in church, a television program, and construction of the city), contact us. Except for the DVD, everything we have is free for you. We do ask for a $5 donation for the DVD, to handle production and shipping costs. Be sure to include your mailing address in any e-mail requests.

In addition to those helps, some of our key lay leaders have traveled great distances to speak to church congregations and small leadership groups about WTB. Our pastor is more than willing to chat with other pastors about the event. Best of all, a standing invitation is also available to churches visiting WTB before, during and after the event to get a "behind-the-scenes" look at our version of WTB. Please contact us to coordinate such visits.

At Shirley Hills, Walk Through Bethlehem requires three months of preparation, one month of deconstruction, and about $25,000 a year. When the church began its experience, it committed to never taking money from the guests, despite the fact that the church was well behind its $600,000 annual budget and that it had no financial resources for the Christmas spectacular. In that year, the church worked together, and gave together. When the bills were finalized in late January, 1998, the 1997 Bethlehem had cost $23,275. How much had the church given, as of Dec. 31, 1997? Amazingly, $23,471, just a fraction more than the event cost! In addition, the church finished the year $50,000 ahead of its annual budget.

Ten years later, the annual budget is more than three times what it was in 1997, the church hosts two Sunday Schools and two worship services, a three-phase building program is well under way, and the December workers simply keep making WTB happen. As a result, the event has become markedly improved, and the church's unquestioned point of identification inside the Middle Georgia community. A focus each year of much media attention, one newspaper article called it the "Taj Mahal of Christmas events." Another article said it was a "theme-park" level event!

However, your church does not have to build the Taj Mahal in order to have a Walk Through Bethlehem. Some churches use cloth walls to cut down on construction time. Others host the event indoors. Rural churches can use a short, dirt road as their "Bethlehem." Some churches partner with sister churches to help offset expensive costume costs. Though our version includes an ever-present camel or two, there's no requirement to rent exotic (and ornery) creatures. Click here to see a wonderful slide show of how three churches in Mooresville, North Carolina, braved sub-20-degree weather in 2006 to host their own WTB. More than 1200 people attended that event, and the churches formed some friendships that probably would not have happened without a community event.

If God is leading you to consider Walk Through Bethlehem in your community, pray hard, trust in the Lord with all your heart, and let us help!