Teens carrying the gospel in their hands with `Believer Bands’

HOOVER, Ala. (RNS) First there were the WWJD wristbands, and then Lance Armstrong’s yellow Livestrong wristbands, and Bono’s white One wristbands … Now there’s “Believer Bands,” multicolored rubber bracelets in the shape of familiar Christian icons that allow trend-chasing tweens and teens to share the gospel from the palm of their hand. It started last […]

HOOVER, Ala. (RNS) First there were the WWJD wristbands, and then Lance Armstrong’s yellow Livestrong wristbands, and Bono’s white One wristbands …

Now there’s “Believer Bands,” multicolored rubber bracelets in the shape of familiar Christian icons that allow trend-chasing tweens and teens to share the gospel from the palm of their hand.


It started last year, when the Silly Bandz City kiosk at a mall in Birmingham started the craze with stretchy animal-shaped wristbands. Here in the Bible Belt, it was perhaps inevitable that a religious version would emerge.

Thanks to Michael Pugh, youth pastor at Bluff Park United Methodist Church, “Believer Bands” are the latest craze sweeping the church youth scene.

“I kept seeing Silly Bandz in our youth group, and I thought, `We need to do a Christian version,”‘ Pugh said. “The difference with ours is they have a purpose. We can share the gospel through these. They’re not silly or crazy.”

Local Books-A-Million stores carry the bracelets with the spiritual twist, which have taken off as stocking stuffers. They come in packs of 10, two of each symbol, and cost $2.99 a pack.

On your wrist, they look like colorful squiggly lines. But when you take them off, they resume their recognizable shapes. Believer Bands come in five shapes and colors and tell the Christian story in a nutshell.

Pugh said he settled on a black rotten apple with a bite out of it as a symbol for sin; a red cross as a symbol for Jesus dying to pay for sin; a white heart to symbolize Christ’s forgiveness; a green flower to symbolize spiritual growth; and a golden crown to symbolize heaven.

“We’ve got Scripture to back up everything,” Pugh said. “I teach the Bible. That’s what I go by.”


Pugh teamed with his ministerial mentor, the Rev. Wayne Cook, pastor of First Baptist Church of Eclectic, Ala., to form a company called Relevant Trends to produce the bands. They contacted a manufacturer in China and set up a Web site, http://www.believerbands.com.

People can order through the Web site, he said.

“Kids have a tough time sharing their faith,” Pugh said. “This makes it easy to share the gospel.” He’s already heard numerous testimonies of people using the rubber bands to start conversations about faith, he said.

Pugh said he’s gotten an order from Winter Jam, a large Christian youth conference. “I can guarantee it will take off,” he said. “We can’t keep them in stock.”

(Greg Garrison writes for The Birmingham News.)

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