If you'd like to learn more about the history of Advent, click here
How to participate
Step One: Watch this week’s Advent Devotion
Step Two: Watch the suggested Christmas song
Step Three: Consider one or more interactive devotional exercises
Week 1 Interactive Excercises
Share: Share with a friend or family member something you are waiting for.
Encourage: Encourage someone you know who is weary of waiting. Remind them of
God's love and promises.
Evaluate: Take inventory of your relationship with God. Are you struggling with His
silence? Are you struggling to keep faith in the midst of your waiting?
Pray: Lord, I recognize that I am often impatient and grow tired of waiting. Yet, I
remember the years of waiting for the Messiah. Remind me that when I think I'm waiting forever, it really isn't, and that life itself is small in comparison to eternity with you. Teach me to enjoy the moments of life today as true blessings from you. Help me find the joy and the laughter that come from your Spirit at work within me, to help me see hope in
the midst of my waiting.
Express: Create a decorative graffiti poster of things you have faith God will do for you,
your family, and your church in the coming year. If you have kids, invite them be a part of the project. This is a great time to teach them about the concept of faith and hope in their own lives. Display it in a prominent place in your home for Christmas.
advent, week 2
Secondary Title
If you'd like to learn more about the symbolism of the Advent wreath, click here
How to participate
Step One: Watch this week’s Advent Devotion
Step Two: Watch the suggested Christmas song
Step Three: Consider one or more interactive devotional exercises
Week 2 Interactive Excercises
Share:Discuss
ways your family, your friends, or small group can prepare for future
challenges.
Encourage: Encourage someone you know who is
needing renewed faith to express their trust in God’s faithfulness (regardless
of how they “feel”) by doing something intentional to “prepare space” for
connecting with God this Christmas.
Evaluate:Identify
distractions that may keep you from truly worshiping Christ this Christmas.
What can you do to avoid these?
Pray:Ask
God to help you see what He wants you to do… “in faith.”
Express:Go on
mission as a family or with a group of friends. Find a family or an
organization you can help as they prepare to celebrate Christmas.
advent, week 3
Secondary Title
To learn more about what the different candles mean, click here
How to participate
Step One: Watch this week’s Advent Devotion
Step Two: Watch the suggested Christmas song
Step Three: Consider one or more interactive devotional exercises
Week 3 Interactive Exercises
Share: Consider for yourself, or Invite each family member to share, one thing that you can put in God’s hands today and trust in Him God to handle.
Encourage: Write a note to someone who is experiencing fear and worry. Let them know you're praying that God will give them the courage they need, and the joy that comes from knowing they are not alone.
Evaluate: Make a “Christmas list” of the things that bring you joy and plan to incorporate one or more of those things into your time this season.
Express: Plan an intentional mealtime to share with extended family or with friends. Maybe make it a “Zoom Dinner,” with each person preparing their own meal but taking the time to eat together online. Use this time to take turns sharing what brings you joy this season.
Pray: The Prayer of Saint Francis:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is discord, union.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Step Three: Consider one or more interactive devotional exercises
Week 4 Interactive
Exercises
Share: Share a time in your life when you felt most at peace.
Encourage: Invite a friend to our church's Christmas Eve worship service as an invitation to experience God’s Peace this year. Most people become a part of a church because they're invited by a friend!
Evaluate: What is causing you to be anxious, fearful, or worried today? In what ways are these things robbing you of Peace (or “Shalom”) in your heart? In your key relationships right now, are you more an agent of Peace or contributing to the absence of Peace? What is one step you can take to become more of a Peace-Maker in your relationships?
Pray: Father, I realize that your mission of love is all about bringing your “peace” as healing, wholeness, harmony, and well-being. Show me where I need more of your peace within my own heart and mind. Help me to accept your gift of peace in my own life, even when I tend to forget that you have already won the victory over my own sin and brokenness. Guide me in how I can become more of a peace-maker in my own life, sharing your love and grace with others in the same way you have so generously shared them with me.
Explore: If biblical peace is more than just the absence of conflict, how many creative ways can you imagine that you or your family could pursue things like “wholeness, harmony, and well-being?” What do these words look like in your personal life? In your family? In your church? In the world?
Imagine you are a “secret agent,” sent by God to be an “agent of peace” behind enemy lines. How might you go about planning, preparing, and executing your mission? What would be the obstacles and threats to your mission? How would you plan to overcome them? How will you know if you’ve been successful? Finally, what if Jesus really does have a mission for you to fulfill as an agent of peace? Are you willing to carry out and fulfill your mission?
