Ruth Haley Barton writes about preparing for Advent in a recent eReflections post:
The seasons of the church year are meant to teach us something about the spiritual life we need to learn. Beyond mere information about the spiritual life, they offer us the opportunity to practice some of the key disciplines of the Christian life and to do it together as a community of faith.
You might find her article helpful in preparing yourself and your congregation for the Advent season. To read the article go to www.transformingcenter.org/2012/11/advent-leaders-in-waiting/.
You also might find helpful the GCI videos and articles about Advent and Christmas indexed at http://www.gci.org/category/topics/christmas.
In our congregations each year during the Advent season four sermons are preached pertinent to the season. This year the sermons will be on the names of Jesus from Isaiah 9:6 “and His name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace” These messages can be seeon on cfcnorth.org beginning Sunday evening the 2nd December of December. May the spirit of Christmas that forever endures leave God’s richest blessing in the heart of you, yours and your church family. Richard and Joyce Frankel
2012 has been a challenging year for many (including us) and I found the article very thoughtful and instructive and I appreciated the conclusion and the prayer that followed (for that you have to look up the article, smile): “In a world where leadership is often defined as the person who is out front “doing something” or “making something happen,” Advent invites us into a great reversal. During this season we are invited to be leaders in waiting because we ourselves have learned how to do it. We are invited to be still and wait for God’s deliverance, God’s wisdom, God’s saving grace in our lives and communities. Sometimes this is the most courageous leadership of all! And so we pray…”