OUR FRIENDS & FAMILY GUIDE TO ADVENT
This year we created a guide that would enable us all, as a community, to slow down, get away from the busy, and understand what it means for Jesus to have come into the world as one of us and become our hope.
This is a weekly guide that is both personal and communal, it is meant to be shared with your friends and your family. The guide walks you through the purpose, and meaning of advent - the coming of Jesus into the world, weekly practices, and community gatherings. This is an opportunity for you and our abundant life community to experience a holiday season with Christ at It's center; and with the people you love. Follow along with us online or download the PDF below.
WHAT IS ADVENT?
The word advent comes from the Latin adventus, which means “coming” or “arrival.” It marks the four-week period leading up to Christmas Day. For hundreds of years, followers of Jesus from a wide variety of church traditions around the world have set aside the four Sundays leading up to Christmas as a meaningful season of celebration and anticipation. It is a time of hope and expectancy, when Christians celebrate the life and sacrifice of Jesus, and look expectantly toward the coming of Christ. We live in the “already but not yet” phase of Jesus’ kingdom. This a season of both celebration and anticipation.
CANDLE LIGHTING
The candle lighting ceremony of Advent reminds us that Jesus is the light of the world, the One who came to defeat the darkness (John 8:12; John 9:5). That theme of light is what originally gave birth to the Advent wreath hundreds of years ago in Lutheran Germany, and it’s become a beloved tradition in many churches and homes today. The Advent Wreath is typically an evergreen wreath containing five candles, each lit on successive Sundays during the Advent readings. Advent is best celebrated gathered in a community of believers remembering the greatness of our Savior.
HOW TO USE THE GUIDE
Throughout this season we encourage you to gather together with friends and family to host weekly gatherings with one another as you feel comfortable. As you’re able and depending on your comfort level we encourage you to share a meal together, play some games, prepare an activity for the kids; make celebrating this advent season as simple or as extravagant as you’d like.
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