How to Get the Most Out of Advent
Growing up in a non-denominational church, the idea of Advent wasn't much more than a fun calendar I opened with my siblings at breakfast. Because of that, the role Advent played in the worship experience was missed until recently. I knew that December was dedicated to Christmas, but the process of developing worship services about Christmas was a lot like throwing spaghetti at a wall to see what sticks.Advent changed the holiday schizophrenia I used to experience as a worship leader in past years. So much of my time was spent coming up with new and creative ideas to tell the same story, balancing out all the different ways people want to participate, and ultimately delivering a worship experience that was all over the place, over saturated, and ultimately ineffective. As worship leaders, old must be the new new. The liturgical process of Advent can bring a significant amount of peace to worship, so I wanted to share a step by step on how I utilized the lectionary tradition of Advent as a basis for creating a relevant worship plan for this year's Advent season.Step by Step Guide to Using the Traditional Advent in a Contemporary Way1. List out Traditional Readings - The first thing I did in preparing for Advent this year was list out the common lectionary readings for Advent Sundays. You can find these readings in the Revised Common Lectionary or the Roman Catholic Lectionary (both are about the same). Either on a spreadsheet, a sheet of paper, or a white board (my preferred brainstorming choice), list out the readings for the different Sundays and then take some time to read them through.2. Assign a theme to each reading - After reading through the texts for each week, write down a few words or ideas that stand out about each passage. What's nice about these readings is that they are intentionally arranged thematically, so you should start to see some consistency. After doing this process, these are the themes I came up with:
- Dec. 4, 2011 - The Long Expected Savior
- Dec. 11, 2011 - Our Merciful Redeemer
- Dec. 18, 2011 - Jesus, The Promise Fulfilled
3. Pick songs thematically - Once the themes are established, it becomes significantly easier to pick which Christmas hymns to place within each service. By focusing the songs to match the lectionary themes, we can help the congregation focus on a singular and clear aspect of the Christmas season each week as opposed to throwing out a bunch of different themes each week and hoping they remember one.4. Incorporate the readings into your liturgy - I have decided to incorporate two of the readings (the Isaiah and the Gospel readings) into the actual service and then focus on the other two in blog posts and videos distributed midweek to our congregation. Depending on your congregation, this can change. But incorporating these readings somewhere is important in tying a more contemporary experience to a historical tradition. What I love about using Advent readings is that I don't have to start from scratch in coming up with relevant passages, the work is already done.5. Make the process clear - There is no reason to be secretive about this process and what you hope to accomplish. Find multiple places within the worship experience to remind the congregation of the weekly Advent theme. Maybe write a blog post, or send out a letter or email to your congregation explaining what Advent is and how they will experience it. If there is time in the service, say something about it. Talk with the teaching pastor and coordinate your efforts.________________________________________________________________________________________________________________What are some ways you have used Advent in your worship time? Was it effective?