2018 Advent Resources

Hey. Be thankful. 🙂 Meanwhile, life on this blog will kind of go on as normal, no sales, little Thanksgiving hoopla, etc, though I’ll likely take Thursday off. Still, we’d better acknowledge the coming Advent with some 2018 Advent Resources!

Advent Resources

First, two great gals, author and LCMS deaconess Heidi Goehmann of I Love My Shepherd and Katie Koplin of Loved In Spite of Self are joining up for an Advent Grace from the Start experience. You can read about it from Katie’s introduction here, where you can also find readings and themes briefly sketched out.

Each week there will be a central passage and theme. Each day there will be a devotional blog post written by Katie. Meanwhile, Heidi will read Scripture and reflect on Facebook Live Monday through Friday, with Katie joining her on Thursdays for discussion and further reflection.

Join here to participate in all Facebook-ness. 😉

 

Second, the folks at Steadfast Lutherans has one again put something together as a gift to the church: Ever New and Greater Light and Devotion. Ok, part of it offers readings and hymn suggestions for Midweek services. I expect the Advent 2018 Devotional will be up there any time now.

 

Third, I’ve recently learned about another diaconal author, Deaconess Michelle Domin. Last year she premiered The Jesse Tree: Devotions for the Season of Advent.

Fourth, by all means remember that the Lutheran Hour and Concordia Publishing House have Advent resources, too. 🙂 CPH offers an Advent and Christmas Planning Checklist for worship planning or congregational volunteer types, and devotional type things are here.

 

Fifth, there is an important fact that shouldn’t be overlooked. Even if you don’t want something particular to Advent, many wonderful Lutheran devotional books start with Advent instead of January 1st! Advent is the beginning of the church year! So think about it. Do you want to start a big devotional book as a New Year discipline? Does that resolution really begin January 1st? Might it be better placed on the Sunday nearest the Commemoration of St. Andrew’s (November 30th) and following Christ the King Sunday? (Yep. Apparently that’s how Advent-tide hits Western church calendars.)

 

If you know of more Lutheran resources, please let me know or share in the comments.

 

PS. A free Roman Catholic resource I may use with our kiddos this year is this one, from Do Small Things with Love. I know nothing about the organization, lol, but I do like the idea of an Advent count-down chain using the Names of Jesus. 🙂 Not QUITE as funny as the joke chain I found last year, but still something good.

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