This series was written as a part of a year-long study of God's redeeming work throughout scripture. During the months of September through November, our church studied the Old Testament, hearing stories of God's big story. This then transitioned into our Advent focus on the stories of Jesus' coming. Throughout the year, children were invited forward to hear the scripture story from a children's Bible, and this continues throughout Advent, with the addition of the lighting of candles. When the children are up front for the candle lighting, they can see and smell the candles in a way that they can't from farther back in the sanctuary (but consider having more than one adult present at the children's message for safety reasons).
Each week the call to worship begins the same but the second half is new each week, the words engaging with that week’s narrative about the call that God placed on Mary, Elizabeth, Joseph, and Jesus in the stories of Christmas. With some advanced coaching in church, school, or at home, non-readers can easily learn the two repetitive responses and more fully participate.
For each of these weeks you will find directions in brackets that are either just for the worship planners or will need to be spoken, projected, or put in the bulletin. You will find the leader's text in normal font and the congregational response in bold.
The traditional order of the Advent candles is hope, peace, joy, and love with the Christ candle being lit on Christmas day. In order to follow the story chronologically, this series of Advent readings has moved joy to the second week. The traditional colors of the candles are purple for hope, peace and love, pink for joy, and white for the Christ candle. But any color of candles will do.
