The “Basics” download contains everything you need to get started with our 2025 Advent series, Out of the Blue: Updated and Expanded. (Sample)

INTRODUCTION AND GUIDES:

• A series introduction
• An orientation to an extended Advent (if that’s your liturgical jam)
• A seasonal calendar that visually lays out the dates, scripture texts, and weekly themes for both a seven-week Advent and a four-week Advent
• A seasonal essay: “Family, Genealogy, Jesus, and Us”

PREACHERS’ NOTES:

Preaching commentaries explore connections between each week’s lectionary texts and the Out of the Blue theme:

November 9: Beginning at Broken
November 16: Days to Prepare, Seconds to Cook
November 23: Love at the Last
November 30: Living in Holy Tension
December 7: Wild New Life
December 14: Beyond the Superbloom
December 21: At the Turning Point

CHILDREN’S MESSAGE STARTERS:

Kid-friendly connections to the week’s theme help to jump-start your brainstorm for a children’s message. Includes coloring pages to complement each week’s theme.

WORDS FOR WORSHIP:

Fresh texts for Advent worship include Gathering Words, weekly Invocations, Prayer of Confession and Assurance of Forgiveness, Thanksgiving for Baptism, Advent Wreath-Lighting, Offering Prayer, Eucharistic Prayer, Prayer After Communion, and Sending.

ADVENT HYMN:

“God of the Starlight and Moon” is intended for use as part of the rite for lighting the Advent candles, but it may also be used as a seasonal Advent hymn.

A SOCAL MEDIA KIT:

• Branding graphics and branding kit: Images and guides that allow you to design your own graphics in concert with Out of the Blue branding, including links to Canva templates.
• Social media graphics: Graphics with curated excerpts from our Preachers’ Notes and Words for Worship, suitable for posting to your own church’s social media pages.