This download contains everything we’re offering for the Out of the Blue Advent series:

• Seasonal Essay: “Family, Genealogy, Jesus, and Us” takes us through Jesus’ ancestors and considerations for our own.
• 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. (A surprise bonus to these starters? Only one prop is needed for all of Advent!)
• 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. Also includes the hymn written for this worship series, “God of the Starlight and Moon.”
• An 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. The music follows a melodic contour sweeping from high to low to high and includes a few harmonic surprises. Gentle dissonances lead singers deeper into the mysteries of Advent. The text approaches the Advent season with wonder and praise, embracing the beauty of Advent darkness as bright candles are lit. “God of the Starlight and Moon” describes a God who beguiles us and invites us to follow, even as God surprises us with new directions
• Advent Devotions: This take-home resource can be used whether you are a single adult, a single parent, a couple, a multigenerational family under one roof, or a community of friends. Arranged around stories of the women in Jesus’ family tree highlighted in Matthew’s gospel, it guides users as they explore the weekly themes and participate in the creation of a found-object Jesse tree.
• Midweek Worship: This Advent evening prayer service is flexible in its design. You can choose elements to complement your congregation’s favorite vespers service or use the provided liturgy on its own for up to seven weeks of Advent observance. Each week connects a figure from the traditional Jesse tree (expanded to include the women in Matthew’s genealogy) to a saint whose feast day is commemorated in November or December.
• Lessons and Carols for Christmas: This completely new service is here to help tired worship planners, pastors, and leaders offer a rich liturgy full of reflection on the surprising incarnation of Jesus without the need for extensive preparation or leadership. Seven sets of scripture readings, hymn suggestions, and reflection questions invite joyful celebration and thoughtful contemplation of the season.
• An Advent & Christmas Pageant: Like the Advent Devotions and Midweek Worship, this pageant is grounded in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1 and in Luke’s story of Jesus’ birth. Walk with Mary and Joseph on the road to Bethlehem, as ready as us all for the newborn Savior to join their family.
• Series branding kit

All documents come in both .pdf and .docx versions.