Know Your Nativity?Scripture, tradition and lots of made for TV holiday specials have shaped the way we celebrate Christmas and tell the story of Jesus’ birth. How well do you know the real story? This activity dares us to ask, “What really happened?”
Try Know Your Nativity and watch the video the Digital Story of the Nativity. ... vs Santa??And how did SANTA come into the picture on Christmas? All you need to know in 4 minutes or less.
Busted Halo's Advent Surprise CalendarAdvent is a precious time in the Christian calendar. The four weeks leading up to December 25 are meant to be a period of expectant waiting, as we prepare ourselves for the miraculous arrival of our Savior and his gifts of love, hope, joy, and peace.
The reality for most of us, though, is that these are anxious weeks of shopping and holiday planning leading up to a hectic Christmas Day. In the bustle of the holiday season, it’s hard to remember what we’re waiting for. Completely avoiding the Christmas onslaught may be impossible, but we can make an effort to maintain some connection to the spiritual foundation of this season. Busted Halo’s 2013 Advent Surprise Calendar is here to help with that. In traditional Advent calendars, children open different windows throughout the season to reveal special surprises. Busted Halo’s Advent Calendar brings its sense of surprise by showing you the whole calendar, but not letting you open each day and find out what’s behind the picture until that day comes along. Over these four weeks of Advent, we will use the themes of hope, love, joy, and peace to help you focus during this busy season. We hope each day’s Daily Jolt and MicroChallenge will help you prepare to welcome the gift of Christ this Christmas. You can look at the 2012 Advent Calendar here. Starting Dec 1, you can start using the 2013 Advent Calendar - no peeking ahead! Busted Halo can be found at www.bustedhalo.com |
How can we help families think differently about Christmas?Last year's Advent theme was "Advent Conspiracy" - read how another church did the same thing last year.
Posted by Fuller Youth Institute on December 14 2012 Today’s guest post is from Tim Galleher, Pastor of Youth and Family Ministries at Saratoga Federated Church in Saratoga, California. Saratoga was part of the 2011 Sticky Faith Cohort. This year we’re trying something new in Advent. Our High School group, LifeHouse, invited parents to attend the Sunday student service. This was not a “parent meeting,” but a worship service; an opportunity for students and their parents to worship Jesus together. We began a series based on The Advent Conspiracy aimed at helping us to learn how to think differently about Christmas. Our challenge is to put aside the worship of “stuff” and instead worship the King of Kings. After we heard from our students about how they have been challenged to change the way they look at Christmas, we gathered together to discuss how families can glorify God in the way we celebrate Christmas. Here are some of the questions that we talked about:
Alternative Gift GivingWe did Alternative Gift Giving in 2012 and helped to buy an "Ark" of animals through Heifer International. This year, we have catalogs from both the PC-USA and the ELCA with lots of opportunities to give alternative gifts this Christmas. So follow up Black Friday and Small Business Saturday with Alternative Advent Sunday - at a local church near you.
To buy a part of a pig, start a community garden, feed a child for a month, dig a well, or over 100 other options, visit ELCA Good Gifts. You can do just about the same thing with the Presbyterian Online Giving Catalog - build a hutch of rabbits, start a fish farm with fingerlings (tilapia, that is), send a child to school, send seeds - corn, millet, sorghum, or rice - and change communities food for a year.
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