Advent newbies

Not every contributor to Our Savior Come has a lifelong association with Advent. As Aaron Susek explains, however, acquiring a taste for celebration during this season brings about delightful results.

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It’s 3:30 in the afternoon, and I’m sitting in a coffee shop trying to figure how best to introduce myself to would-be Advent Guide readers. That might clue you in that I am either a fulltime, over-caffeinated writer… or a pastor. I am in fact the latter, a church planter in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Since my congregation is not all that substantial yet, a good part of this life means camping in community gathering places, listening and learning the dynamics of local life, tuning in to every opportunity to network and build relationships, and prayerfully pastoring a large community of not-yet-church-goers.

I’m privileged to go at this alongside my perfect complement in ministry (my wife, Amy), and three fantastic social networkers (our young daughters, Callie, Megan, and Kate).

Contributing an article to Our Savior Come was special because over the past few years, my experience of Advent has been supplemented by writers—bloggers, poets, children storybook authors, etc. But for the longest time, my involvement with the season involved little more than watching a new candle get lit at church each week in December. In the past few years, however, I’ve come to a new-found appreciation for the Church’s liturgical calendar.

I’m not really one for routine. Spontaneity=exciting in my mind, and routine often feels burdensome. So I was never naturally inclined to liturgy and the Church seasons. But not long ago, I heard someone describe how those things were incredibly freeing for personal worship. That piqued my curiosity.

What I’ve come to appreciate since then is being led in worship, seasons of worship even, by the prayers, songs, confessions, and storied-themes of the Church. Much the way a skilled worship leader guides us in joyous celebration and deep adoration, I’ve found these elements to be effective in sustaining rich and diverse worship together with the Church family, and also at home with my own family.

So now, when Advent rolls around, our family gets out the Jesus Storybook Bible and each night (over dessert of course!) reads an Old Testament story that stirs that longing for Israel’s redeeming king. The kids take turns placing an ornament related to the story on our little Joshua Tree as well as a piece of straw in our popsicle stick manger. We pray for friends and family, and then close with “Come, Lord Jesus!” It’s a solid month of longing played out around the dinner table, in anticipatory worship with the Church family each Sunday, in meditative Lessons and Carols on Christmas Eve, and then in fun celebration on Christmas morning.

I appreciated wrestling with the theme of peace for this Advent book, and I look forward to hearing and learning from other voices! I also pray that our guide will effectively lead you and your families in rich worship through this season.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, my coffee needs a warm-up.

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