Unsettling Advent, Day 1
In day 1 of our Unsettling Advent devotional series, Word&Way Editor-in-Chief Brian Kaylor reflects on starting Advent amid a second year of COVID surges and deaths.
Unsettling Advent
In this edition of A Public Witness, we set the stage for Advent and countdown ways in which the pandemic, oppression, and insurrection defining our contemporary moment are strikingly similar to when Jesus was first born so long ago.
Church Pageants Go Virtual Amid a COVID-19 Christmas
Coronavirus has canceled many Christmas pageants, but some churches turned to a new virtual format for the old classic. And with kids and the internet involved, virtual pageants, it turns out, are just as delightfully unpredictable as more traditional performances at churches.
Baptist Church Remembers Record Homicide Year with Annual Advent Service
For 23 years, Highland Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, has held a service on the second Sunday of Advent with a cross on its lawn for each person killed that year by homicide in the community. This year saw more crosses than ever for its
Drive-Thru Live Nativities are Tailor-Made for a COVID-19 Christmas
Live Nativities, in which visitors drive — and sometimes, especially in warmer climes, walk — through a number of scenes retelling the biblical story of Jesus’s birth, have been popular around the U.S. for years. And it’s an idea whose time has come as the
Do You Believe in Advent?
Columnist Greg Mamula has noticed a trend in Baptist churches toward at least acknowledging classic Christian seasons like Advent more often. He writes that the good thing about seasons is that they come back around every year, allowing us to gain deeper understanding of each
How to Do Advent When Nothing Seems Worth Celebrating
Our Immanuel doesn’t offer us an escape. He comes to suffer with us. Read full piece
In a Year of Waiting & Hoping, Advent Reminds Us Patience Can Be Healthy
Our consumer society’s dependence on instant gratification has infected our religious practice. Advent comes with a countervailing message: Expect God to show up in unexpected places, like a subway car, a Zoom call, or a stable.
Unseasonal Condemnation
Editor Brian Kaylor reflects on Christmas (yes, he thinks it is too early to celebrate) and the news that our country can’t find the parents of 545 children that our government separated from their parents at the border.