Matthew Laker

Series: A Beginners guide to advent.

Here in Canada once Halloween (October 31) is over, literally the next day the commercial side of Christmas is kicking off. Growing up I always enjoyed the Christmas season. One of the traditions we took part in was something called advent. However for me, advent was more about watching someone light a candle on Sunday morning and getting an advent calendar filled with chocolate.

It was not until my 30’s that I started to see the good potential of advent, beyond just eating gross chocolate out of a cardboard calendar.

Have you ever wondered, what is advent all about?

Where did advent come from?

Why does the church practise something that Christ did not say to?

Where did the advent wreath and traditions come from?

My hope is to write a series of posts that can serve as a beginner’s guide to advent, in order to help you get the most out of the season.

Advent is not so much an event as it is a preparing season to position ourselves to meet with God. It is the beginning of the church year calendar. It is not something that we have to take part in, but it helps to create a good rhythm to realign ourselves.

Some will jump on the idea not to celebrate advent or Christmas, stating that its origins are not Christian. Yes, some of its components originated outside of the community of Jesus followers, however, we need to remember that Jesus followers are in the business of renewal. Often historically the church has redeemed practises for the glory of Christ. If you are a Jesus follower all you have to do is look in the mirror to be reminded about that. Jesus took something that was unholy and made it holy.

At its core I have come to see advent as a great tool amongst the community of followers of Jesus to be used for discipleship and alignment with Christ. It is not just a individualized practise, but can be a community building experience.

What questions do you have about advent?

Fill out the survey below and help me develop this series.