Category: Community

  • Preparing Your Eyes to See: Advent

    Preparing Your Eyes to See: Advent

    by Taylor Devine

    If you have lived in the liturgical cycle for a while, you probably have a favorite season as we follow Jesus’ story through the year. Advent is definitely mine, though with its brevity, I find it is important to prepare myself for the layers of invitation embedded in the season.

    Advent invites us to experience God’s grace in our lives on a number of different levels: personally, as we reflect on our own relationship with God, and communally, as we hear those long readings from the prophet Isaiah and familiar readings from the Gospel of Luke. There’s also an invitation for those of us committed church attenders to offer robust hospitality during Advent and Christmastide to occasional attenders, out-of-town guests, and those experiencing the highs and lows of life, made more intense by the holiday season. And then there’s the invitation for all of us to enter into the emotional experience of Advent: into quiet, waiting, and often into rich family traditions that draw on our time, resources, and attention.

    In previous years, Bonnie Smith Whitehouse’s beautiful book Seasons of Wonder, Laura Alary‘s seasonal children’s books, and the O Antiphons devotions in the Saint Augustine’s Prayer Book have all been Advent companions for me. This year, I am especially looking forward to reading Gospel Voices, a new book about practicing Advent spirituality – waiting, watching, repenting and rejoicing.

    Advent will be here before we know it! If you want to pray with and live with the season in a new way this year, consider these reflections:

    Think ahead to the people for whom you have responsibility for spiritual guidance: children, grandchildren, or godchildren; family members; church or other friends who look to you for guidance and support. Are there connection points in Advent that could be strengthened with a little pre-planning?

    Consider doing your Christmas gift shopping in advance: this can leave more space in December for the celebration of Advent.

    Sometimes the busyness (or even chaos!) of the days leading up to and around Christmas is fun. If you and your family enjoy the busyness, you are not doing it wrong! Just pay attention to where the fun is creating bonds of love and support, and where you may need a different pace in order to pray and be with Christ in this season. Don’t be afraid to change your patterns if you need to.

    If you would like to begin to think about the season as a church leader or participant, please join us this Thursday for a short Discipleship Chat (register here).

    God-with-us is a gift we get to receive all year, but we get to do it so robustly in Advent!

    The Rev. Taylor Devine is the Church Relations Coordinator for Discipleship Initiatives at Forward Movement and a member of the Cedar team.

  • On-ramps for Adult Formation

    On-ramps for Adult Formation

    A reflection by Cedar team member Taylor Devine.

    Churches in transition, whether this is a transition around leadership, size, or some other issue, often struggle to maintain consistent and robust offerings for adult Christian formation. Common refrains from membership include “We used to have an adult forum,” “People just don’t have the bandwidth to stay after the service on Sunday,” and “I know education is important, but I can’t be the one to facilitate it.” With real constraints on resources, staff, and volunteers, adult Christian formation can get lost in the mix, even though we know that equipping and supporting our members in developing a mature faith is one of the most important things we do as Church.  

    In conversation with leaders across the Episcopal Church, I have heard of a few jump-starts that have placed congregations on the path to more robust adult Christian formation. Here is one example that you may find inspiring, as you consider your space, the kinds of spiritual questions your people are asking, and the kind of time and leadership support you have in your ministry context.

    Sabbath Brew

    Emily Bruner Doane is the Canon for Formation and Lay Ministry in the Diocese of East Tennessee. In Emily’s home parish, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Oak Ridge, TN, she and the rector started an informal Sunday forum called Sabbath Brew that started conversations, gave parish leaders a sense of what people were responding to, and led to more openness for adult formation offerings.

    Steps:

    Leaders got a group subscription to the Work of the People, which offers a collection of faith-based films and visual content ($60/year group subscription). They chose and previewed a short 3-5 minute video, and showed this about twenty minutes into Coffee Hour each Sunday. Then the group had a brief conversation responding to the short film.

    Why it worked in this context:

    This casual format did not replace the fellowship of Coffee Hour, but provided an enriching opportunity in community, that people then realized they valued. The leaders were able to note what kind of questions came up and which topics were of interest to the group, as they considered what else they might be able to offer during that or another time. These Sabbath Brew sessions built momentum, and parishioners began asking for more formation. This led to leaders adopting the Pilgrim course (an adult Chrisitan formation course from the Church of England) as the next chapter of adult formation at their parish, which became their Confirmation class.

    Please reach out with your stories of transformation if this sounds like you! We would love to share more like it. To hear more about how Emily Bruner Doane has co-led Pilgrim, join the Cedar team for a Webinar on Introduction to Christian Faith curricula on September 29.

    For further suggestions on creating on-ramps for adult Christian formation in your congregation, see the “Get People Moving” chapter of Signs of Life. Start with where you are; get to know your people; and invite them and others into more!

    The Rev. Taylor Devine is the Church Relations Coordinator for Discipleship Initiatives at Forward Movement and a member of the Cedar team.

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