I’ve been trying to introduce the concept of Advent to Central for the last couple of years. Admittedly, I’m doing this because I hate the month of December in this culture. Everyone is runs around like an angry bunch of lunatics – leaving a wake of tension and stress in their wake. I dislike venturing out in December because it rarely ends with me feeling a sense of accomplishment or peace, but my schedule fills up so much this month that I’m forced to travel out into the madness again and again.
I’m not the only one who feels this way. After this month is over people seem to invariably say to me, “Oh I am so glad the holidays are over.” If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results, then folks… we’re nuts.
Thankfully, there are folks who are trying to reclaim Advent, you can watch their video below. Even though they end up conflating Christmas, Epiphany, and Advent in the video – I applaud the attempt. It’s not like there’s a whole bunch of people attempting what they’re doing.
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It’s weird you posted this today. I put that video up on the church plant site today as well.
As for the complaint about conflating Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany, I’m not surprised, as up to this year, I couldn’t begin to tell you the differences, and since I know the church this originated from, I can say many there are also new to this whole church calendar thing.
For me personally this was not that wild of an idea, but the longer I am out of very rural eastern Washington, the more sheltered I realize I was from much of the totally consumerism driven Christmas.
Nice to see others passing on the Advent Conspiracy ideas though!
Although I see your point, that is not how my world is. I love December, I love the preparation and the time I get to spend with family and friends. Maybe, because we never had a lot of money, the whole spending thing has never been the focus for us. We do make some gifts, and it is such a thrill to know you have given something special to someone in your life. It’s sorry to hear that to so many, December is not a time of fun and joy. Even for those who don’t celebrate Jesus, it still should be a joyous time, not a stressful time.
Cathi, I’m glad you don’t experience December that way. So here’s the challenge – how do you help the people all around who who ARE stressed to experience that peace?