Last year, to prepare our own hearts for Advent, we produced The Advent Project: 89 posts of Scripture readings, prayers, reflections, poetry, music, and videos to help us patiently mark time as we waited for the coming of the King.
We found it to be a very helpful process, and were delighted to share it with many people. One thing we noticed was that after preparing for Christmas all of Advent, it was easy to run out of steam. To spend so much time in preparation, that we forgot to feast.
We hope to rectify that this year, with the launch of The Christmas Project. We plan on providing:
- a weekly Advent post, connecting the watchfulness of Advent with the celebration of Christmas, including various habits and practices designed to increase our anticipation of the feast;
- one daily Christmas post between Christmas Eve (December 24) and Epiphany (January 6), with habit forming resources and devotional practices to celebrate the nativity of Jesus Christ.
Christmas is a season of joyous thankfulness. The festivities of the season are designed to enmesh us in one simple truth: Emmanuel – God is with us! As we celebrate the lavish abundance of God’s generosity towards us in the gift of his Son, come among us to heal our afflictions, the Christmas season trains our heart, mind, and body to hopefully anticipate that when we feast in God’s kingdom, when God will be all in all.
How to participate in the Christmas Project
This year The Christmas Project will collect resources to help us feast with thanksgiving. Our aim is to celebrate for a whole Christmas season, to sustain our joyful thanks for the incarnation not just on December 25th but for the whole Twelve Days of Christmas. We want to explore ways to sustain our worship where in other years Christmas has quickly given way to the excitement of summer. Cricket, beach missions, New Years celebrations and BBQs are all good gifts to be enjoyed with gratitude: take the opportunity this year to reclaim them as Christmas.
- Sign up
Throughout Christmas we will be collecting a huge range of resources to help you celebrate: music and poetry, prayers and sermons, recipes and craft tutorials. Follow or subscribe to receive weekly updates during Advent and daily updates throughout Christmas. - Explore on your own
Rifle through our resources section, find your favourite poems, songs and sermons and make your own plans for celebrating Twelve Days of Christmas this year. Our resources section will keep expanding during the Christmas season. - Share your celebrations
Are you a social media nut? Share your twelve-day-long Christmas celebrations with #the12daysproject hashtag. But even more significantly, share your celebrations with family, friends and lots of people who don’t know Jesus. God became flesh and dwelt among us; that is definitely worth celebrating with as many people as possible.
The first post is available to read here.
Matthew and Alison
Christ the King Sunday 2014
The Advent Project 