advent | december 1–25, 2019

Advent is the first season in the church year. It will take us once again through the life of Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Yet, Advent falls in the last month of our calendar year. So is Advent the end or is it the beginning? It is both. It represents the overlap of the ages.

In a very real sense, the Christian community lives in Advent all the time. It can well be called the Time Between, because the people of God live in the time between the first coming of Christ, incognito in the stable in Bethlehem, and his second coming in glory, to judge the living and the dead. In the Time Between, “our lives are hidden with Christ in God: when Christ who is our live appears, then we also will appear with Him in glory.” Advent contains within itself the crucial balance of now and not-yet that our faith requires. —Fleming Rutledge

This Advent at Trinity Grace, we will meditate on the coming of Jesus as our once and future hope. We will enter in again to the waiting and longing of those that looked for Christ’s first coming and we will be honest with the present tensions of our lives and world as we look with hope towards the promise of Christ’s return to set the world right.

Along with our time together on Sundays in Advent, we are asking our whole church to join in our shared practices for this season and walk in the way of Jesus. 

Caleb Clardy, Founding Pastor of Trinity Grace Church, introduces the practices as they relate to our current Advent 2019 teaching series, Our Once & Future Hope.

As our culture ramps up the holiday frenzy, we can take up the example of Jesus who often withdrew to be alone even in the times when he was the most sought after. Let us use these days of Advent to develop a regular practice of silence and solitude. These two practices make up a powerful formative duo that have been relied upon by followers of Jesus across the ages. Yet, we do not need to be intimidated by this even if we have little experience with it.

It is difficult to find silence in an age of technology and information. Silence challenges our cultural addiction to amusement, words, music, advertising, noise, alarms, and voices. Silence asks for patience and waiting. And both silence and waiting make us uncomfortable. They seem so unproductive. We can’t tell if we are doin anything in them. So when we come upon silence, we fill it. We cram it with something we can learn or do or achieve. —Adele Calhoun

You can begin with just a few minutes a day. Mark out a little time and space to be alone and to be quiet. City life may present many obstacles to this so you may need to get creative. Is there a spot you can stop on your commute. Is there a place you can go in a park or on a city bench? Can you get up a little earlier to be alone before your house is stirring?

Simply make time to be alone with God, and don’t put too much pressure on yourself after that. We are not seeking just the absence of noise or other people, but an openness and attentiveness to God.

We must seek out the recreating stillness of solitude if we want to be with others meaningfully. We must seek the fellowship and accountability of others if we want to be alone safely. We must cultivate both if we are to live in obedience. —Richard Foster

If you need help getting started, we have some helpful supplemental resources to recommend. Most of these books have chapters on silence and solitude if not much larger sections devoted these two practices:

• Invitation to Silence and Solitude by Ruth Haley Barton 

• The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer

• Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster

• Spiritual Disciplines Handbook by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun 

• Devotional Classics edited by Richard Foster and James Bryan Smith

Each season we share an “inhale” practice to grow to be more like Christ as well as an “exhale” practice to put the love of Christ into action in the outflow of our lives. During this season of Advent, when we might be tempted to tighten our grips on our finances because we have a few more expenses or have to pay for Christmas celebrations and travel we are challenging ourselves to generosity.

Let us be those who pass along what we have received knowing that life itself is grace. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide your generosity. This may often mean giving money, but consider giving your time and energy as well. Can you think of planned and spontaneous ways to be generous? Who might God bring across your path that you can give to? Who can you plan a secret blessing for? 

You may also consider joining in our annual Christmas Offering as we rally funds to give away in our city and around the world.

Listen to the Teaching Series

Caleb Clardy teaches from readings of the Prophet Isaiah and the Gospels of Luke and Matthew in December 2019 in our Advent series “Our Once & Future Hope.” Explore the archives and subscribe to our podcast.

follow a daily advent devotional

We recommend the following resources to meditate on the coming of Christmas in your household:

• Advent Project 2019 by Biola University

• Watch for the Light by Bonhoeffer, Lewis, Nouwen, Stein, L'Engle, Yancey, and more

• Come, Let Us Adore Him by Paul David Tripp

• The Advent Jesse Tree by Dean Lambert Smith

• Jesus Storybook Bible Advent Guide by Sally Lloyd Jones

Introduction to Practices

Get to know our shared spiritual practices as a church throughout the year. Look for how each inhale and exhale practice can bear the fruit of His kingdom in your life and in the city.