Reflection Roundup: Behold, the Light
Each week we gather news stories, notable pieces, and other important items for Christian leaders today. As always, listening broadly draws together differing perspectives from which we can learn but may not concur. Here are 10 things worth sharing this week.
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As the light of Christ streams in the window, lighting the room of our lives, let us notice what the light illuminates, yet not spend glorious, God-given energy attempting perfection in what is the Lord’s to complete.
1. It is the season to celebrate the arrival of our long expected Jesus, yet the interval commences with waiting. Here you’ll find themes for each week of the Advent season, associated colors and passages of Scripture, and liturgical prayers from both the Book of Common Prayer and the Revised Common Lectionary. This straightforward offering includes descriptions of Christmas practices and holy feast days that may be beyond what we might usually consider, such as remembering the Holy Innocents and clarifying the Twelve Days of Christmas and Epiphany.
2. Biola University’s Center for Culture and the Arts (CCCA) offers the Advent Project, a wellspring of inspiration for contemplation throughout the season of Advent. The free signup brings a piece of art paired with a selected song and a short bit of devotional writing based on Scripture. Delivered daily to your inbox, entries are generously compiled by Biola staff and faculty. Be sure to click the “About” tab to learn the history and inspiration as well as the authorship and artistry behind each daily composition. I’ve loved looking forward to this for years. If you join me in this appreciation, together we can anticipate the Lent Project coming in February.
3. The folks at Alabaster bring the songs of the season a new contemplative shape in “Nativity,” a lyric-less musical offering. As seekers long to behold something new that the Lord is doing, this music partners with creativity without crowding the space being readied for a new arrival.
4. Melanie Penn partnered with the Arcadian Wild to create “Immanuel: The Folk Sessions,” an album with familiar songs like “The First Noel,” as well as tunes that narrate different perspectives on the Christ child’s birth. Gabriel proclaims all things possible, while Joseph asks good questions, and Simeon receives a long-awaited confirmation. This one is musically “off the beaten path” and well worth the excursion.
5. If you’d like to explore yet another Advent resource, She Reads Truth offers “Advent 2021: The Everlasting Light” reading plan. Free in your inbox, each day includes text from the Hebrew Bible, the Psalms, the Gospels and the Letters, plus a devotional narrative. She Reads Truth has a lot to offer. This one’s new to me as some friends and I are exploring beautiful, artfully bound copies of The Everlasting Light together during this Advent. Each iteration – online, print, podcast, and even an app – contains different material. Choose something that makes this season distinct from the rest of the year, and for heaven’s sake don’t feel compelled to use all of it!
6. Next Tuesday, the Siburt Institute for Church Ministry brings Rick Atchley and Carson Reed together for an Intersection: Where Theology and Practice Meet webinar conversation that asks, “What Does the Church Need to Hear About Church?” Atchley, a most trusted voice in Christian fellowship, along with church health expert Reed, directs our minds toward “discipleship, community, and bearing witness to the gospel in public spaces.” The pandemic revealed our need for growth in these areas within our congregations, and there is good news – gospel news – to be revealed moving forward. Plan to listen and converse with these trusted guides.
7. In the spirit of a season that reminds us of God’s creativity, James K. A. Smith interviews musical duo the Welcome Wagon, also next Tuesday, for Image: Art, Faith, Mystery magazine. Collage artist Monique Aiuto and her husband the Reverend Thomas Vito Aiuto “execute a genre of gospel music that is refreshingly plain. Their hymns are modest and melodic takes on a vast history of sacred song traditions, delivered with the simple desire to know their Maker – and to know each other – more intimately.” Definitely sounds worth a listen, at least in the background of an Advent workday! Registration is free.
8. Chelsie Sargent joined the Siburt Institute for Church Ministry recently for an Intersection webinar conversation on the topic of the Enneagram’s usefulness as we live alongside one another in our churches. “The Enneagram and Spiritual Self-Care” explores the counterintuitive topic of self-care relative to our unique character and personality types. When we offer this grace to ourselves, we are sharpened in empathy to offer the same care to those within our bodies of fellowship.
9. We’ve all wondered about the multivalent impact of our churches' technological response to worship during the pandemic. The Tech in Churches project, funded by the Lilly Endowment, focuses on “key themes emerging from 50 Tech Talk sessions with 478 church leaders hosted online by the Center for Congregations of Indianapolis, Indiana in 2020 and 2021.” This first report, “When Pastors put on the ‘Tech Hat’: How Churches Digitized during Covid-19,” prepared by Heidi A. Campbell and Sophia Osteen, reflects on how technological decisions were made, the central challenges when technology is applied to church, and the ramifications both positively and negatively visible to these congregations at this point.
10. New approaches, adaptive challenges. These are the makings of church leadership – of church membership, really. Leading Ideas’ piece “Fruitful Leaders Ask Questions” by Daniel M. Cash and William H. Griffith reminds that no one is an expert in these unprecedented days. Those who navigate most successfully are willing to ask the same intentional, reflective questions of themselves and those around them, producing forward movement while engaging communal challenges.
