One of the ways Children’s Ministry is trying to help families out this year is by giving you more resources. We have been giving out helpful resources in the Toddler and Preschool rooms so you can bring the monthly topics, memory verses and stories home. This will become available on the blog each month starting in January. We started a Newsletter that comes out monthly to keep you updated as to what is going on at CCC. We have been blogging here to inform you of changes, growth, fun events, and other family related things. And right now we have been offering an Advent Resource table so that families of all ages can find ideas to make this season more meaningful. None of these year long resources we offer are meant to take away from the things you might already be doing together as a family. I know as a mom with small children we don’t have a lot of traditions set in place yet so I have been searching for what might help me communicate more clearly with my children what Christmas is all about.

The following Christmas book might be enjoyable to add to your holiday library:

The author of The Jesus Storybook Bible, Sally Lloyd-Jones has a new book that came out this year. The younger classes will get to read it this coming Sunday, your family might enjoy it as well.

Song of the Stars

I asked Todd to write this for me because I knew he would do a better job explaining this for us. As you may already know Children’s Ministry is offering an Advent Resource Table, there are a limited amount of the following book available (you can also order them online).

***Guest post from Todd Best–Book review: God With Us; Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas

Advent means ‘coming’, but it implies that there is a waiting for whatever is coming. The Advent season is an invitation to reflection and waiting. But reflection about what? And waiting for what? While it’s true that Advent and Christmas are about the birth of Jesus who would would come to save us from our sins, the Incarnation is much more grand than taking care of our individual moral failure. The God of all Creation stoops to this tiny planet, and, through Jesus, enters our human experience by taking on the very flesh that we live in. And by coming into our world, he not only ends up saving us from our sins, but inaugurates the redemption of the whole of Creation, beginning by restoring humanity. He came to save us from our sins, yes, but more than this he came to show us what it means to experience our full humanity – how to have life to the full by being fully in God. He is making all things new, and he has begun with us. In all this he gives us not only a standing with God, but a whole new way of understanding all things and a way of being in the world.

Advent is our annual opportunity to rehearse Creation’s waiting, longing for the coming savior not merely to save us, but more-so to restore flourishing through life embedded in God. Intentional reflection on the meaning of the Incarnation can be prompted through reading. Our family has found several advent books that have helped us over the years, but the best is God With Us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas. This collection offers several things that help our family pause for regular reflection and prayer throughout the season. Ecumenical in its theological form, it centers on the historically orthodox meaning of Christmas while it exposes readers to a variety of perspectives. It also offers historical insight to various feast days, events, and traditions along the way (see especially the entry on Saint Nicholas). God With Us also incorporates art (visual and poetic) as opportunities to expand the readings through the imagination. Finally, this book  offers a greater appreciation for the global and historic church as it sheds light on how the church calendar works and how we, in spite of our denominational identity, are truly connected to the entire Christian church through all time and space. As a side note, we have found, with a little creativity, it’s easy to draw children into the readings.

If you are interested in adding God With Us to your Advent reading a limited number of copies are available for purchase across from the Children’s Ministry Welcome Station at the church building – nicely priced copies are available online as well. The introduction by Eugene Peterson is worth the price of the book alone. You can read that and sample more here:

http://site.paracletepress.com/samples/exc-God-With-Us-1-20.pdf

If you are looking for something to do with your little children this Advent, you might want to check out this little burlap bag sitting on the Advent Resource Table near the children’s Welcome Station. We have adapted this little family activity from a French Christmas tradition. On the first day of Advent your family can “build” the manger (pieces and directions included), and then each day through out the rest of Advent leading up to the birth of Christ, children can add a piece of straw to the manger. They are preparing the manger for Jesus to be born. On Christmas day when you celebrate the birth of Christ your children may add Jesus. The point of this tradition is to allow children to play a part in preparing for the birth of Christ.

In the French tradition the children add the straw each time they do their Advent prayers or kind deeds through out the season. The point of this activity is to give children a concrete way to see that Advent is about waiting and preparing. Waiting for our Savior to come. Preparing our hearts for his arrival. So if you are interested in adding this to your family tradition, each time you sit together and read your Advent meditations, scriptures and prayers, your children can take part in preparing for Jesus’ birthday.

Advent starts this Sunday, so if you want to stop by the Welcome Station and pick one up, please do. We are asking for a $3 donation. If you want more than one, as a gift for a friend that’s fine, extras cost $3.

If you do not do regular bible time or devotions with your children, Advent is a great time to get the ball rolling as there are so many resources out there for families. We have provided copies of the Jesse Tree Advent devotional for your family if you do not already have one. Stop by and pick up your copy this Sunday.