Today’s post is from Jennifer Baker-Trinity, Organist and Choir Director at Beaver Lutheran in Beaver Springs, PA.

In this time in the church year, Christians wonder at this mystery: Christ becoming fully human, taking earthly form in a world full of joy and pain, of suffering and healing. We yearn for Christ’s coming, but do we recognize it birthed now among us? Do we marvel at how Christ’s birth transforms us to be like that bright star, guiding the nations to God’s light and love revealed in Jesus?

While much of the northern climates will be experiencing a snowy winter described in many Northern European Christmas carols, a worship event held in warmer Santa Monica, California offers another context for us to ask the following question:

How do we engage worship and culture?

Said another way,

How does the mystery of Christ’s coming to us shape how we experience God in worship?

This February 19-21, come to St. Paul’s Lutheran in Santa Monica to gather with others around this and related questions. All in attendance will have the opportunity to hear presenters flesh out the Nairobi Statement on Worship and Culture, a helpful document that challenges us to see worship through four lenses: transcultural (common to all cultures), contextual (specific to a particular culture), counter-cultural (transforming the prevailing culture) and cross-cultural (shared between cultures) (For a fresh guide at how this statement calls us to worship renewal, see Can We Talk: Engaging Worship and Culture.)

Jesus’ birth calls forth praise from all the nations streaming to his light. Come to discover what in our worship transcends cultures and unites us as one people of God. At the same time, Jesus came and still comes to a particular people in a particular place. Come and reflect upon the aspects of worship that reflect your unique congregation and its particular gifts.

Christmas will come and go, but Christ continually comes among us. We hope you, too, will come to California for these days of renewal!

For more information see the Facebook event and watch for registration soon at http://www.elca.org/worship.

Today’s blog post is from Clayton Faulkner, Director of Worship, Music and Technology at Faith Lutheran Church in Bellaire, TX. 

If you’ve sung ELW #239-267 and are looking for some new worship music for Advent, try these on. These songs have been in rotation at Faith Lutheran in Bellaire, TX and work especially well for our band-led service.

Sing to the King, words and music by Billy Foote and based on an older hymn by Charles Silvester Horne. This song captures the eschatological themes of Advent well. The arrangement we use at Faith includes an additional original stanza that is left out of Foote’s version: “Souls will be saved from the burden of sin, doubt will not darken his witness within. Hell has no terrors, and death has no sting; love is victorious when Jesus is King.”

Immanuel, or as I like to call it, “From the Squalor of a Borrowed Stable” (taken from the first stanza). Words and music by Stuart Townend, who has had some controversy stemming from the new Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) hymnal. The four stanzas of this song give you a great narrative sweep of Christ’s birth, life, death, and return. We exclusively bring this song out every Advent. However, I do feel that the theology in this song needs a little tweaking to fit in our context. In the final stanza I change “hope of heaven or the fear of hell,” to “heav’n joins earth where God will dwell.”

Even So Come, words and music by Chris Tomlin, Jason Ingram, and Jess Cates. This song has a driving 6/8 pulse that emphasizes the thematic elements of waiting, preparation, and longing. The bridge section lyrics, “God we wait, you’re coming soon” fit well alongside the words of John the Baptizer.

Today’s blog post is from Megan Neubauer, Interim Program Associate for the ELCA Strategy on HIV and AIDS.

Each year, December 1^st marks World AIDS Day; a day to commemorate all of those who have and continue to be affected by HIV and AIDS. The day is a powerful one to remember, but also a day to look, with hope, toward the future. This year marks 35 years since the first reported case of what would come to be known as AIDS in the United States by the Centers for Disease Control. Since that time, we have learned much more about effective treatment and prevention. However, there is much progress to be made. HIV continues to affect many in our communities and throughout the world, including more than 1.2[i] million people in the United States alone, and approximately 36.7[ii] million worldwide.

In 2009 the Church Council passed the ELCA Strategy on HIV and AIDS. In it, we outlined the many ways that we must respond. Together we are called to reflection, and we are called to action. This year on World AIDS Day, let us join in prayer, worship and reflection for HIV and AIDS in our community. This church can be a resounding voice in speaking out against stigma and discrimination; Let us examine how we become or maintain a welcoming community for all affected. In remembering World AIDS Day in our worship, we continue to raise awareness. December 1^st is a day we join in prayer, reflection and remembrance, and we go forth renewed to continue the response.

World AIDS Day worship resources are now available at www.elca.org/hiv.

If your congregation will be commemorating World AIDS Day or wishes to integrate commemoration into your Sunday worship on Dec. 4th, prayers, a brief healing rite, hymn suggestions and more worship components are available here.

[i] Centers for Disease Control, 2016. HIV in the United States: At A Glance [10/5/2016]. http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/statistics/overview/ataglance.html

[ii] UNAIDS, 2016. Fact Sheet 2016[10/5/2016] www.unaids.org/en/resources/fact-sheet

Worship at the Center events give you the opportunity to explore topics and rites of worship in the church through worship, presentations and workshops. They are designed for pastors, musicians, worship teams and anyone else interested in vibrant worship in their communities.

Mark your calendars for:

Worship at the Center: Engaging Worship and Culture, Feb. 19-21, 2017, Santa Monica, California

and:

Worship at the Center: Exploring the Occasional Services, April 30-May 2, 2017, New Haven, Connecticut

Registration is $40 per person with a maximum of $100 per congregation.

More information is available on the ELCA Worship Facebook page under “Upcoming Events.” (https://www.facebook.com/elcaworship/)

As Advent approaches, Bishop Elizabeth Eaton has co-authored a devotional resource for your congregation with three other Lutheran and Anglican leaders.

Along with Bishop Eaton, the weekly devotions were contributed by the Most Rev. Michael B. Curry, presiding bishop and primate, The Episcopal Church; the Most Rev. Fred Hiltz, primate, Anglican Church of Canada; and the Rev. Susan C. Johnson, national bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada. The resource is, in part, a way to celebrate the full communion partnership between the contributing churches.

As the bishops write in a joint cover letter, “May our prayers united be a modest but hopeful sign of what our churches can do together as we bear witness to the One who first reconciled himself to us.”

The themes of each week’s reflections are: “Liberated by God’s Grace,” “Creation-Not for Sale,” “Salvation-Not for Sale,” and finally, “Human Beings-Not for Sale.”

The Advent devotions, formatted for easy printing with your congregation’s bulletin, are available in PDF here:

http://download.elca.org/ELCA%20Resource%20Repository/2016_Advent_devotions_all.pdf?_ga=1.80319888.683376320.1466460903