Advent Roll Call: 40+ Resources To Add Creativity & Inspiration to the Advent Season
This Advent marks our fourth year working from the Revised Common lectionary, which means we have a large inventory of creative resources for Advent & Christmas. To save you time (and the hassle of searching your way through older resources in our shop), we thought we’d organize all we have to offer. Get your scrolling & clicking finger ready, because there’s a lot in here!
If you’re familiar with our work, you may know that we bundle our resources because they often overlap in use, and because we want to equip you with comprehensive materials for a whole season. Our newest Advent resource bundle follows the RCL for Year A and the theme, “What Can’t Wait?” Click the graphic to check out these resources first! You’ll also see individual components of our What Can’t Wait? bundle organized by categories below.
words for worship
Candle Lighting Liturgies
A new take on "hope, peace, love, and joy" liturgy, these words offer fresh language for Advent waiting in a world desperate for peace.
[This resource is one of many in our WHAT CAN’T WAIT? ADVENT BUNDLE]
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD FOR ONE-TIME LICENSE
This Advent, hope, peace, joy, and love can’t wait. This collection of liturgies offers fresh words for worship for Advent through Christmas Eve (following the RCL, Year A). Download includes Candle Lighting Liturgy, Call to Worship, and Prayer of Confession for each week in Advent and Christmas Eve. Liturgy is inspired by the RCL (Year A), the What Can’t Wait? theme, and the traditional weekly Advent themes of hope, peace, joy, and love.
We hope you will copy/paste or adapt these prayers for your corporate worship (with credit).
Liturgy written by Sarah Are.
[This resource is one of many in our DRAW NEAR ADVENT BUNDLE]
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD FOR ONE-TIME LICENSE
These words offer fresh language for drawing near to hope, peace, joy and love throughout Advent. Download includes Advent wreath candle-lighting liturgy for each week in Advent. Liturgy is formatted for multiple readers.
[This resource is one of many in our 2016 Advent Bundle. Preview the entire bundle here]
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD ONLY
Written by: Sarah Are
Details:
A new take on "hope, peace, & love," liturgy, these words offer fresh language for Advent waiting in a world desperate for peace. File includes wreath candle-lighting liturgy for each week in Advent. Liturgy is formatted for multiple readers.
Resources for a Longest Night (Blue Christmas) Service
Not everyone is uplifted by light and joy throughout the Christmas season. For many, the holiday season is a painful reminder of loved ones lost. Create sacred space for grief by hosting a Longest Night service on December 21st, the longest night of the year (for the Northern hemisphere). This full order of worship includes the option to show our “Let There Be” worship meditation film as a visual reflection. We also encourage you to download our “Let There Be” graphics to advertise the service to your community.
[This resource is also included in our 2017 Advent Bundle of resources]
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD FOR ONE-TIME LICENSE
This liturgical resource is for hosting a "Longest Night" service (alternatively titled, "Blue Christmas" or "Service of Light") on or around the winter solstice (December 21st in the Northern Hemisphere) designed to honor those grappling with loss and grief. Our hope is that this worship service will create a safe and sacred space for those who are struggling to feel the joy and light of this holiday season due to loss of any kind. We do not intend for this service to be a service of healing, for what we lose cannot always be replaced. Instead, we hope this service will acknowledge the hole that grief leaves in one’s heart while simultaneously remembering that we worship a God who is with us, even in the darkest of times.
[This resource is also included in our 2017 Advent Bundle of resources]
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD FOR ONE-TIME LICENSE
This worship film offers a visual meditation on love and loss, creating safe and sacred space for those wading through the tides of grief. Featuring spoken word poetry by Sarah Are, the film offers imagery of stormy chaos slowly curving into calm. The end result is not an erasure of the chaos, but, instead, a sense of groundedness for being held by God even in the midst of the storm.
Poetry by Sarah Are | Art & film by Lisle Gwynn Garrity
[These graphics are included in our Advent 2017 Bundle of resources]
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD FOR ONE-TIME LICENSE
These graphics offer a visually engaging way for you to build on our Let There Be Light theme, or create your own seasonal or weekly themes by filling in the blank, "Let there be ____________." Perhaps you may wish to follow the traditional weekly themes of Advent by adding "Hope," "Peace," "Love," or "Joy" to the "Let there Be" logo. If you use our Longest Night Worship Service, you may wish to use these Let There Be graphics for that service as an invitation and reminder to simply "be."
Download includes files for print and web so you can use them for projecting images and slides in worship, printing on bulletins, study materials, church publications, and advertising your worship on your website and online.
Poetic Advent Prayers
Personal and honest, these first-person prayers invite you into prayerful and intimate conversations with God. Use them to open group sessions, adapt them for corporate worship, or distribute them to community members.
[This resource is one of many in our WHAT CAN’T WAIT? ADVENT BUNDLE]
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD FOR ONE-TIME LICENSE
This collection of 5 poetic prayers explores the question, what can’t wait? Each poem reflects on how God can’t wait to create hope, peace, joy, and love. Honest and intimate, these poems offer Advent meditations that might become prayers of your own. We hope you might adapt them for worship liturgy, use them to open and close programming events, or print them as they are for members in your community to read and return to throughout the season of Advent.
Prayers written by Sarah Are.
[This resource is also included in our 2017 Advent Bundle of resources]
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD FOR ONE-TIME LICENSE
These 4 short first-person “Conversations with God” poems reflect on hope, peace, love, and joy in a way that feels personal and intimate. These prayers are honest and pure, innocently child-like in their inquiry. We hope they invite you into a prayerful and intimate conversation with God throughout the weeks of Advent.
Prayers written by Sarah Are.
[This resource is also included in our DRAW NEAR ADVENT BUNDLE]
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD FOR ONE-TIME LICENSE
These 5 short poetic prayers illuminate a spiritual longing to draw near to God. Honest and pure, they reflect on drawing near to wonder, truth, justice, love and one another as means to connect more deeply to God. We hope you might adapt them for worship liturgy, or print them as they are for members in your community to read and return to throughout the season of Advent.
Prayers written by Sarah Are.
Christmas Liturgies
These resources engage children in worship and can be used for Christmas Eve or any service throughout the Christmas season.
“The World’s Child” Mini Christmas Bundle w/ Full Order of Worship, Narrative Reflections, & Illustrated Foldable for Kids ($22-$28)
[This liturgy is included in our 2017 Christmas Bundle of resources]
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD FOR ONE-TIME LICENSE
Looking for a more worshipful option for your church's children pageant? This full order of service offers liturgy and hands-on creative elements to keep wiggly ones engaged throughout. Structured as a worship service, the liturgy provides scripture scripts for telling the story of Jesus' birth with multiple voices. It even includes an option for recording a short video of the children in your community answering questions about Jesus' birth (think: something like this).
[This liturgy is included in our 2018 Christmas Bundle of resources]
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD FOR ONE-TIME LICENSE
A full order of worship, this liturgy provides language for a Christmas Eve service or any worship throughout the Christmas season. Much of the liturgy is shaped around the Christmas theme, “Love Drawn Here,” focusing on Christ’s birth as a symbol of God’s love. The service opens with a poem, “Love Drawn Here.” We encourage you to download and distribute copies of our foldable illustrating this poem and pass it out to children and adults to color in throughout the service.
Advent Sermon Planning Guide
This thorough guide offers you theme connections, questions for deeper study, and links to diverse authors and scholars for each of the RCL Year A scripture texts.
[This resource is one of many in our WHAT CAN’T WAIT? ADVENT BUNDLE]
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD FOR ONE-TIME LICENSE
Ever wish you had a better way to organize your thoughts around a worship series? Want help connecting the lectionary texts for Advent (Year A) with the theme, What Can’t Wait? We created this resource to help you bridge the gap.
Like biblical commentary, this guide offers you seeds of ideas, theme connections, questions for deeper study, and real-world intersections. For each text, we’ve included: suggestions for how to connect the scripture to the What Can’t Wait? theme, guiding questions for deeper study, quotes for inspiration, and recommended articles and books that bring new perspectives.
We encourage you to use this guide as a starting point for your text study each week. Consider mapping out your ideas in our accompanying sermon-planning grid. This is also a great resource for teaching Sunday School or small groups, as the guiding questions are great for group discussion! We hope you’ll use the artist statements in our Advent Visual Art Collection as well as our Advent Words for Worship as companions to this guide in your worship planning.
Guide developed by Lisle Gwynn Garrity
printable devotionals
Looking for thoughtful, creative Advent devotions for yourself or your congregation? These resources offer print-ready files for you to print your own devotional booklet (or calendar!) and distribute as many copies as you wish to your community.
What Can’t Wait? Advent Devotional, Year A ($18-$85)
Draw Near Advent Devotional, Year C ($18-$85)
Let There Be Color Devotional, Year B ($15-$80)
What Can’t Wait? Action Calendar for Children & Families ($5-$55)
sanctuary art
We hope to empower you to create art with others in community. Advent is a perfect season to try something new and add even more beauty to your sacred space while telling the story of Christ’s birth in a visually compelling way. Each of these resources include designs for you to project, trace, and bring to life as paper lace cut out banners. We also provide written instructions and a video tutorial to guide you through the process—any willing group can do it! Pictured below are mock-ups of the banner designs.
[This resource is one of many in our WHAT CAN’T WAIT? ADVENT BUNDLE]
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD FOR ONE-TIME LICENSE
This Advent, project & trace these designs to create painted or paper lace banners for your sanctuary. These designs by Hannah Garrity feature traditional Advent & Christmas imagery as well as imagery from the Isaiah passages in the RCL for Advent, Year A. Look closely in this composition for: plowshares and pruning hooks, the wolf and the lamb, crocuses blooming in the desert, the stump of Jesse, the wise men, the shepherds, the angels above, and Mary, Joseph, and Jesus in the inn.
We hope these designs (and our instructional materials) can simply be a starting point for you to create art and beauty that is uniquely your own. Gather a group and create together, for the creative process is just as meaningful as the final result. And we promise, these are not as hard to create as they may look!
[This resource is also included in our 2017 Advent Bundle of resources]
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD FOR ONE-TIME LICENSE
This Advent, create beautiful sanctuary art to illuminate the themes of the season. These designs by Hannah Garrity feature light breaking into the world through the bursting forth of the cosmos and the birth of Christ. If you use them to create paper lace banners (see more below), light will quite literally break through the negative shapes you cut away. We hope these designs (and our instructional materials) can simply be a starting point for you to create art and beauty that is uniquely your own. Gather a group and create together, for the creative process is just as meaningful as the final result.
[This resource is one of many in our DRAW NEAR ADVENT BUNDLE]
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD FOR ONE-TIME LICENSE
This Advent, create beautiful sanctuary art to illuminate the Christmas promise of God drawing near to us. These designs by Hannah Garrity feature traditional Christmas imagery—the Madonna and child, a shepherd, the star of Bethlehem—in a swirl of light and foliage.
We hope these designs (and our instructional materials) can simply be a starting point for you to create art and beauty that is uniquely your own. Gather a group and create together, for the creative process is just as meaningful as the final result.
Created by: Hannah Garrity
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD ONLY
[This resource is one of many in our 2016 Advent Bundle. Check out the entire bundle here]
Inspired by Mary’s Magnificat, Joseph’s Dream, Jesus’ Birth Story, and the Angels’ Birth Announcement to the Shepherds, this series of Advent and Christmas banners will adorn your space for the season. The large background movement in each banner depicts the movement of the Holy Spirit swirling around and surrounding the characters. The patterns draw the viewer into the piece while also symbolizing important details of each story.
films for worship & reflection
These short films blend visual imagery with either spoken word poetry or scripture to offer meditative moments for reflection. Use these in worship or in a class or programming event.
[This resource is one of many in our WHAT CAN’T WAIT? ADVENT BUNDLE]
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD FOR ONE-TIME LICENSE
This short film offers a reflection on the precarious timing of Christ’s birth. God chooses an unwed, lower-class, teenage girl forced to travel cross-country to be counted for the census in the midst of her third trimester. God’s plan to enter the world in human flesh seems so perilous—so much could and did go wrong. This led to the question, what if God had waited?
And yet, God couldn’t wait. God couldn’t wait to be love known in flesh and bone—and neither should we.
Art, film, and words by Lisle Gwynn Garrity
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD FOR ONE-TIME LICENSE
As you listen to the poetry of John 1: 1-5, watch this time lapse painting come to life as a meditation on the light that shines in the darkness.
Art & film by: Lisle Gwynn Garrity
Vocals by: Sarah Are
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD FOR ONE-TIME LICENSE
Mary sang a song of hope while standing in the dark. How? Maybe we are called to do the same.
Full-length visual liturgy inspired by Luke 1: 46b-55.
Spoken word by: Sarah Are
Film & production by: Sarah Are & Lisle Gwynn Garrity
[This resource is one of many included in our DRAW NEAR ADVENT BUNDLE]
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD FOR ONE-TIME LICENSE
This short film imagines the ways God draws near to us, like the sun bending down to earth to lift the flowers to the sky. Pairing time lapse imagery with poetry by Sarah Are, this film could be offered as a visual meditation in worship or used in bible study/discussion groups around themes of drawing near to God.
Poetry by Sarah Are
Art & film by Lisle Gwynn Garrity
[This resource is also included in our 2017 Advent Bundle of resources]
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD FOR ONE-TIME LICENSE
This worship film offers a visual meditation on love and loss, creating safe and sacred space for those wading through the tides of grief. Featuring spoken word poetry by Sarah Are, the film offers imagery of stormy chaos slowly curving into calm. The end result is not an erasure of the chaos, but, instead, a sense of groundedness for being held by God even in the midst of the storm.
Poetry by Sarah Are | Art & film by Lisle Gwynn Garrity
Let There Be Light Advent Customizable Short Film ($75-$105)
Original Visual Art
Each year, we offer new original visual art inspired by the lectionary scriptures. Below are our Advent visual collections. We include written reflections on our visuals (and the scripture that inspired them) and a visio divina bible study curriculum so that you can use our visuals in Sunday School or other group study contexts.
[This resource is one of many in our WHAT CAN’T WAIT? ADVENT BUNDLE]
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD FOR ONE-TIME LICENSE
This is a collection of 13 visuals inspired by RCL scripture texts for Advent (Year A). Download includes files formatted for print and web/projection, as well as artist statements for each visual, plus a visio divina bible study guide.
[This resource is one of many in our DRAW NEAR ADVENT BUNDLE]
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD FOR ONE-TIME LICENSE
This is a collection of 9 visuals inspired by RCL scripture texts for Advent (Year C). Download includes files formatted for print and web/projection.
[This resource is also included in our 2017 Advent Bundle of resources]
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD FOR ONE-TIME LICENSE
This is a collection of visual art inspired by the gospel scripture texts for the four Sundays in Advent (Year B). Download includes files formatted for print and web/projection.
[This resource is one of many in our 2016 Advent Bundle. Check out the entire bundle here]
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD ONLY
Created by: Lisle Gwynn Garrity, Lauren Wright Pittman, Hannah Garrity
Inspired by this year's Revised Common Lectionary Advent & Christmas scripture texts, this is a collection of 12 original visual art digital downloads for use as bulletin cover art, church publications, and screen projections in worship.
[This resource is also included in our 2017 Christmas Bundle of resources]
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD FOR ONE-TIME LICENSE
This is a collection of 3 visual art pieces inspired by gospel lectionary (year B) scripture texts for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Epiphany Sunday.
Download includes files formatted for print and web/projection, written reflections on each visual (and how it offers commentary on the scripture), and a short visio divina guide for using the art in a group practice of visual meditation.
Coloring Posters
Coloring is a simple way to provide space for either intergenerational communal art-making or individual reflection. Incorporate coloring posters into your bible study, youth group, prayer stations, children’s church, fellowship events, etc. Like our visual art, we create new coloring pages each year based on the lectionary and include written reflections on the imagery.
[This resource is one of many included in our DRAW NEAR ADVENT BUNDLE]
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD FOR ONE-TIME LICENSE
A collection of 8 hand-drawn coloring posters inspired by RCL texts for Advent Year C. Print the art as coloring posters (we provide 3 size options) to invite members of all ages to dig deep into these scriptures through color, line, and form. These coloring posters are great for creating easy and meaningful community art.
Download includes artist statements for each poster plus a visio divina bible study guide.
[This resource is also included in our 2017 Advent Bundle of resources]
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD FOR ONE-TIME LICENSE
A collection of 16 hand-drawn coloring posters inspired by all of the Revised Common Lectionary scriptures for the four weeks of Advent (Year B). Print the art as coloring posters (we provide 3 size options) to invite members of all ages to dig deep into these scriptures through color, line, and form.
[This resource is one of many in our 2016 Advent bundle. Check out the entire bundle here]
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD ONLY
Created by: Lauren Wright Pittman, Hannah Garrity, Sarah Are
A compilation of designs, this is a set of 9 hand-drawn coloring pages inspired by Advent and Christmas scriptures. Download includes files for 8.5 x 11 pages and 11 x 17 posters. Enjoy these coloring pages as ways to slow down and visually meditate on scripture and the Christmas story.
[This liturgy is included in our 2018 Christmas Bundle of resources]
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD FOR ONE-TIME LICENSE
This fun “foldable” illustrates the poem, “Love Drawn Here,” which reflects on the meaning of Christmas. We encourage you to print and distribute this one-page foldable to adults and children to color throughout your Christmas Eve worship using our Love Drawn Here Liturgy. You could also distribute it to families for a fun take-home activity during the holidays.
Print the file in black and white, double-sided on 8.5x11 sheets, then fold in half to read and color like a book!
“The World’s Child” Mini Christmas Bundle w/ Full Order of Worship, Narrative Reflections, & Illustrated Foldable for Kids ($22-$28)
Graphics & Theme Branding
One of the ways we aim to serve you is by offering you tools for quality graphic design. These materials not only help you effectively communicate announcements about your worship and seasonal themes; they also offer visual icons with deep theological meaning. Below are some of the themes you might use to shape your Advent season.
[This resource is one of many in our WHAT CAN’T WAIT? ADVENT BUNDLE]
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD FOR ONE-TIME LICENSE
Whether you are a church with a full-time communications staff or one whose pastor handles all communications (on top of everything else), this branding suite provides everything you need to effectively share the theme, What Can’t Wait?, with your community. Download includes files for print and web so you can use them for projecting images and slides in worship, printing on bulletins, study materials, church publications, and advertising your worship on your website and online.
We encourage you to use these branding materials to share the What Can’t Wait? theme throughout Advent and Christmas.
[This resource is one of many in our DRAW NEAR ADVENT BUNDLE]
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD FOR ONE-TIME LICENSE
Whether you are a church with full-time communications staff or one whose pastor handles all communications (on top of everything else), this branding suite provides everything you need to effectively share the theme, Draw Near, with your community. Download includes files for print and web so you can use them for projecting images and slides in worship, printing on bulletins, study materials, church publications, and advertising your worship on your website and online.
[This resource is one of many in our 2016 Advent Bundle. Get the entire bundle for a discounted price here]
Created by: Lauren Wright Pittman
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD ONLY
Details:
- The advent journey set includes 6 icons (4 for the 4 weeks of advent, 1 for Christmas, and 1 for Epiphany).
- .jpg and .png files for web and projection use (100 dpi) and .jpg and .png files for print use (300 dpi).
- Set also includes a .pdf file explaining the theology of the images, which can be used for Christian education purposes.
[This liturgy is included in our 2018 Christmas Bundle of resources]
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD FOR ONE-TIME LICENSE
Whether you are a church with full-time communications staff or one whose pastor handles all communications (on top of everything else), this branding suite provides everything you need to effectively share the theme, Love Drawn Here, with your community throughout the Christmas season.
Download includes files for print and web so you can use them for projecting images and slides in worship, printing on bulletins, study materials, church publications, and advertising your worship on your website and online.
[These graphics are included in our Advent 2017 Bundle of resources]
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD FOR ONE-TIME LICENSE
These graphics offer a visually engaging way for you to share the "Let There Be Light" Advent theme with your community. Download includes files for print and web so you can use them for projecting images and slides in worship, printing on bulletins, study materials, church publications, and advertising your worship on your website and online.
[These graphics are included in our 2017 Christmas Bundle of resources]
DIGITAL DOWNLOAD FOR ONE-TIME LICENSE
These graphics offer a visually engaging way for you to share the "Light With Us" theme with your community during Christmas. Download includes files for print and web so you can use them for projecting images and slides in worship, printing on bulletins, study materials, church publications, and advertising your worship on your website and online.