ABOUT THIS WORSHIP SERIES:
Luke’s Gospel begins the story of Jesus with this opening line: “In the time of Herod…” This detail may seem minor to modern readers; however, it reveals layers of information about the fearful world Jesus entered, one filled with rampant oppression, economic disparity, uncertainty, and instability. A world not so unlike our own. And yet, throughout the stories of Christ’s birth, we hear the whispers of angels delivering a surprising message: “Do not fear.” When Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and the magi are each called into God’s redemptive story, they do not deny their fears—they move through them. They ask questions, hold fast to courage, trust in good news, and say, “Here I am, Lord.” When we find ourselves in fearful times, can we acknowledge our fears while also insisting on hope?
This Advent series takes seriously the angels’ message and trusts that Christ’s birth truly is good news of great joy for all people. The resources look closely at the fear and terror looming in the background during the time of King Herod and invite us to consider the fears we hold now. Fear can divide and paralyze us and even be used as a tool for oppression. But what if we formed a different relationship with fear? Can we acknowledge fear without letting it rule us? Might we catalyze our fears into love and action? What if naming our fears helps us see more clearly how God is breaking in and where God is at work?
As you journey through this season, may your hope become gritty and resilient. May you remember: hope that trembles is still hope. This season, let us insist on hope and trust that good news is greater than fear.
ABOUT THE BUNDLE:
This is a bundle of 13 multimedia ministry resources (plus free supplements) for the first week of Advent–Epiphany (7 weeks). Download our free infographic to preview the series and scriptures included. The scriptures follow our theme and are not aligned with any lectionary.
We bundle our resources because they often overlap in use, and because we want to equip you with comprehensive materials for a whole season. However, each resource is also available separately. Scroll down this page & click the “Resource Details” buttons to learn more about each individual resource.
Release date: 2025.
HOW TO PURCHASE THE BUNDLE:
Note: All resources are digital files. Please purchase the tiered bundle price that best fits your community’s size and budget. For additional purchasing options, read this page.
WHAT’S INCLUDED IN THE BUNDLE
(All of the following are included in the bundle, but each resource is also available separately for individual purchase)
1. ADVENT DEVOTIONAL BOOKLET
(Individual Price: $18-$85)
Read, look, and sing your way through the pages of this devotional at your own pace throughout the Advent season. Each week offers art, reflections, poetry, and hymns. The devotional features biblical commentary by our guest writer, Rev. Dr. Boyung Lee, and art and reflections by our guest artists, Rev. Nicolette Faison, Carmelle Beaugelin Caldwell, and Rev. T. Denise Anderson. It can be printed or shared digitally with your community.
New! We’ve teamed up with Print Bind Ship to offer printed booklets for $2 (standard size) or $3 (large). After buying a license from us, you’ll get details on how to order printed copies.
2. WORDS FOR WORSHIP for Advent–Epiphany
(Individual Price: $25)
A collection of over 45 liturgies, this resource provides fresh language for worship inspired by the weekly scriptures and themes in the worship series. For each Sunday in Advent, Christmas Eve, and Epiphany Sunday, we provide liturgical elements centered around themes of fear and hope.
3. Intergenerational art CURRICULUM
(Individual Price: $20)
This art-based curriculum is designed to facilitate meaningful spiritual formation for ages 5 and up in multigenerational settings. The language is simple enough for children to understand and the prompts and craft activities are meant to be engaging for adults to participate alongside them. Each of the 6 lessons includes a key takeaway, centering prayer, an original monologue inspired by scripture, time for questions and discussion, three options for art projects to further engage the theme, and a closing prayer. Use or adapt the curriculum for Sunday School, an Advent fair, youth group, or children’s sermons.
4. SERMON PLANNING GUIDE
(Individual Price: $15)
Our sermon guide is designed for preachers, worship planners, and adult education leaders. For each Sunday in our series, this guide offers:
Biblical commentary (written by our guest contributor, Rev. Dr. Boyung Lee)
Theme connections
Considerations for the week
Guiding questions
Inspiration for further reading & research
5. ADVENT CALENDARS FOR CHILDREN & ADULTS
(Individual Price: $5-$55)
This year, we have two Advent calendars—one for children and young families, and one for older teens and adults. Our children's calendar is a colorable lantern craft. Print and color it progressively throughout the season of Advent, following our prompts. On Christmas Eve, follow the instructions to fold, cut, and tape it into a paper lantern to bring to worship or display in your home. Use the accompanying caregiver’s guide to talk with your children about fear and hope as you color.
Our adult (and teen-friendly) calendar contains a breath prayer for each day from December 1st through 25th, inspired by a daily word or phrase to cultivate hope in a fearful world. You can either print the calendar as an 11x17 poster to distribute to your community, or share the daily social media images (provided) online.
6. CHILDREN’S WORSHIP BULLETINS
(Individual Price: $12)
These weekly worship bulletins invite children (elementary age) to engage in worship through coloring, storytelling, reading, and drawing. Each week’s bulletin includes a colorable image of each week’s focal text, an invitation to listen for words as they are spoken in worship, space to draw and color in response to prompts, and a prayer.
Offer these to children in worship, and/or send them home with families.
7. STAR WORDS (W/ LITURGY)
(Individual Price: $20)
We created our What do you fear? star words to build on the contemporary tradition of passing out intention words on Epiphany inspired by the magi following a star to Jesus. This prayer practice invites worshipers to draw a star word and meditate on it throughout the new year, using it as a tool to trust in God’s guidance and presence. We’ve included 180 star words formatted to print, cut apart, and distribute to your congregation. The accompanying liturgy can be used to incorporate the tradition of star words into either Holy Communion or the prayer of the people.
8. ADVENT POEMS
(Individual Price: $12)
This collection of eight poetic prayers explores the What do you fear? theme and scriptures for our series. Honest and intimate, these poems offer meditations that might become prayers of your own.
We allow a hungry cry to slip from our lips,
giving our lament a life of its own (with room to dance!).
And when all of that is said and done, we whisper to our creator,
God, break through the yelling and the fear.
Break through the violence and the oppression.
Get past the Herods of this world, and come be here.
Like every bleeding heart before, we pray for a miracle.
—Rev. Sarah (Are) Speed, excerpt from “In the Time of Herod”
9. VISUAL ART COLLECTION
(Individual Price: $60)
This is a collection of 11 visuals inspired by the focal texts in our series. These art pieces, created in a variety of mediums—acrylic painting, paper lace, collage, block prints, mixed media, and digital media—are visual meditations on these scriptures. With each visual, we include written statements from the artists. We also provide a visio divina bible study guide for you to use these images in a group session incorporating the ancient Benedictine spiritual practice of "divine seeing." This collection includes artwork created by our guest artists, Rev. Nicolette Faison, Carmelle Beaugelin, and Rev. T. Denise Anderson.
10. Breakfast Church Liturgy for THE FIRST SUNDAY AFTER Christmas
(Individual Price: $12)
This liturgy aims to acknowledge the injustice present in the world, particularly referencing Herod's persecution in the Gospel of Matthew, while also allowing congregations to linger in the joy of Christmas. Designed to take place around tables, it weaves together food, fellowship, and justice-oriented conversations. Three options are provided for a congregational response rooted in acts of justice and love, requiring pre-planning.
11. BRANDING BUNDLE
(Individual Price: $45)
We’ve put together a full branding package with logo files, graphics, design elements, background images, and a branding story PDF to inform you on the best practices for how to utilize these files and effectively share the What do you fear? theme with your community through digital and print communications.
12. BANNER DESIGN
(Individual Price: $20)
This Advent, project & trace this design to create a painted or paper lace banner for your sanctuary. This design by Hannah Garrity is inspired by the host of angels who appear before the shepherds saying, “Do not fear! We bring good news of great joy.” The download also includes a high res file for printing the design as a large vinyl banner if you don’t have the capacity to create one.
Optional: your completed paper lace banner could be displayed as a large cylindrical lantern inspired by the logo for this series. See this blog post to learn more!
13. BONUS RESOURCE: THEME SONG + music video (Coming soon!)
(Individual Price: $25)
Our guest musician, Britt Kusserow, is writing a theme song for our Advent series. We’ll soon release a recording of the song and an edited music video for you to play in worship or ministry settings. We’ll also provide sheet music so you can teach the song to your church musicians and worship leaders.
(Note: All patrons of the full Advent bundle automatically receive access to the theme song as soon as it’s released.)
Bonus Materials
To help implement all of the materials in the bundle, the following are included as a gift to bundle patrons:
ORIGINAL HYMNS
This is a collection of seven original hymns inspired by our weekly sub-themes, written by Rev. Anna Strickland. Each hymn offers new words to sing with familiar tunes. Bundle patrons can download the sheet music via the patron access page to include these hymns in your worship. Note: These hymns are also included in our Advent devotional booklet for individuals and families to sing at home.
A CONTENT CALENDAR FOR SOCIAL MEDIA
To support you in sharing this Advent series with your community online, we’ve mapped out a content calendar with social media posts for you to share with your online community throughout the season. We’ve carefully selected images, graphics, and excerpts that feature the art, poems, commentary, and themes in the series. Note: Since the calendar pulls from multiple resources, the calendar is a free gift only to patrons who purchase the full Advent bundle.
Free on our Blog
The following resources, inspired by our theme, are available for free on our blog:
MUSIC IDEAS FOR WORSHIP
In this blog post, we’ve curated a long list of music ideas—both traditional and contemporary—for worship, fellowship, and listening. Use this for your worship planning. Also be sure to check out our playlist on Spotify!
A Liturgy for the Hopes & Fears of All the Years (Coming soon!)
We offer this simple worship outline as a way to make space for difficult emotions during the holiday season, particularly fear. You might use this liturgy for a Longest Night or Blue Christmas service.
Advent Paper Lace Lantern
This blog post contains step-by-step instructions for creating a large paper lace lantern (using our banner design) to add beauty and light to your sanctuary this season.
The Magi, a Feminist Lens
In this bonus commentary, our guest writer Rev. Dr. Boyung Lee proposes that the magi could very well have been women. Rev. Dr. Lee comments, “As a feminist theologian, I’ve often preached about the magi as women, drawing from rich birthing traditions in various Asian cultures.” Enjoy this fresh take, and ponder how the magi show us another way.
Banners for Adornment
Optional printed-to-order banners to adorn your sacred space! (Not included in the bundle)
Order these custom banners to adorn your sacred space, perfect for bringing our Advent theme to life in your sanctuary.
Small banner: 34.5"x56" flag material with grommets ($35)
Table tapestry: 60"x80" soft blanket material with a hem ($45)
Meet our guest contributors
The talented writer, artists, and musician we’ve partnered with to bring these resources to life!
Guest writer
Rev. Dr. Boyung Lee
Commentary writer
Boyung (she/her), a native of Korea, serves as Professor of Practical Theology at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado. From 2017 to 2022, she held the roles of Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty at Iliff. Prior to this, Dr. Lee was an Associate Professor of Practical Theology at the Pacific School of Religion and the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, from 2002 to 2017, becoming the first woman of color to receive tenure there in 2007.
An ordained United Methodist clergy, Dr. Lee has served in pastoral roles across California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Korea. Her academic credentials include a BA and ThM from Yonsei University in Seoul, an M.Div. from Claremont School of Theology, and a PhD in Theology and Education from Boston College. She is the former president of the Religious Education Association, co-chair of the Women and Religion Unit of the American Academy of Religion, and immediate president of the Pacific, Asian, and North American Asian Women in Theology and Ministry (PANAAWTM), a central organization in Asian/American feminist theology. Her publications include Transforming Congregations through Community (2013), co-editorship of Embodying Antiracist Christianity (2024), and an upcoming co-edited volume, Asian/American Transnational Feminist Theologies.
GUEST ARTISTs
Rev. T. Denise Anderson
Guest artist
Denise (she/her) is a minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and The Director for Compassion, Peace, and Justice Ministries at the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). A graduate of Howard University School of Divinity, she served as Co-Moderator of the 222nd General Assembly (2016) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A). Denise’s writing has appeared in The Christian Century, The Huffington Post, and Sojourners Magazine, among other publications. As a gifted visual artist and photographer, she creates art that explores themes of spirituality, history, religion, and race.
tdandersonart.com | @tdandersonart
Carmelle Beaugelin Caldwell
Guest artist
Carmelle (she/her) is a Haitian-American multidisciplinary artist whose visual lexicon fuses gestural abstraction and theology to explore themes of diaspora, faith, and cultural memory. Borrowing her use of color from the vibrancy of Haitian artistic traditions, Carmelle's art pulses with movement and mysticism.
After earning a Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary, Carmelle founded BeauFolio Studio, curating collaborative experiences that merge fine art, spiritual disciplines, and play to foster creativity in sacred spaces. Her work has been featured in partnerships with Interfaith America, Flagler College, and Duke Divinity.
Beyond her studio practice, Carmelle serves as Associate Director of the Missing Voices Project at Flagler College’s Center for Religion and Culture and serves on the board of Artworks Trenton (artworkstrenton.org).
beaufoliostudio.com | @beaufoliostudio
Rev. Nicolette FAISON
Guest artist
Rev. Nicolette “Nic” (she/her) is a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America serving as the Illinois Outreach Director for Faith in Place. Nic is the creator of MONadvocacy, a racial justice resource grounded in play, as well as the “Talks at the Desk” series which celebrates the voices of leaders in the ELCA African descent community: livinglutheran.org/2022/02/a-love-letter-to-african-descent-communities.
She is passionate about queer Black liberation, cultivating diverse leadership in faith spaces, and the art of creation. She is also the illustrator of God's Holy Darkness, written by Sharei Green and Beckah Selnick (Beaming Books, 2022). The book deconstructs anti-Blackness in Christian theology by celebrating instances in the story of God's people when darkness, blackness, and night are beautiful, good, and holy. She resides in the Chicagoland area with her two daughters and two cats, Penne Pablo and Rigatoni Braxton.
Guest musician
Britt Kusserow
Guest musician
Britt Kusserow (she/they) is a queer singer-songwriter and therapist based in Los Angeles, by way of Vermont, New Zealand, Indiana, and Minnesota. Known for lyrics that delve into existential and spiritual themes, Britt’s sound has drawn comparisons to The Indigo Girls, The Weepies, Soccer Mommy, and Judee Sill.
Raised in suburban Indiana as the grandchild of Lutheran missionaries, Britt began writing songs in the early 2000s—often about Jesus and horses. They spent much of their adolescence attending an Episcopal church, where early experiences of faith were shaped by a growing awareness of the disconnect between the loving God they felt personally and the exclusionary messages they received from others while coming out as queer.
This tension continues to inform Britt’s work as both a musician and a therapist, particularly in supporting other queer individuals healing from religious harm. Whether through songwriting or therapy, Britt explores the intersections of inner healing, divine love, and relational connection—hoping those themes resonate in both their music and their care for others.
brittkusserow.com | @brittkusserow