Böcker av Kara Eidson

While the world tries to rush us into Christmas, decorating the day after Halloween and packing it all up once the gifts are opened on December 25, Advent is a season of preparation that-like our holiday gatherings themselves-takes time and care. Think of the anticipation that comes with hosting loved ones for Christmas dinner: We begin by extending an invitation. We make plans, and as the event draws closer, we begin our preparations. Ultimately, we open the door and welcome our guests, and that is when, finally, we celebrate. ¿Advent should feel the same way, a time to make ready for the long-awaited event of Christ's birth. In Stay Awhile, pastor Kara Eidson presents a banquet table of inspiration for Advent, including weekly reflections for personal and small group use, brief daily devotions, and ideas to involve the whole congregation. Congregational resources include liturgies, sermon starters, children's moments, and even a no-rehearsals-needed Christmas pageant.

From Eden to Gethsemane to the garden in which Jesus was buried and raised, our story of faith wanders through much fertile soil. But in our current world of fast food and to-go meals, we often do not make time to explore where our food comes from and how we break bread together. Journeying through the season of Lent with this in mind, A Time to Grow encourages readers to slow down, move through the painstaking process of growth, and end together with great feasting and celebration of the resurrection. Themes of soil, water, light, time, fasting, feasting, and more guide the way from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday. Readers will explore the intricacies of how faith is required to produce food and how that faith can lead us all to feast at the table on Easter morning.Additional elements are included to enhance communal spiritual practice for small groups or the entire congregation during Lent. These elements include sermon prompts, liturgies with communal responses, altar art ideas for decorating worship spaces, and prompts for children's time in worship.