Sara Groves on the Importance of Advent During Christmas

What do churches you have been a part of do well at Christmas, and what could be richer, more congregationally sensitive, and have more Biblical imagination?

I love any church that has Advent rhythms to help people pay attention at Christmastime.

At our church, one of my favorite weekly traditions is that a featured artist shares something they have made in response to the themes of Advent. It is a simple idea, but it is always so moving.

I grew up in a faith context that put a lot of emphasis on personal holiness, and I found two things to be difficult for me there—it put me in a place of striving, and it was often solitary work.

The Advent season moves me in a different direction. It is not about reaching, but is about receiving; and it is not siloed but takes place in community.

Reenacting the nativity story is one of the ways that churches engage in the arts every year, but I love churches that expand on that—allow the artists among you to tell the story again, to bring light to the longings and the questions we all hold in seasons of waiting.