by Rev. Douglas Avilesbernal
​Executive Minister

Adventus. [Latin]                            -  arrival, approach.
Advent. [Middle English]               - a coming into place, being, arrival
 
Early Church-  A season of preparation for coming into the church as it prepared for the second coming of Christ.
 
Middle Ages-when Advent changed from expectation of Jesus' second coming to a season of preparation for the celebration of Jesus' birth.
 
21st C-a chance to recapture the meaning and value of intentional and sustained spiritual preparation for the celebration of Jesus' arrival into our world.
 
Adventus has had a long journey in the life of the greater church. Through it all the season has always been about the faithful answering, “yes we will!” To Jesus’ call.
 
Originally it was the time of preparation for new converts to the faith. During those times becoming a Christian meant a radical life change. This change was not a spiritual choice alone. Becoming a Christian meant societal change as well. Which is probably why there were very few upper class converts for centuries.
 
Once the church came to power the nature of Advent changed, it became more of an inward journey. It was then that it also begun its journey toward what we know now, a loosely held tradition that reminds us that Christmas is coming.
 
Advent has lost nearly all of its significance in its journey from adventus to advent, from an intentional process of preparation for a different life as a follower of Christ to little more than the season when we begin to hear Christmas carols and decorate our homes.
It makes sense, we live in a world where there are no consequences from becoming a Christian. It is illegal for us to be fired because of our faith. We aren't necessarily disowned by our families or ostracized by our friends. We can be or become Christians while being no different from any non Christian around us. In fact, we are free to be less loving, less caring and all around a worse person than any non Christian person around and still call ourselves Christians.
 
Perhaps it is time for a new understanding of the season. Perhaps we need to recapture the yes we will of Adventus. An intentional Season of preparation that can help us deepen our faith and relationship with Jesus. A season long enough to create changes in how we live our lives. Interestingly, science has discovered how doing something for around 40 days is a good way to create a habit one is more likely to Keep.
 
Will you be intentional about adding your yes we will to your Advent season this year?
 

By Rev. Mindi Welton-Mitchell
Ministry Associate for Social Media

Google Calendar is a great way to keep track of events in the life of your church. Google Calendar is an online calendar that you can use for personal and church use, and has an easy-to-use mobile app. You can set up different accounts and choose whether they are public or private. For example, at Queen Anne Baptist Church, we have a QABC General Calendar that is public, but then we also have a Staff calendar that only staff members to add their vacation days or any other pertinent information. You can also put in location information for scheduling meetings or for building use, so if you are renting out your space, this is a great way to see what group is using what space at what time.
 
Google Calendars are easy to embed on your website. To get the HTML code, simply click on Settings, then click on the name of your calendar, click on “make available to public” and then scroll down to “integrate calendar” and copy the HTML embed code. You can also add email accounts to make them administrators of the calendar to edit or change events.
 
We have an Evergreen Association Google Calendar that is public! You can visit our website at www.ea-abc.org and click on Calendar to view, but you can also go directly to the calendar here: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/r?cid=media@ea-abc.org If you use Google calendars, you can add the calendar to yours, and choose what color you’d like it to show up as. This is a great way to know when events are coming up so that you don’t schedule something at the same time as another event. Currently there are not many events on our shared calendar. Email me at media@ea-abc.org with information such as location, date, time, and details of your event. If your church uses Google Calendar, you can share that calendar with me at the same email address.