Today we celebrate the Second Sunday in Advent. Our devotional reading for this Second Sunday in Advent comes from A Year with the Church Fathers. 

Many of us have put up our Christmas tree by this point in the Advent season. We’ve wrestled it from the woods or our basements, matched color-coded branches or poured water in the stand, strung up the lights, and added a touch of festive to the mediocre green and brown.

We hope you are enjoying journaling while you read your Bible. Here are some more great Bible marginalia from Pat Maier. Enjoy!

As we begin the first Sunday in a new Church Year, we turn to a devotional reading from God Grant It by C. F. W. Walther.

The devotional reading for Thanksgiving Day comes from a sermon selection found in Concordia Pulpit Resources. 

Today’s devotional reading is drawn from Concordia Commentary: Colossians, focusing on the Epistle reading that describes Christ’s intricate involvement in creation and the world’s reconciliation.

We are a celebrity-obsessed culture. Every time we walk up to the grocery store checkout line, we are inundated with celebrity information. So-and-so got a new hairdresser, this other person wore it better, another person newly embraced religion, Brad and Angelina took their kids to the park, and so on and so forth.

In today’s commemoration of Emperor Justinian, our reading from A Year in the Old Testament highlights the humble ambitions of this ancient Christian ruler as he served as God’s appointed instrument.

The devotional reading for today comes from A Year with the Church Fathers and centers on Jesus’ words recorded in Luke 21.

We are entering a busy time in the Church Year.

Before you know it, Thanksgiving will be upon us, followed rapidly by the Advent and Christmas celebrations—and, in the blink of an eye, the new year will be here! Christmas programs and parties, special worship services, and many more special events will soon dominate the calendar. And that does not account for the regular ministries already taking place in your congregation.

If your congregation is like most, you ask a lot of your volunteers during times like this. It can be very easy for volunteer leaders to feel worn down and even burned out during this season of ministry. So how can we help volunteers stay refreshed and energized, even when things seem crazy?