Thinking About Christmas Yet?

Teachers are always working in the tension of getting ready for the next lesson, and thinking out over months and years to provide people with information that helps them on their discipleship journey with Christ. It's not either/or, it's both/and.

It's already late in September -- have you given any thought about teaching for Christmas yet?

"Glenn, that's months away!"

Yes, but I encourage you to take some time to think, if only to make a few notes for yourself, about incorporating the spirit of Advent into your teaching in the months leading up to Christmas. Can you help people understand more about anticipation of the coming of our Savior Jesus? Can you help them grasp what it was like for Israel to wait for the Messiah for years and decades and centuries?

This anticipation is good for our souls! So foster it in your teaching this season. Sprinkle in an occasional comment or devotion. Whet their appetite so it will be deeply satisfied when Christmas is celebrated this year.

(By the way, January is the time to do this same exercise with Easter!)