ADVENT 2024
​The Advent season is a time of expectant waiting and preparation for both the celebration of Jesus’ birth and his future return. Just as crowds of people traveling to Bethlehem for the census left no room in the inn for Jesus at his birth (Luke 2:7), our packed schedules and digital devices often leave no room for Jesus in our hearts.
We invite you to embrace the theme we have adopted for this liturgical year - “Prepare Him Room.”
On this page you will find ideas and resources to help you slow down and sit with the pain and longing in your heart and to anticipate how Jesus is making, and will one day finish making, all things new.
Our world is a (de)formation machine. It’s noisy. Many of us are neurotically busy. Our minds are constantly flooded with information. We find ourselves swinging back and forth between manic activity and trying to numb our minds with social media or streaming services. Most of us are scared to death to be alone with our own thoughts.
The spiritual disciplines of solitude and silence are practices that help us fight this deformation. Solitude is the act of withdrawing from other people in order to be fully present with the Lord. It is not the same thing as isolation or “me-time”, but an intentional act to be in the presence of God. Silence could be thought of as the twin of solitude. Silence is the practice of removing noise and distractions in order to wait on the Lord and yield to his work in our souls. We invite you to focus on this practice with us during the season of Advent. We will provide weekly guidance on how to incorporate these disciplines into your daily rhythms.
Waiting on the Word: A poem a day for Advent, Christmas and Epiphany
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Poetry is a great companion to Advent. Poetry invites us to slow down and to ponder. It engages our hearts by stirring our emotions and stimulating our imaginations.
Pastor and poet Malcolm Guite has done us all a great service by curating this collection of poems for the Advent season - one poem a day for every day from Advent Sunday to Christmas Day and beyond. For those of us who are just learning to enjoy poetry, he provides helpful commentary and insights for each poem. Highly recommended!
Promises Made Promises Kept: A Family Devotional for Christmas
A foundational element of faith in Christ is believing He is the promised Messiah and Saviour spoken of throughout early Scripture.
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Marty Machowski's book helps draw those connections between the promises God made and the promises God has kept in Jesus' coming. With beautiful illustrations from Phil Schorr and a clever flip format, it's designed to be read the week leading up to Christmas and the week after Christmas.
YEAR-ROUND RESOURCE
Prayer & Practice Book - A City Church book of common prayer.
With short daily liturgies, planner pages, and collections of breath prayers, blessings, and more, this is intended to be a daily resource to help us integrate the many pieces of our lives.
Download PDF here or email us for a printed copy.
LITURGICAL YEAR
The liturgical calendar follows the life of Christ and, in its cyclical rhythm, invites us to enter the movement of his life on a yearly basis. As we observe each season, we can observe Christ. We pray that as you allow the seasons of the church year and anchor your life to the life of Christ, you’ll discover that a fuller joy and vitality marks your days.
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Lesslie Newbign writes, “the business of the Church is to tell and to embody a story, the story of God’s mighty acts in creation and redemption and of God’s promises concerning what will be in the end. The Church affirms the truth of this story by celebrating it, interpreting it, and enacting it in the life of the contemporary world.”
Each Sunday we see the arc of God’s story rehearsed and embodied (God is Holy, We are Broken, Jesus Saves Us, Jesus Sends Us)... but how do we “enact it in the contemporary world” of our homes, where we can create culture and habits that form us?
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The church calendar, much like Sunday Service, moves us through a story. Specifically the story of Jesus with his incarnation in Advent all the way through the sending of the church in Pentecost.
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ADVENT - the future hope of Christ
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CHRISTMAS - the joyful birth of Christ
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EPIPHANY - the perfect manifestation of Christ
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LENT - the temptation and death of Christ
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EASTER - the world-changing resurrection of Christ
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PENTECOST + ORDINARY TIME - the renewing Spirit of Christ