What’s in this month’s Seed Disperser
Featured this month – Preparing for Advent and Christmas
Counting Down to Christmas
Twelve Days of Christmas
Prayer Bench Advent and Christmas resources
Inspiration this month – Traffic Lights
Learner Drivers & Prayer Ideas
Red, Orange, Green & Station Ideas
On a personal note
Writing for Advent and Christmas
Featured this month – Advent and Christmas
Counting Down to Christmas
Advent is almost here and Counting Down to Christmas starts this Saturday 27 November. If you’re looking for a daily dose of inspiration from now until Christmas this year’s theme is Rhymes, Rhythms and Rituals and is written with 2021 in mind. When Caroline first had the idea for this year’s theme, Aotearoa was living a Covid-free life. Nevertheless, the shaping of the dailly email themes was very much geared towards coping in uncertain times, with an awareness that things could change for us rather quickly and we should be prepared. Counting Down to Christmas is Caroline’s offering to inspire us, bring us joy and help us manage these uncertain times, while finding wonder and delight in the build up to Christmas, no matter how challenging our own circumstances.
Subscribers have already received a couple of emails explaining more about what to expect.
It’s not too late to sign up as an individual or as a group. You can join in even after we’re underway. Click on these buttons to take advantage of the special prices.
Individual - $25 (NZD)
Group - $7.50 (NZD) per person
If you’re signing up a group all we need is for you to send us a list of email addresses and we will invoice you OR sign up the first person using the ‘Sign up a group’ option then send us email addresses for the rest. Invoices will be sent out at the end of the first week to allow time for additional group members to be added.
Twelve Days of Christmas
We are unexpectedly surprised by Twelve Days of Christmas. Due to the pandemic and uncertainty around movement and activity, it seemed timely to offer something a bit different for Christmas Day and the days immediately after Christmas Day.
Twelve Days of Christmas was initially intended as a short bonus add-on to Counting Down to Christmas especially written for 2021, but it has morphed into a full PDF book complete with several pages of printables and offering two full at-home worship experiences, (Christmas Day and Twelfth Night or Epiphany) as well as another playlist, daily song choice and reflection, fun activity suggestions for each day, a feast and party plan for Twelfth Night and ideas for those celebrating living alone.
We’re likening it to a festive smorgasbord where you can pick and choose what you want and always come back for more. While written thinking about a household using it together, it can also be adapted for gathered worship whether in person or online.
Here’s what Janice MacLean from The Prayer Bench said about her early peek of Twelve Days of Christmas:
It’s beautiful. It’s great writing and it has so much choice. I love the lectio with the songs. I love the reflections (and they are a great length.) I love everything. And know it will be a help to me for Christmas Eve!!!
Twelve Days of Christmas is free for every subscriber with Counting Down to Christmas. It can be purchased on it’s own, and you can also buy a licence so you can email it out to everyone in your group or to other friends and family.
Pre-sales are available now and the launch date is 12 December 2021.
Prayer Bench Advent and Christmas Resources
Here’s two other resources you might be interested in this season. If you’ve been a subscriber to Stroll for Your Soul or Autumn Rambles, you’ll already be familiar with Janice’s writing.
Hope Matters is an Advent Email Retreat from The Prayer Bench.
“Are you ready for Christmas?” This Prayer Bench Email Advent Retreat offers space for an intentional time of silence, rest, reflection and spiritual practice. We contemplate the length, breadth, depth and height of God’s incarnation in the world.
We are part of the story of incarnation. We are born anew in the Bethlehem of our place on Earth. We are part of the universe story. We learn to bear, to endure our fears, to face our despair because the spark of Hope is woven into the universe, and we are part of it.
We join spiritual ancestors in taking in the sorrows of the world and seeing goodness “in well and woe.” We engage the ancient practice of adoration creating relationship by beholding the All in all. The fruit of this energy is Hope.
Hope Matters.
The Prayer Bench also offers an Advent Small Group Study called, Waking Up.
Click on the button below to explore these studies and other offerings from The Prayer Bench
Inspiration this Month
Traffic Lights
From 3rd December Aotearaoa New Zealand* moves to the new Covid Protection Framework which has also been informally called, the Traffic Light System.
For church groups the new framework brings change and some challenges. We’re moving into new territory. Some denominations will provide guidelines and rules and individual churches will alldevelop their own policies and plans.
In this edition of The Seed Disperser we aim to bring some creativity and ideas for personal reflection and for use in worship gatherings whether in-person or on-line.
*(For international subscribers with different Covid systems and rules, there will be ideas in this section you can adapt and use in your settings)
Learner Drivers & Prayer Ideas
If you ever learned to drive, or taught someone else to drive, especially in a manual car, you may well remember the challenge of confronting traffic lights for the first time. The experience can be full of anxious heart stopping moments. There’s the breathless hope that the light stays green so you don’t have to figure out changing the gears down and stopping without hitting the car in front. There’s the sense of panic wondering if there’s enough time to get through the intersection as the light changes to orange. There’s the feeling of embarressment if you stall the car when the light changes to red, and are still trying to start it again by the time the lights turn green.
All learner drivers in Aotearoa must have an ‘L’ plate on their window. It’s a signal to others that an inexperienced driver is at the wheel.
Right now, we’re all using our ‘L’ plates as we embark into our journey on this new traffic light system. This is a time to be gracious and patient with each other and with ourselves. We don’t understand all the rules. We may not agree with all the rules. We may not like the rules. It’s going to take us a little bit of time to adjust.
The previous framework has kept us safe, and the goal is still to keep us safe, but with less disruptions and more freedoms. For some people in our country, the traffic light system will feel like it comes with more restrictions. Real ‘live’ traffic lights create tensions too.
Use your real life experiences to brainstorm frustrations with traffic lights. Here’s some starter ideas:
The time when the car in front finally moved on the green light, only for the light to turn orange for me.
The time when I wanted to get to my destination quickly and I struck every red light possible.
The time when the traffic lights stopped working and everyone was making up their own rules to get through the intersection.
Have some fun to see if you can parallel these real life traffic light frustrations with Covid challenges people around our country and the world are currently experiencing.
Everything feels stop and go, like we just get used to getting back to ordinary life, only to find that things are getting harder again.
Even when we obey the rules so everything can improve, it feels like the restrictions just keep on coming.
Everyone around me is just making up their own rules.
Turn these parallel thoughts into starter ideas for prayers.
Pray for yourself, for your friends, neighbours, church family, family and strangers.
Red, Green and Orange & Stations
For churches, the usual ways we gather for worship have required adapting ever since Covid began. This is a centuries old ‘tradition’ where circumstances have forced the church to find new ways to approach worship. Things happen. Unexpected. Chaotic. Worrying. Challenging. Through it all the followers of Jesus carry on. The church might change in appearance and delivery of worship but it carries on. In the last two years churches all over the world have found new ways to approach worship and have harnessed skills we didn’t know were even possible. There is much good that has happened and this may well change the way church looks in the future.
For right now though, we’re still in the phase of grappling with our current realities. Many of us don’t even know which Traffic Light in the Covid Protection Framework we’ll start at next week, or what the new framework will actually look like in practice. We’re waiting for more advice. We’re waiting to see.
Ideas for stations
Here at Kereru, we often provide worship station ideas in our resources. Stations are not a new idea, but worth exploring again, and maybe even considering as a regular way to worship in person, especially as we start on this new framework, and provided they fit within the rules of your church and denomination.
You can make any idea into a station. If you’re looking for inspiration we have two stations books available on our website. Click on the buttons below. We often provide a station idea in Taking Flight and our prayers in our 5 Senses to Prayer Book 1 and in our 5 Senses to Prayer Virtual Prayer Room weekly email can be adapted for use in station worship.
If you’re planning or preparing in person worship gatherings, and you have the space indoors and/or outdoors, stations are a great way of providing 1 metre distancing. They work for both a very small group and can accommodate a reasonable size group provided you have enough space. You can also stagger start times to accommodate more people.
Stop says the red light,
Go says the green;
Be careful says the orange light,
Flashing in between.
(Old English Nursery Rhyme)
Why not try a traffic light system for navigating through the stations.
Using stations in worship typically means people move all over the place, and it can look like peak hour traffic in a big city, but with some pre-planning there’s a way for everyone to navigate between the stations safely.
You may want to rig up a traffic light system with three different desk lamps with a piece of red, green or orange cellophane in front of the lightbulb. Switch the lamps on/off so only one colour is shining at any time.
When the colour changes then the following happens:
RED - The signal to STOP at the station and take time to complete the activities and prayers.
GREEN - The signal to MOVE from the station to the next station following the arrows on the floor.
ORANGE - The signal to WAIT outside the station floor markings until the previous group have left the station before entering
Plan the locations of each station ahead of time. The number of different stations you’ll need will be determined by the number of people you’d expect to be attending worship and how many ‘groups’ of people this will represent. Provide multiple versions of the same station if you have a larger group and have more than one full circuit.
Mark the station area by placing masking tape on the floor in a circle or square. There should be enough space in the station for a family or couple to all fit at the station. Mark the route between each station by sticking masking tape to the floor. Number each of the stations sequentially with a clear and easy to read sign so it is easy to both follow arrows on the floor and see the next sign.
Hand a number to each person/group as they arrive to worship and ask them to move to the numbered station keeping 1 metre distance as they do so. You might want to have a short reflection to hand to them too, so they have something to read while waiting for everyone else to be assigned to a station.
Use a sound system and microphone so everyone can hear you directing the traffic and have a sound signal for the colour changes.
Using the station set up for other worship activities
When everyone is 1 metre distanced at the stations and if your setting allows them to see each other, you can use the spacing to carry out some ‘from the front’ activities. The ‘front’ may well be off to the side or in the centre of the room, as long as everyone can hear the person speaking. Once your group has moved through 4-6 stations and if there’s enough room, ask people to sit at their current station. One person leads the gathered group in prayer, or provides a short sermon, or gives notices.
To leave the station worship, ask people to follow the arrows around until they reach the exit. Each time they reach the next station marked on the floor, they wait until the previous people have moved on. In this way you can maintain the 1m distance for both entering and exiting the station worship.
Preparing stations
There’s a bit of work in preparing stations, but this can be shared around the group. Ask for volunteers and get a few different people setting up stations each week. You might be surprised who has some hidden skills in this area.
Provide more than one activity at each station. Some people typically spend more time at stations than other people. In this traffic light station suggestion we’re making everyone spend a set time at each station.
Share your Ideas
We’d love to hear your feedback if you use these ideas, and how they worked out for you. We’d also be interested in finding out what other station resources you’d find helpful.
On a Personal Note
We’ve both been busy with our Advent and Christmas writing in the last couple of months. Even as we write this Seed Disperser, the finishing touches are still underway to some of our Advent and Christmas resources.
Each writing our own material, we had one day where we were both writing and without the other knowing, each wrote on the topics of uncertainty and God with us.
Andrew from Taking Flight Advent Week 3…
Where I live there is also a prevailing atmosphere of uncertainty. This often finds expression in anxiety and irritability which have the effect of cutting through the joy of the season. With daily news of the global pandemic, not to mention the climate crisis, people are longing for some certainty. But the reality is that we’re living through tough times of change with unknown outcomes. In these situations, the one thing we do not have is certainty. And we will not have certainty in the foreseeable future. The question is, “How will we react?”
and
This is the story of God with us. We tell it and retell it. Immanuel has come. “God is here to help you” (Isaiah 12.6).
And we sing it: “Joy to the world the Lord has come”; “Peace on earth and mercy mild”; “Love came down at Christmas, love all lovely, Love divine.” As we tap into the words and the tunes, they become more than just songs. Something happens. Faith is rekindled. Hope grows. Joy surfaces. And we know, we just know, that God is here to help us. The sun begins to shine through the clouds of uncertainty, and we become aware a presence providing us the help and resources we need to carry on. This is the Good News of Christmas. God is here to help us!
Caroline from the introduction to Twelve Days of Christmas…
When I started writing, I wondered if I might be creating a resource nobody would want or need. Then Delta entered our country and suddenly we faced the reality of normal life being upturned for several months. Uncertainty had arrived. I’m putting the finishing touches to Twelve Days of Christmas in the beginning of November. Even now, with only a few weeks until Christmas Day, there can be no certainty about this Christmas. The cries of people wanting certainty ring around me. I have listened to hundreds of Christmas carols, songs, and hymns as inspiration. You can link to my selections in the playlist section. In part, because I’ve been immersed in the Christmas story through these Christmas songs old and new, I have captured for myself something of the timeless and enduring message of hope, peace, joy and love that ‘God With Us’ brings.
There is much we can relate to that is uncertain and challenging in the story of the first Christmas. We are not the first generation to live through turbulent times. We may not have certainty, but we are not alone. Christmas is the celebration of ‘God With Us’. This is the certainty we can hold on to in the darkest of days.
May Immanuel, ‘God With Us’, be present in your Christmas experiences this year.
On the journey
Andrew and Caroline
Kereru Publishing – Resourcing Christian Spirituality
The story of the Kereru is a metaphor for the church in New Zealand and in the western world. Our dream is to provide resources to engage, encourage and inspire a generation of seed dispersers for the Christian faith.
Andrew Gamman and Caroline Bindon are founders of Kereru Publishing. They live among the kereru on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula just to the north of Auckland city in New Zealand.