Around the Advent Circle L e a d e r G u i d e Thank you for your willingness to help lead your group(s) and make this a great experience for everyone! Here are some things to keep in mind as you do so. PREPARING THE M ATERIALS The participant materials are provided in separate files for each session. We recommend that you distribute the handouts at each session, rather than giving them out all at once at the beginning. This will help your people remain focused on the current week and keep them from forgetting to bring their handouts each week. We provide the materials in two formats: One-fold leaflets. In this format, the handouts print on two sides of a legal-sized sheet of paper. Each sheet is folded once to create a leaflet. These are generally the most convenient, as each participant will get a single sheet of paper per session and no stapling is necessary. When printing, look for double-sided printing options for short-edge binding or to flip pages on short edge. Or print on single-sided pages and use those to make double-sided copies on your copier. Stapled packets. This format uses regular letter-sized paper, stapled in packets for each session. These handouts use a slightly larger font. PREPARING THE ENVIRONMENT Wherever the groups may be gathering, it can be helpful to set the environment to help people transition into a prayerful, reflecting space. You may want to have quiet music playing in the background as people gather. Consider preparing a table with a purple cloth, an Advent wreath, and a Bible. S C H E D U L E The meetings should last from 60 to 90 minutes. Always respect the participants' time by starting and finishing on schedule. You may want to jot down target times for starting each section so you can gauge progress. For example, it may look like: 7:30pm Opening Prayer & Sharing 7:45pm Listening & Sharing (Old Testament Scripture Reading) 8:10pm Reflection & Sharing (New Testament Scripture Reading) 8:40pm Closing prayer 8:45pm Refreshments 9:00pm End
FACILITATING THE SESSIONS Thank you for being willing to help lead your group and make this a great experience for everyone! Here are some things to keep in mind as you do so: Ensure good hospitality. Members of your group may be new to a small group experience or the larger community. Facilitate introductions and be sure everyone feels welcome. Go over the ground rules (see below) at the beginning of the series, and quickly review them at the start of each session. Some of the material is challenging, since it explores how the Gospel challenges us to change our lives. Make sure that the below ground rules are followed so everyone feels comfortable in the group. Gauge the dynamic of your group. If necessary, you (or another designated facilitator) may need to gently facilitate to keep the group on schedule, remain on-topic, and/or allow all voices a chance to enter the circle. You may feel timid interrupting someone, but this can be a very important role that helps the whole group. Apologize in advance when reviewing the ground rules with the group. However, don t put people on the spot by compelling them to share. Facilitate answering reflection questions. Sometimes sharing times can be a little awkward waiting for people to initiate. You can rotate around the circle, but we recommend that you try something called the popcorn method. One person starts, and when they are done sharing they choose the next person (who is always allowed to pass and pick another person). We have found that in practice this works very well, sometimes adding a little levity. Listen to the feedback from the group along the way. Pace the time for the different sections based on the total time available and what works for your group. We recommend that the content in the handouts be read aloud rather than silently. An excellent way to get everyone's voices heard early on is to simply go around the circle having each participant read one paragraph.
GROUND RULES Here are some guidelines for your gatherings. Your group leader will help facilitate. Our goal is to grow together into a deeper intimacy with Christ and to connect our faith with our daily lives. Keeping this goal in mind will help us get there! Confidentiality. What s said in the group stays in group, unless you have the permission of the person who spoke it. Start on time and end on time. Your group leader will try to pace the sessions, but everyone can help by arriving promptly and being attentive to time. Discussion involves everyone. Make it possible for everyone even those who are naturally more quiet to take part. Don t share a second time until everyone has had an opportunity to share the first time. Remember your manners. Avoid dismissing the thoughts of others, don t laugh at others when they ve shared (unless they ve just told a joke), and no putdowns of any kind. Share from your own experience and speak for yourself. Don t try to problem-solve for another person or tell them what to do, but you can share what you have found helpful in your own life. It's OK to agree to disagree. It s just a fact of life that everyone has different opinions. If the group has differing thoughts on an issue, there's no requirement that everyone agree. Respect everyone s opinions and where they are at in their journey. Turn off mobile phones before the group begins! Put your electronic lives on hold for this short time to be fully present to others. Copyright 2016 The Pastoral Center. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission. Published by The Pastoral Center / PastoralCenter.com.
Around the Advent Circle December 3, 2017 First Sunday of Advent Year B OPENING PRAYER We are the clay and you our potter: we are all the work of your hand. Isaiah 64:8 Reader: We gather to reflect on this season of Advent so that we might begin this church year well. All: Lord, help us to make a good beginning. Reader: We gather to reflect on how you are molding and shaping us. All: Lord, help us to yield to your hands. Reader: We gather so that we may go out from here more alert to your presence in the world. All: Lord, help us to see you more clearly. Amen. We have turned the calendar page to December, the last month of the year. In the northern hemisphere, there are three more weeks of growing darkness before our earth begins to turn back toward the sun. At the same time, this week begins the new year in church time. In some ways it is counter-intuitive, because the church s new year doesn t begin with Christ s birth, but with the advent of a period of watching, waiting, and preparing for light to come into our darkness. Advent is a contemplative season spiritually, even though society is rushing, rushing, rushing all around us. How does the beginning of December and Advent find you this year? What are you feeling in general? Overwhelmed? Somber? Contemplative? Hopeful? Why? What are your hopes for how you would like to experience Advent this year? What are you looking for in this time of prayer and reflection with this group? 1-1
LISTENING: ISAIAH 64:8 We are the clay and you our potter: we are all the work of your hand. The image of a potter working the clay is one we can probably all imagine although we may have never seen a real, live potter working in front of us. Even if we have, it isn t the common sight it was in Isaiah s time. The cups, plates, and cookware we use today were probably all manufactured in a Third World factory, thousands of miles from our homes. They would have been identically molded, shaped, stamped out, and packaged by giant machines on an assembly line. For Isaiah, that assembly line image would have been appalling, because Isaiah knows a God who individually works with every piece of clay. This God uniquely and carefully shapes each piece, responding with a sensitive touch to its particular characteristics, molding it into something beautiful. In a culture and society where we are accustomed to being powerful and in control where we sometimes believe the illusion that we can shape the world to our desires the potter and clay image may be humbling to us. Or perhaps it is a relief. Isaiah reminds us that we are not in control of our own lives. We do not have to be self-made men and women. We are not running the show. Indeed, there is Someone much greater than us who is gently and expertly forming and shaping us into something the clay cannot imagine. Have you ever seen a potter at work with a piece of clay? What struck you from watching the process? Do you have any belongings that have particular worth to you because you know the story of how they were made or came to be? Please share. What is your initial reaction to thinking of yourself as clay being worked by a Potter God? REFLECTION: MARK 13:33-37 Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come. It is like a man traveling abroad. He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch. Watch, therefore; you do not know when the lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning. May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to all: Watch! 1-2
Advent always begins with a Gospel reading in which Jesus admonishes his listeners to be vigilant, alert, and watchful. What are we to be watching and waiting for? In the context of the Gospels, Jesus was referring to his Second Coming and the end of the world as we know it. In fact, the apostles and his early friends and followers were so certain that Jesus was returning soon that they believed it would happen in their lifetimes. We can imagine their puzzlement when the first apostles began to die and Jesus had not yet returned. It is 2,000 years later now and it s easier to feel complacent and presume the world isn t coming to an end in our lifetimes. So if we aren t motivated to stay vigilant for the end of the world, what might Jesus want us to be watchful and alert to now? What does he want us to notice? What is passing us by because we are too busy and distracted to note and savor? During Advent, we are called to prepare for three manners in which Jesus will come to us: commemorating how he came into the world as an infant in Bethlehem, noticing how he comes into our lives each and every day, and watching for his Second Coming. Let s take some time this Advent to be especially alert to the second way. Let s watch for his presence in our every day lives. Every few years there is a small Christian group that predicts the date of the end of the world and that it is imminent. We might not give them any credence, but how would we live life differently if we knew we only had a few weeks or days to live? What would we change? Are there any particular area(s) of your life in which you feel you ve become complacent and have been taking things for granted? Please share. What might you like to be more alert to this upcoming week? What might Jesus be inviting you to notice, savor, and cherish more? CLOSING PRAYER Reader: Gracious God, we thank you for this time to reflect on your Word in scripture. All: Help us to slow down this Advent season. Reader: Give us the humility to know we are not in control. All: May we yield to the ways in which you are shaping and forming us. Reader: Grant that we may be more alert to the ways you come into our world. All: Help us to notice and savor your presence with us. Reader: We ask this all in Jesus name. All: Amen. 1-3
take some time this Advent to be especially alert to the second way. Let s watch for his presence in our every day lives. Every Are What few years there is a small Christian group that predicts the date of the end of the world and that it is imminent. We might not give them any credence, but how would we live life differently if we knew we only had a few weeks or days to live? What would we change? there any particular area(s) of your life in which you feel you ve become complacent and have been taking things for granted? Please share. might you like to be more alert to this upcoming week? What might Jesus be inviting you to notice, savor, and cherish more? CLOSING PRAYER Reader: Gracious God, we thank you for this time to reflect on your Word in scripture. All: Help us to slow down this Advent season. Reader: Give us the humility to know we are not in control. All: May we yield to the ways in which you are shaping and forming us. Reader: Grant that we may be more alert to the ways you come into our world. All: Help us to notice and savor your presence with us. Reader: We ask this all in Jesus name. All: Amen. 1-4 Around the Advent Circle December 3, 2017 First Sunday of Advent Year B We are the clay and you our potter: we are all the work of your hand. OPENING PRAYER Isaiah 64:8 Reader: We gather to reflect on this season of Advent so that we might begin this church year well. All: Lord, help us to make a good beginning. Reader: We gather to reflect on how you are molding and shaping us. All: Lord, help us to yield to your hands. Reader: We gather so that we may go out from here more alert to your presence in the world. All: Lord, help us to see you more clearly. Amen. AMPLE - DO NOT REPRODUCE We have turned the calendar page to December, the last month of the year. In the northern hemisphere, there are three more weeks of growing darkness before our earth begins to turn back toward the sun. At the same time, this week begins the new year in church time. In some ways it is counter-intuitive, because the church s new year doesn t begin with Christ s birth, but with the advent of a period of watching, waiting, and preparing for light to come into our darkness. Advent is a contemplative season spiritually, even though society is rushing, rushing, rushing all around us. 1-1
How does the beginning of December and Advent find you this year? What are you feeling in general? Overwhelmed? Somber? Contemplative? Hopeful? Why? What are your hopes for how you would like to experience Advent this year? What are you looking for in this time of prayer and reflection with this group? LISTENING: ISAIAH 64:8 We are the clay and you our potter: we are all the work of your hand. The image of a potter working the clay is one we can probably all imagine although we may have never seen a real, live potter working in front of us. Even if we have, it isn t the common sight it was in Isaiah s time. The cups, plates, and cookware we use today were probably all manufactured in a Third World factory, thousands of miles from our homes. They would have been identically molded, shaped, stamped out, and packaged by giant machines on an assembly line. For Isaiah, that assembly line image would have been appalling, because Isaiah knows a God who individually works with every piece of clay. This God uniquely and carefully shapes each piece, responding with a sensitive touch to its particular characteristics, molding it into something beautiful. In a culture and society where we are accustomed to being powerful and in control where we sometimes believe the illusion that we can shape the world to our desires the potter and clay image may be humbling to us. Or perhaps it is a relief. Isaiah reminds us that we are not in control of our own lives. We do not have to be self-made men and women. We are not running the show. Indeed, there is Someone much greater than us who is gently and expertly forming and shaping us into something the clay cannot imagine. 1-2 Have Do What you ever seen a potter at work with a piece of clay? What struck you from watching the process? you have any belongings that have particular worth to you because you know the story of how they were made or came to be? Please share. is your initial reaction to thinking of yourself as clay being worked by a Potter God? REFLECTION: MARK 13:33-37 AMPLE - DO NOT REPRODUCE Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come. It is like a man traveling abroad. He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch. Watch, therefore; you do not know when the lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning. May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to all: Watch! Advent always begins with a Gospel reading in which Jesus admonishes his listeners to be vigilant, alert, and watchful. What are we to be watching and waiting for? In the context of the Gospels, Jesus was referring to his Second Coming and the end of the world as we know it. In fact, the apostles and his early friends and followers were so certain that Jesus was returning soon that they believed it would happen in their lifetimes. We can imagine their puzzlement when the first apostles began to die and Jesus had not yet returned. It is 2,000 years later now and it s easier to feel complacent and presume the world isn t coming to an end in our lifetimes. So if we aren t motivated to stay vigilant for the end of the world, what might Jesus want us to be watchful and alert to now? What does he want us to notice? What is passing us by because we are too busy and distracted to note and savor? During Advent, we are called to prepare for three manners in which Jesus will come to us: commemorating how he came into the world as an infant in Bethlehem, noticing how he comes into our lives each and every day, and watching for his Second Coming. Let s 1-3