The NC Conference Media Center offers planning resources, studies, devotionals, and more to help create a meaningful Advent season for 2025. Anyone in a United Methodist Church in the North Carolina Conference can borrow these resources.

Planning Resources

Webinars

Amplify Media

Amplify Media usually offers a webinar based on the new Advent studies published by Abingdon Press, our United Methodist publisher. We will update this space with that information as it becomes available. Amplify’s Advent webinars from previous years are also available to watch on their website. Visit the Webinars page and scroll down to the Seasonal section.

ClergyEducation.com

Market Square Books, a United Methodist publisher, offers a webinar on Small Church Strengths in Advent on November 6. Teresa Stewart will offer simple ideas for high participation in small church worship during the Advent season.

Discipleship Ministries

Discipleship Ministries offers Advent worship resources centered on the theme, “Toda la Tierra Espera,” including preaching notes, liturgies, prayers, graphics, youth lessons, and more. The beautiful and singable hymn “Toda la Tierra,” 210 in the United Methodist Hymnal, is a reminder of what is at stake. “All the world, bound and struggling, seeks true liberty” in the first verse allows us to look back to the story of the Incarnation and to look forward to the coming of the kingdom of heaven, when the will of God will be done on earth as in heaven. All of earth is waiting for this fulfillment.

General Commission on Religion and Race

GCORR offers three new resources for Advent.

Seeking Jesus: The Advent of Justice and Peace is a 5-week worship and children’s resource that connects the Advent story with the call to confront racism, inequity, and division. It includes sermon notes, liturgies, hymns, and children’s activities to help communities become “co-creators with God of a world where racial and other injustices are confronted.”

Reimagine Advent: Discover the Liberating Christ invites churches to see Jesus through the eyes of the marginalized — challenging “colonized” versions of the Christmas story and opening space for liberating joy. It includes sermon starters, litanies, global hymns, and hands-on ideas for children.

God With Us: Advent Promises for a Just World is a free Advent study that pairs lectionary scripture with justice-centered reflection, discussion, and ritual, equipping churches to embody God’s presence in a fractured world. In addition to study and worship materials, the resource includes children’s activities that help young disciples connect with Advent themes in meaningful ways.

Cokesbury’s Advent Study Comparison Chart

Cokesbury has posted an Advent study comparison chart to help you decide which Advent study to use with your church or small group this year. We have even more Advent studies available at the Media Center, so keep reading to discover additional options.

Advent Studies for Adults

New for 2025

More Advent DVD Studies for Adults

On the Way to Bethlehem: An Advent Study by Rob Fuquay. This four-session DVD study follows the long journey to Christmas. Fuquay provides insight into the geographical and historical significance of Rome, Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem, along with the important characters through whom the Christmas drama unfolds.

The Christmas Letters: Celebrating Advent with Those Who Told the Story First by Magrey R. deVega. These four DVD sessions invite you to hear about the miracle of Christ’s birth from those who first told the story. Read the New Testament letters, Romans, 1 John, Philippians, and Colossians as your first Christmas letters of the season and find within them an invitation from God to deepen your understanding of the Incarnation and embrace a fuller commitment to Jesus Christ.

Heaven and Earth: Advent and The Incarnation by Will Willimon. It’s not within our own power to make a fresh start. If we’re to have a future different from the past, it must come as a gift, something not of our devising. What we need is a God who refuses to be trapped in eternity, a God who not only cares about us but is willing to show up among us and do something with us, here, now. In this study, Will Willimon introduces you to the God who does just that, bringing heaven to earth and changing everything.

An Unlikely Advent: Extraordinary People of the Christmas Story by Rachel Billups. This study focuses on the experiences of four sets of often overlooked characters in the Nativity story. Rachel Billups guides readers through the themes of hope, love, joy, and peace by sharing the stories of Elizabeth and Zechariah, Herod, the Magi, and the shepherds.

Experiencing Christmas: Christ in the Sights and Sounds of Advent by Matt Rawle. Things just look, smell, and taste differently during the Advent and Christmas season, and these differences are a sign to us that God is about to do something radical and different. Christmas is when God surrounded the divine with senses of his own.

Prepare the Way for the Lord: Advent and the Message of John the Baptist by Adam Hamilton. Hamilton explores the Advent themes of John’s life and ministry, and how John calls all followers of Jesus to prepare our hearts for his coming. In each of the Gospels, the story of Jesus is intertwined with that of his cousin John, the one whom the prophets foretold would come to “prepare the way of the Lord.” When we hear the message of John the Baptist, it makes us and our world ready to receive Christ.

Complete Lists of Advent Studies

We have 39 DVD-based studies and 4 additional Christmas movies listed in our Advent and Christmas DVDs for Adults pathfinder.

We also have 34 book-based studies plus 31 devotionals, program ideas, and additional books listed in our Advent and Christmas Books for Adults pathfinders.

More Books for Advent

Wanting More: Advent, Christmas and Epiphany: Inspired by the Teachings of John Wesley by Michael Roberts with Lauren Delano Grosskopf. This book includes a six-week Advent study based on Advent sermons by Methodist founder John Wesley. The second half of the book includes a six-week study to be used during the season of Epiphany, also based on sermons by John Wesley. It explores the maps, means, and methods of the season, the true reason for the season, and the blessings that come in the midst of it all.

Light from Afar: An Advent Devotional from Around the World by Nadiyka Gerbish, Joel Bengbeng, Cláudio Carvalhaes, and Sidwell Mokgothu. This book is a daily Advent devotional that illuminates the season through the unforgettable stories and reflections of four writers from around the world. Authors Nadiyka Gerbish (Ukraine), Joel Bengbeng (Philippines), Cláudio Carvalhaes (Brazil), and Sidwell Mokgothu (South Africa) share cultural and religious traditions of the Advent season in their daily reflections.

Advent: A Season of Surprises by Scott Chrostek. Advent is a season filled with anticipation of what’s coming next. No one could anticipate the surprise that awaited humankind with the birth of Jesus. Two thousand years later, we still look forward in expectation, wondering what lies next. What’s coming next for you?

Fully Human, Fully Divine: An Advent Devotional for the Whole Self by Whitney R. Simpson. Simpson suggests practices that will help us focus on the body God created and embrace what it means to be fully human. By letting go of external demands and giving ourselves permission to be present as we listen for God in our lives, we can learn what it looks like to notice and pay attention to our bodies. Each chapter covers one week of Advent and each week focuses on one of the following themes: Slow Down and Hope, Simplify for Peace, Sit with Joy, and Savor God’s Love. The Upper Room offers an eCourse based on this book.

The First Advent in Palestine: Reversals, Resistance, and the Ongoing Complexity of Hope by Kelley Nikondeha. Trusted scholar and community organizer Kelley Nikondeha takes us back, to where the landscape of Palestine is once again the geographic, socioeconomic, and political backdrop for the Advent story. Reading the Advent narratives of Luke and Matthew anew, in their original context, changes so much about how we see the true story of resistance, abusive rulers and systems of oppression, and God coming to earth.

Blue Christmas: Devotions of Light in a Season of Darkness by Todd Outcalt. Blue Christmas reminds us that all of our Christmases, even the darkest ones, can be filled with honesty and hope if we are first willing to sit in silence and bring our deepest fears to God. The book includes daily devotions, additional prayers, a “Blue Christmas” worship service, and reflection questions. The Upper Room offers an eCourse based on this book.

Complete List of Advent Books

View our complete list of book-based Advent studies, devotionals, activity books, liturgies, prayers, and more in our Advent and Christmas Books for Adults pathfinder.

Advent for Youth and Children

Many of our Advent studies for adults also offer separate guides to use these studies with youth and children. Here are some additional resources to help families celebrate the Advent season this year.

Fathom: The Coming of Jesus, The Birth of a Savior by Charlie Baber. This bible study for youth, written by NC Conference Pastor Baber, is a journey through some of the key Old Testament scriptures that shape our beliefs about the specific events leading to the birth of Jesus. A leader’s guide is also available.

Advent: A Journey Of Waiting, Watching And Preparing For The Light by Erik E. Willits. Waiting, patience, and prayer are the hallmarks of the Advent season. We learn to become people who wait for what we know God will do. Advent is a devotional guidebook to that anticipation, a reflective map readying you to receive the best present ever given.

Faithful Families for Advent and Christmas: 100 Ways to Make the Season Sacred by Traci Smith. In this new book of faith practices for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany, parents, grandparents, Sunday School teachers, pastors, and anyone who cares about kids will find 100 easy, fun, and meaningful ideas for bringing the sacred back into the season.

Advent A to Z: Prayerful and Playful Preparations for Families by Sharon Harding and John Indermark. Beginning December 1 and running through December 26, each day will explore an Advent-related word that begins with a successive letter in the alphabet. This is followed by suggestions for simple, easy-to-prepare, and complete activities (discussion starters, games, crafts, meditations, journaling, outreach project, devotions).

Children’s Dramas for the Church Year: Reproducible Dramas for Advent and Christmas. You’re only asking for four things when it comes to an Advent or Christmas program for your children’s ministry. It needs to be 10 minutes or less, incorporate all age groups, work for the size of your church, and be super easy to produce. This is the resource that will get you from rehearsals to curtain calls stress-free.

John Wesley Church Mouse by Evelyn Anne Johnson-Neal. It is Christmastime in the small town of Chapin, South Carolina. Chapin United Methodist Church is putting together the last plans for the worship service. Unknown to the staff or Pastor Jody, another secret member of the staff is scampering about to check on each person as they finish up. John Wesley Church Mouse VI is doing his job although a little more slowly this year. “Twas the day before Christmas and all through the church…” Read the poem to hear about a tornado, a fire, a box of hymnals, and a brave little mouse ending in a lesson of great joy!

Complete List of Youth & Children’s Resources

View the Advent and Christmas Resources for Youth pathfinder to see a complete list of our Advent studies and program resources for youth.

View the Advent and Christmas Resources for Children pathfinder for a complete list of our Advent studies, family-friendly movies, picture books, and program resources for children.

Online Curricula

Cokesbury offers downloadable curricula for use during Advent.

LIFT: Living in Faith Together
LIFT brings two or more generations together around a table for four activities: share food, enjoy fellowship, worship, and study the Bible. This twelve-session bundle focuses on Advent and Christmas and uses New Testament Scriptures to guide each session.

Celebrate Wonder: All Ages, Winter Year 1
Whether you have a mixed-age group or separate age divisions, this curriculum offers unforgettable experiences, spiritual practices, and opportunities to build stronger relationships with God and each other. In this bundle, children will explore themes and stories for Advent and beyond. It also includes lessons from One Room Sunday School.

Request These Resources

These resources can be borrowed for free by anyone involved with a United Methodist Church in the North Carolina Conference. We will mail them to your home! All you need to do is fill out the Resource Request Form.