Archives For Advent

Top Read Posts of 2011

Micheal Hickerson —  January 10, 2012 — Leave a comment

Periodically, we like to look back to see what our most popular posts have been.  We did this in 2009, in July 2010, and again last December. You can also see a running log of our top posts. Popularity isn’t everything, but Tom and I like to keep tabs on what generates interest and spurs conversation.

Here are the most popular posts we published this past year.

  1. Jesus Didn’t Choose Scholars…  (which was also our most commented-upon post of the year)
  2. What I Wish I’d Known: Balancing Life and Graduate School (along with #3 and #6, part of Hannah Eagleson‘s guest series about graduate school)
  3. What I Wish I’d Known About Graduate School: Surviving the Workload
  4. What I Wish I’d Known About Faculty Life: Departmental Politics, Etc. (along with #9, part of Kevin Birth‘s series on faculty life)
  5. Why Bother with Advent? (the first post in our Advent series by Charlie Clauss)
  6. What I Wish I’d Known about Graduate School: Intro
  7. What have you been watching over Christmas Break? (in which Tom Grosh re-entered the Tardis)
  8. Head, Heart & Hands: Fragmented Faith and Fragmented People (Intro/Chapter 1)
  9. What I Wish I’d Known About Faculty Life: The Tenure Track, Etc.
  10. How Do Christian Faculty Integrate Their Faith and Work? (which included a link to an academic paper about the  InterVarsity Midwest Faculty Conference)
What were your favorite posts of the past year – from our blog or others? 

 

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(After) Advent: Celebrating Well

Charlie Clauss —  December 27, 2011 — Leave a comment
candle on the christmas tree

Celebrate well – and safely! – this Christmas.

There are sad sights to be seen driving down my alley. They are the remains of Christmas trees, laying by the curb. Some have tinsel still caught in their branches. These trees were purchased and brought home with much excitement, and now they sit abandoned waiting for the city to come recycle them into compost.

What is really sad is that Christmas is not over. Yes, Christmas Day has come and gone, but Christmas lasts twelve days. The ancient Church knew that Christmas was too important to only celebrate for one day, and so they kept the 12 days of Christmas.

Photo credit: Christoph via Flickr

Celebrating All 12 Days of Christmas

Let me encourage you to continue celebrating Christmas through the twelve days.

First, it is counter-cultural. The broader culture stops celebrating right after Christmas. This gives us a golden opportunity to demonstrate what really is the “true meaning of Christmas” – the coming of Messiah Jesus! Our continued celebration will serve as a witness to the world that our savior has indeed come. Continue Reading…

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Advent: Set the Captive Free

Charlie Clauss —  December 20, 2011 — 1 Comment
Broken Chain

Breaking the captive’s chains…

More children, women and men are held in slavery right now than over the course of the entire trans-Atlantic slave trade.

This comes from the web page of the International Justice Mission (IJM). This is not to denigrate the horror of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, but to underlines the horror of the current situation. Check out IJM for more information.

Photo credit: Andrew Mitchell via Flickr

I am reminded of IJM’s work this Advent because the word “captive” is common in the songs and readings in Advent:

O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel.

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners… (Isaiah 61:1)

Jesus takes this Isaiah passage on to himself in Luke 4.

Our personal slavery

While few of us experience the evil of modern-day slavery, we do live in bondage to a variety of things – power, money, prestige, sex, respectability, (fill in yours here). Jesus proclaims that he comes to “set the prisoner [captive] free.” Certainly this includes us! Continue Reading…

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