What is an advent service?

[Edward]

A recent thread

http://www.puritanboard.com/f67/advent-service-56024/#post725948

got me wondering what constitutes an 'advent service'.

Does it mean preaching from certain chapters of the Bible during December? Certain music? Added props (advent wreath, tree, and/or greenery in the main auditorium)? Only Lord's Day services, or concerts or December 24th activities as well?

 

[Montanablue]

I can't answer for every church, but I can tell you what my church does.

We have 5 candles at the front of the church. Each Sunday in December, before the worship service begins, some individuals from the church (often a family, but usually for one Sunday its a group of single people, widows, widowers etc) go to the front of the church, light the appropriate candle(s) and read a passage from Scripture. Some years we've sung a carol together, others we only have the Scripture reading. The passages build on each other as the season moves on. At our Christmas Eve service, we light the last candle and read the nativity story.

 

[JennyG]

In the Church of Scotland there used to be a set pattern for preaching through Advent - one Sunday for considering judgment, one for the Scriptures (known as Bible Sunday)and I'm not sure what the others were.
Now it's more of a generalised, but solemn time for looking forward both to the first and second coming of the Lord, -with us mainly marked by music. There are many magnificent and soul-stirring Advent hymns, beginning with O Come, O Come Emmanuel

 

[Tim]

The only answer that can be given is that an advent service is whatever seems right in our own eyes. There is no mention or instruction of advent services in the Bible. This is a statement that naturally leads us to the debates that take place in other threads.

 

[Glenn Ferrell]

Churches which follow a liturgical calendar generally use a lectionary for readings and preaching, with prayers and hymns emphasizing the anticipation of the past and future coming of Christ. Advent is not Christmas, which is a twelve day season running from December 25th to January 6 (Epiphany). Christmas songs are not appropriate to Advent, but to the latter season. Lections for this year (year C) of the Revised Common Lectionary may be found at:

Year C: Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany - Revised Common Lectionary Readings,

Advent is to Christmas what Lent is to Easter, a time for self examination, anticipation and preparation. Advent is a custom of Western churches; Eastern churches observe a Nativity Fast of 40 days rather than the four week Advent period.

I suspect the Advent wreath is a late addition to the tradition; perhaps an imitation of the Jewish practice of lighting candles during the eight days of Hanukkah.

NOTE: The above is not an endorsement on my part for any extra biblical and unwarranted additions to the public worship of God.