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Advent Resources
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All About Advent
Our Story
A lifetime ago, or so it seems, Rebecca was working on the maintenance crew of a local church. A new hire ambled into a staff meeting and took a seat across the room. Rebecca whispered to a co-worker, "I bet he's a seminary student."
She was right, and she soon discovered that she and this young seminarian had a mission to accomplish—together. One marriage, six children, and more than twenty years later, Stephen is a respected theologian with a Ph.D. in ethics and systematic theology and decades of writing, editing, and ... well ... theologizing, alongside his wife and best friend, Rebecca. She is an award-winning author with numerous published books and a schedule divided by her vocations of author and speaker and homeschooling mother.
Together Stephen and Rebecca continue in their ministry both to their children and to the church, creating resources that seek to reignite faith, heal brokenness, and challenge all to live out their unique purposes given by God.
The Joy of Advent
This project began more than two decades ago. Rebecca began searching for Advent resources to share with her family because she wanted her children to grow up knowing—and understanding—the true meaning of Christmas. She soon realized her ideal Advent book didn’t exist, so she did what writers do, and set about writing one herself. It became a labor of love, growing a bit each year, until she had a full book completed. She made it digitally available to friends, and soon discovered that she wasn’t alone in searching for the perfect Advent resource. The format of ebook was inconvenient and limiting, and the project so full of potential to bring a much-needed message to a commercialized world, so the Joy of Advent website was born with its daily Advent and Christmastide email subscription. From there the Lord opened doors for even more families to be blessed with a printed book, The Joy of Advent: Family Celebrations for Advent and the Twelve Days of Christmas.
What We Believe
Catholic and universal Christian belief is succinctly expressed in the profession of faith called the Nicene Creed:
I believe in one God,
the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.
I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the Only Begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages.
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and became man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,
he suffered death and was buried,
and rose again on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures.
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead
and his kingdom will have no end.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins
and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
More About Rebecca
Rebecca has been writing since childhood, her first book about a kitten published between homemade cardboard covers in second grade. Although she studied religion and philosophy in university, she continued writing, earning an MFA from Hamline University and publishing multiple picture books (no longer with homemade covers) and a collection of poetry with a variety of New York and independent publishers. She has also published a wide array of fiction, essays, and poetry in magazines and journals and photographs for Getty Images. She balances writing with homeschooling the younger of her six children, launching her young adults, church activities, and overseeing a small flock of chickens in rural West Michigan. Find her online at: rebeccagrabill.com
More about Stephen
Stephen has been steeped in all things theology and economics for more than three decades, earning a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology and Moral Theology, then writing, editing, speaking, and making films in an academic and think tank setting for almost twenty years. He then followed the Spirit’s leading to shift careers, focusing his energies on a tech startup, Moja Market LLC, whose mission is to promote human flourishing and economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa. He now directs Moja’s educational efforts while consulting, co-authoring with his wife Rebecca, supporting his home church, St. Isidore the Laborer in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and leading his family of eight into always new and exciting territory.
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