Advent Resources 2025
Rev. Joel Pakan and Rev. Dr. Anna Madsen bring you relevant, contextual learning for Advent 2025
Google Folder with All Advent Resources
Join Anna Madsen and Joel Pakan in conversation
This Advent 2025 study invites communities into a season shaped by baptismal identity. Through scripture, reflection, and shared conversation, participants explore what it means to belong to Christ and to one another. The resources cultivate an attentive, communal posture—awakening the everyday practices that flow from our baptismal calling.
Click Here For All Advent Resources
This folder contains downloadable videos for each week of Advent, printable Discussion Guides, images (for social media sharing), and even sheet music for the Advent theme song written and performed by Rev. Joel Pakan.
Introduction to Advent Resources
Advent Week One
Before watching the Advent One video
Read and/or listen to the Revised Common Lectionary texts for this first week in Advent:
Isaiah 2:1-5; Psalm 122; Romans 13:11-14; and Matthew 24:36-44.
- What text is most recognizable or memorable to you?
- Which text is the most challenging or raises the most concerns?
Engage your curiosity about the writers and original hearers of these texts. Ask yourself: What don’t I know about these texts?
No question is too big or too small. No question is too silly or too serious.
Download this video and additional resources here.
After watching the Week 1 video:
Did any of your questions receive attention in the video?
What is one question that you really want to keep thinking about this week?
Share this question with someone close to you... let’s see where God meets us,
Journeying together in Christ this Advent.
Advent Week Two
Before watching the Advent Two video
Read and/or listen to the Revised Common Lectionary texts for this second week in Advent:
Isaiah 11:1-10; Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19; Romans 15:4-13; Matthew 3:1-12.
- Which text is most hopeful or encouraging to you?
- Which text is the most challenging or raises the most concerns?
Engage your curiosity. Ask yourself: What don’t I know about my own tradition? If this question seems disconnected from these readings consider the writers and original hearers of these texts. How have their traditions informed or not informed my own? No question is too big or too small. No question is too silly or too serious.
Download this video and additional resources here.
After watching the Week 2 video:
Did any of your questions receive attention in the video?
What is one question that you really want to keep thinking about this week?
Share this question with someone close to you… let’s see where God meets us, Journeying together in Christ this Advent.
Advent Week Three
Before watching the Advent Three Video
read and/or listen to the Revised Common Lectionary texts for this third week in Advent:
Isaiah 35:1-10; Psalm 146:5-10; Luke 1:46b-55 (alternate); James 5:7-10; Matthew 11:2-11.
- Which text is most hopeful or encouraging to you?
- Which text is the most challenging or raises the most concerns?
Engage your curiosity. Ask yourself: What don’t I know about my neighbor? If this question seems disconnected from these readings consider these two statements from Martin Luther and Dietrich Bonhoeffer:
“…we ought freely to support our neighbor with our body and its actions, and each person ought to become to the other a kind of Christ.” - Martin Luther’s The Freedom of a Christian
“Christian love knows no limits. It seeks to realize God’s rule in each and every place.”
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Sanctorum Communio
No question is too big or too small. No question is too silly or too serious.
Download this video and additional resources here.
After watching the Week 3 video:
Did any of your questions receive attention in the video?
What is one question that you really want to keep thinking about this week?
Share this question with someone close to you… let’s see where God meets us, Journeying together in Christ this Advent.
Advent Week Four
Before watching the Advent Three Video
read and/or listen to the Revised Common Lectionary texts for this fourth week in Advent:
Isaiah 7:10-16; Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19; Romans 1:1-7; Matthew 1:18-25.
- Which text is most hopeful or encouraging to you?
- Which text is the most challenging or raises the most concerns?
Engage your curiosity. Ask yourself: What don’t I know about our community or congregation? If this question seems disconnected from these readings consider the plural/communal nature of the readings. Note where the texts are making “we” and “us” and “all” statements.
No question is too big or too small. No question is too silly or too serious.
Download this video and additional resources here.
After watching the Week 4 video:
Did any of your questions receive attention in the video?
What is one question that you really want to keep thinking about this week?
Share this question with someone close to you… let’s see where God meets us, Journeying together in Christ this Advent.
Contributors
Rev. Dr. Anna Madsen
Anna Madsen is a Lutheran pastor and theologian who founded the OMG Center for Theological Conversation. Ordained in the ELCA, she holds an M.Div. from Trinity Lutheran Seminary and a Ph.D. in systematic theology from the University of Regensburg in Germany. Her early years in parish ministry and a family tragedy that claimed her husband’s life and severely injured her son deeply shaped her commitment to honest, courageous theological reflection.
In 2017, Anna established The Spent Dandelion Theological Retreat Center on Minnesota’s North Shore, creating a quiet space for pastors, lay leaders, writers, and seekers to study, rest, and explore big questions of faith. She writes, teaches, and presents widely, drawing from scripture, lived experience, and the natural world around Lake Superior.
Anna lives near Two Harbors with her husband, David Willis, their son Karl, daughter Else, and three beloved dogs.
Rev. Joel Pakan
Director for Rural Ministries
[email protected]
Rev. Joel Pakan has been a pastor in the South Dakota Synod since January of 2021. As the Director for Rural Ministries he coordinates with our Rural Ministry Ambassadors to help meet the needs of our small town and rural congregations and communities. As a life long musician and composer he sometimes visits congregations with a guitar in hand. Joel is originally from a small town in the tall pine forests of northern Wisconsin. He lives in Sioux Falls with his spouse Rev. Aimée Pakan.
Created with funding from the CaSTLE Project
Wartburg Theological Seminary
The CaSTLE Project (Country and Small Town Lived Ecclesiology), is a bold initiative of Wartburg Theological Seminary that revitalizes ministry in rural and small-town settings.
The South Dakota Synod has received a subaward which provides funding for key aspects of our Rural Ministry, including Rural Ambassadors, Synod Authorized Ministers and the creation of resources for all congregations in our synod (and beyond).
The goal of the CaSTLE project is to empower leaders and congregations to live out their faith beyond the walls of the church, rooted in community and everyday vocation.
