We continue our series on Melodies of Hope: Hymns From Advent and Christmastide. Each year, our churches sing a familiar rotation of Advent and Christmas hymns, often without knowing their meaning and context. To provide a fresh take on the Christmas carol canon, we’ve enlisted eight worship leaders, songwriters and thinkers from around C4SO to tell us a favorite Advent or Christmas hymn, giving us historical and musical context, and a word of good news each hymn speaks to us today.

This episode’s song is “Creator of the Stars of Night” and our guest is Wes Crawford, who has been the Worship Pastor at Christ Church of Austin since 2017. Previously he helped plant a church in Kansas City, Missouri, and he was a missionary in Monterrey, Mexico for 4 years before that. Wes and his wife Melissa met while they were students at the University of North Texas and have four daughters.

The recording featured in this episode is “Creator of the Stars of Night” by Wes Crawford, from the album Advent 2019. Words: Latin 5th century, 10th century, translated by John Mason Neale (1818–1866), tune: Conditor alme siderum (Sarum Plainsong)

• Our Cycle of Prayer Spotlight ministry this week is Christ Church Broad Ripple, led by the Rev. Todd Fisher.