Nika Spaulding

Kay Daigle

Why celebrate Advent? In this episode Nika Spaulding talks with Kay Daigle about what Advent is, why we should consider celebrating it, and how to do that in a meaningful way. If you've only done the wreath or the calendar at Advent, this episode will give you new insights as well as ideas to make it more personal to you and your family.

This episode is available on video for those who prefer watching it.

Recommended resources

Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas

Advent by Tish Harrison Warren

Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ by Fleming Rutledge

Connect to the document with Advent candle lighting readings, BibleProject Advent Series and Spotify Playlist for Advent songs.

If you're interested, you can connect to other BOW posts centering on Christmas.

Timestamps:

00:36 Introductions

01:58 Nika & Kay's experiences with Advent

04:26 Quote from Tish Harrison Warren, author of Advent, on the big idea of Advent

05:15 The four weeks of Advent

09:22 Origins of Advent

13:26 Reasons to celebrate Advent

18:38 Advent puts us in the place of those waiting for Jesus

23:46 What John the Baptist teaches us about waiting

27:50 Suggested ways to celebrate Advent

34:35 Other Advent resources

TranscriptKay >> Hi. I'm Kay Daigle of Beyond Ordinary Women Ministries. Welcome to this podcast episode and video. Whichever way you're watching or listening, we are thrilled that you have joined us. I am joined today by Nika Spaulding. Nika is a speaker, an author, a writer, and she is almost finished with her DMin in New Testament. Welcome Nika.

Nika >> Thanks, Kay. I'm excited to be here. And I'm excited for this topic. I think you and I both are, so this will be fun.

Kay >> Yeah, I think so too. So when do you finish this New Testament degree?

Nika >> So all I have left is the thesis, so I suppose it's as quickly as I can write, which means not for a while. So it's not going as fast as I anticipated, but I think I'll be done in June 2025 and ready to graduate. So hopefully I'll knock that.

Kay >> That's really right around the corner.

Nika >> Yeah, it feels like it's right there. Like I've done all the, you know, the classes and you know, how it goes. Can you do all this work? And then you're like, the finish line is, I can see it, but what's between the finish line and now is like 90 pages. So I can knock that out.

Kay >> Yeah, well, I can hardly wait to read it.

Nika >> Thank you.

Kay >> Anyway, Nika and I do want to talk about Advent and I think that we both have really benefited from celebrating Advent through the years. For me, I didn't grow up in a church that celebrated Advent in any way. We weren't a liturgical church in any way. We didn't do things like this, and it was really only as an adult that one of the churches I was in even had the Advent wreath and the candles in the church.

But I have really grown to love Advent over the last few years. What about you, Nika? What is your background with Advent?

Nika >> Yeah, it sounds so similar to yours.

So I not only didn't grow up in a liturgical church, I didn't really grow up in the church at all. So my only experience of Advent was I had a great aunt who had sent my brother, sister and I chocolate Advent calendars, so I thought Advent was like chocolate. Like I thought it was like you get a piece of chocolate a day and my sister would eat all of hers before we even got to December 5th, and my brother would like hoard his and hide, you know?

And so I had no idea Advent was a part of a church tradition until I was an adult. And it's interesting because I asked my two roommates who did grow up in the church but did not grow up in liturgical churches like you, and neither of them had any concept of it until they were adults. And I asked them as well, Did you have a concept of Lent?

You know, you think of these two seasons: Advent prepares you for Christ...