Welcome to Summer!
Worship During Quarantine
In days when many of our patterns and rhythms have been disturbed, we are eager to maintain some of our usual scheduling.During the summer months, our worship happens at 9:30 am. For participating live in worship, join online at 9:30 on Sunday, through Labor Day. (Of course, videos are always available to watch later.)

The worship services are streamed online from YouTube. You shouldn’t need any app or passwords or anything to download. If you have internet service, you should be able to join us. The bulletin is posted in a link below the video. Click here for the Advent “channel.” Share the link and invite others to worship with you!

If you have prayer requests or announcements including birthdays to be shared in worship, please send them to Nick no later than 9:00 am on Sunday morning at nick@theMCC.net

Midweek Evening Prayer: Wednesdays
At 8:45 pm on Wednesdays, join your pastoral staff for a brief, reflective wind-down to your evening, with focus on scripture, quiet time, and song.
Find it in videos on  www.facebook.com/
madisonchristiancommunity. You don’t need a Facebook account to watch, but do if you’d like to comment with greetings or prayer requests. You can also find it to watch later, if live doesn’t work for you, including yesterday's edition at this link.

Upcoming Liturgies - 9:30 am
8/2 ELW Service of the Word
What do we take away from the miraculous feeding of the 5000? (Besides leftovers!) What does it tell us about God? About us? About the world? In 9:30 worship from the Blessing Room, our service is shaped by ELW Service of the Word. Afterward, see friendly faces, even if you don’t stick around long! Here is the YouTube livestream link for worship video and for the bulletin. Here is the link for the coffee chat afterward. If you have prayer requests to be shared in worship or announcements, including birthdays, that you would like spoken to the congregation, please send them to Nick.

Plus Communion: Monday
Join a brief Advent communion on Monday at 5pm. The Sunday Gospel reading includes the exact language of the Lord’s Supper—that Jesus took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to eat. We’ll reflect more on what this means in Sunday worship, and we’ll put it into practice on Monday at 5pm. Have bread and/or wine or grape juice ready, and we’ll celebrate a very brief (about 10 minute) communion service. You can join other faces on screen at this Zoom link or participate through YouTube livestream. If there is “hunger” for this, we will offer it more regularly.

8/9 Holden Village prayer around the cross
8/16 Pride Sunday
8/23 A Heartland Liturgy
8/30 ELW setting 10

Additional Chances!
Remember that, even though we most encourage you to gather in worship at 10:15, the videos remain available at our YouTube channels afterward, so you can go back and catch Holy Week services you missed, or join in with our partner congregation’s worship for an MCC experience! Here is the YouTube channel link: Click here.
You can find sermon manuscripts from Pastor Nick here.

Outdoor Worship
August 4, 11, 18;  6:30-7:00 pm
We gather for shared MCC midweek outdoor worship service, in masks in marked distancing locations around the Memorial Garden. Please bring your own chairs or blankets. With county orders, we have room for 25 slots. (*Sign-up here*)to reserve a place. (RSVP is only for the next service.) Or contact a pastor if you’d like to serve as usher/greeter or offer music. The service is also livestreamed here so that all can participate. Around our theme of “Surely, God is in this place,” this week we hear a reflection from Intern Lisa. You can also click here to watch last week’s service, with a reflection by Pastor Nick.

Bible Readings for Worship
After a couple program years of the Narrative Lectionary, a Psummer of Psalms, and some other engaging opportunities, we are returning more fully to the Revised Common Lectionary. This set of Bible readings is used by many mainline Protestants and is similar to the Roman Catholic lectionary. We join the year of Luke (year C) in progress. The Gospel readings are paired with an Old Testament passage sharing the theme, and a Psalm response echoing that as well. Through this autumn, we'll also encounter New Testament readings from 1st & 2nd Timothy and 2nd Thessalonians. With the season Advent (starting Dec. 1), we begin a new church year and move to the year of Matthew (year A).

For a complete listing of the readings, visit https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/

The Larger Church
Besides our partnership with Community of Hope UCC, Advent Lutheran is connected to the larger Lutheran church body. We are one of 138 congregations of the South-Central Synod of Wisconsin (https://scsw-elca.org/), which is one of 65 synods or regional bodies in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (https://elca.org/). The ELCA also stands in relationships with the Lutheran World Federation (https://www.lutheranworld.org/). Though Advent has much of its own character, you could still learn more about us by exploring those pages for our broader relationships and larger ministry of Lutherans.

Read The Whole Bible in a Year: 2020
To see the outline for the whole year, you can click here.

"What Does This Mean?"
Having marked the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation when Martin Luther nailed 95 points of discussion on the church door in Wittenberg, Germany on Oct. 31, 1517, we proceeded through a “back to basics” of Luther’s way of teaching the faith through his Small Catechism. You can open a copy (click here) with reflection questions that we printed in weekly bulletins of Advent Lutheran. You can also download an app here. (Luther would be all for it – he used the newest technology of his time and had posters printed to be hung in family homes.)

Advent Worship Services
10:15 am During the School Year
  9:30 am Summer Schedule
Weekly worship at Advent Lutheran is a vibrant experience, engaging our passions and concerns and faithful pondering, yet in a fairly casual setting with the sounds of children constantly bubbling around us. Our worship is enriched by a wide variety of volunteer musicians on piano, guitars, handchimes, congas, tambourine, flute, banjo, voice, and an occasional harmonica. Our beautiful and adaptable worship space in the Blessing Room is enhanced by designs from our Liturgical Arts Team.

Services at Advent generally follow the historic liturgy of the church, and Advent uses a wide variety of liturgies for worship:

• both new and “classic” settings from the Evangelical Lutheran Worship hymnal, including the Spanish of setting 7

• Now the Feast and Celebration by Marty Haugen
  

• the Earthkeeping liturgy by Dakota Road
  

• the old favorite Chicago Folk Mass
  

• plus some of our own creations, like the African Song celebration (with drumming), a setting composed by our own Tom Hind, a Creation-oriented liturgy, one built around materials from the Iona Community, and more
  

Also about once a month, we share worship services with our partner congregation, Community of Hope UCC.  These services are typically a blend of styles and formats and may include Holy Week services, Lenten and summer outdoor midweek worship, festivals for Confirmation and celebrating Sunday School students, the “God’s Work. Our Hands” day of service, ecumenical occasions, and more.

Top Ten Things to Know About Advent
10. Advent is a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

  9. Advent Lutheran and Community of Hope, a United Church in Christ
      congregation, are in a partnership called Madison Christian Community.

  8. A variety of worship settings are used and the congregation can sing in
      four part harmony.

  7. The use of inclusive language in worship is valued.

  6. Families with young children are welcome at worship and children
      may receive Holy Communion at an early age.

  5. Advent is a Reconciling in Christ congregation meaning we’re officially
      registered as openly welcoming for the LGBT community. We’re not only
     “officially registered,” though, we’re a place that people describe as the
     most welcoming and comfortable church they’ve ever known.
     More information about this at the top right of this page.

  4. A "culture of commitment" is fostered by the practice of renewing
      membership annually.

  3. People of Advent are not threatened by change and seek new ways
      of being faithful to God.

  2. Members of Advent are scattered throughout the greater Madison area

  1. Members of Advent are encouraged to identify their spiritual gifts
      and use them in service.

Mission Statement
We, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them. Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with filial affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Never flag in zeal, be aglow with the Spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in your hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints, practice hospitality.
Romans 12:5-6a, 9-13