“He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David, his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:32-33, CSB).
In our fast-paced, instant-gratification culture, the discipline of waiting is countercultural. Advent teaches us to resist the hurry and instead lean into the slow, deliberate pace of God’s timing. It’s an annual reminder that God doesn’t operate on our schedules, that his ways are not ours.
For the next generation, the world is full of distractions. Constant notifications and ever-increasing busyness are the chorus of our world today. Beautifully, the practice of Advent offers something profoundly different: space.
Space to reflect, to pray, to reset our hearts and minds. In a culture that values productivity over presence, Advent invites us to focus on presence—God’s presence with us, Emmanuel. This slowing down helps us all experience a different rhythm, one that aligns more with the pace of the kingdom than the pace of the world.
When we celebrate Advent, we pass on something vital to the next generation: a vision of faith that is not hurried, shallow or transactional. The practices of lighting candles, reading Scripture, singing hymns and waiting together as a community form a deep well from which future generations can draw.
For us as Anabaptists, the communal aspect of faith is crucial. Christmas and the Advent season remind us that we are not alone in our waiting. As we gather around the dinner table, in church services and in family devotions, we are reminded that faith is lived out in community. This is a gift for the next generation—learning that faith is part of a larger story, a story of God’s people waiting together for the fullness of Christ’s kingdom.
Advent also becomes a time of formation, shaping us into people of patience, hope, peace, love and joy. These qualities run counter to the anxious, divided world around us. Teaching our families to engage in Advent instills in us a sense of anticipation not just for Christmas but for the return of Jesus. It gives us a framework to process our longings and unmet desires, grounding them in the hope that Christ has come and will come again.
This practice of waiting, of celebrating the now-and-not-yet reality of God’s kingdom, helps create a generation that is not driven by impulse but by purpose, not swayed by the winds but anchored in the peace of Christ.
Advent is an invitation to immerse ourselves in the beauty of Christ’s story. In a world that pulls us in every direction, the season of waiting reorients us toward the most breathtaking reality—God coming to dwell among us. It becomes a reminder of beauty in a noisy and fragmented world. In the stillness of candlelight, we are reminded of the radiance of Christ, shining in the darkness.
We should embrace Advent as a time of deepening discipleship, of preparing ourselves and our families to live like Jesus. Through the simple practices of Advent, we rediscover the richness of waiting, the beauty of community and the hope of Christ’s kingdom.
Matt Walker Thrift is lead pastor of Koerner Heights Church in Newton, Kansas. He is the author of Follow: Genuine Discipleship in the Modern Age. Thrift and his wife, Hannah, and their three children came to Koerner Heights in 2024 from St. George, Utah after serving as the pastor of adult ministries at South Mountain Community Church in St. George, Utah, from 2019 to 2024.
