All about Christ: Families and churches mark Advent with traditions, music

Usually associated with churches, Advent also is celebrated by individual families who light the traditional four candles symbolizing hope, peace, joy and love and the bigger Christ candle while adding personal touches to the four-week season preparatory to the Nativity.

Scott and Ashley Lipke of Jackson and their children have a meeting each year just after Thanksgiving to decide what they will do.

"It has evolved with lots of different ideas on ways we can serve Jesus and celebrate his birthday," said Ashley Lipke, a registered nurse whose husband is an associate Cape Girardeau County judge.

"We read the Christmas story by candlelight, do a family service project or learn the different names of Jesus. We once took hot chocolate to bell ringers because we wanted the kids to understand that it's not our birthday, it's Jesus's birthday."

Lipke explained that the Bible refers to Jesus by a number of names including Immanuel, the Cornerstone, Wonderful Counselor and the Rock of Ages.

Others interviewed about Advent were representatives of Grace United Methodist Church, Trinity Lutheran Church and Christ Church of the Heartland.

"We put an Advent box together and pull out ideas about being an angel in disguise by doing a random act of kindness or praying for someone who is hurting," Lipke said. "We did 25 different things this year. We always drive to church in Delta, Mo., and light candles in the evening.

"We have made little ornaments with the names of Jesus and put one on the tree each night and read Scriptures about why he is the Cornerstone or the Rock of Ages."

The Lipkes are members of La Croix United Methodist Church in Cape Girardeau. Their children are Kate, 6, Layton, 9, and 11-year-old Parker. "It just takes 15 minutes out of the day," the mother said.

"Ultimately, all these things we're doing are our birthday gift to Jesus. We wrap a picture of Jesus, and it's the first gift we open on Christmas morning."

Another participant in the family's Advent is a 9-year-old Mozambique boy named Horatio whom they sponsor through World Vision International. "We sent additional funds to Horatio last year, and a few months later we got a photo in the mail of the things he had bought," Lipke said.

"Nowhere did we see a toy. He had used the money to buy things he desperately needed like shoes, rice, a blanket, oil and a couple of books. It was so humbling."

Grace United Methodist Church at Broadway Street and Caruthers Avenue conclude its four weeks of Advent with contemporary and traditional services with Joan Haring's Christmas Eve reading of a poem by Peggy Kuehle, "Christmas at Grace," and other observances.

The Rev. Tom Sullenger, church pastor, said candles signifying hope, peace, joy and love had been lighted on each of the previous four Sundays, and the Christ candle was to have been lighted in the midst of a circle suggesting a crown.

"We have scriptural readings with different meanings each week in expectation of the coming of Christ," Sullenger said Monday. "We had the Hanging of the Greens on the first Sunday after Thanksgiving, and ... the children ... come down when Joan reads Peggy's poem to get their sacks of apples, oranges and candy canes."

The Rev. Justin Pobst, Grace UMC's associate pastor, was to conduct the contemporary service, about which Sullenger said, chuckling, "You probably can't find anything more contemporary in town."

At its Christmas Eve service, Trinity Lutheran Church, 100 N. Frederick St., members were to have the opportunity "to prepare for the joy and set the right mind instead of all the chaos going on" with the commercial side of the holiday, a church spokeswoman said.

The Rev. Nathan Vurgell, Trinity's assistant pastor, and the Rev. Douglas Breite, its administrative pastor, had led the December services as the choir sang Christmas songs and the Trinity brass and the church handbell choir augmented the melodic occasions.

"The Dec. 4 and 11 services were well attended," the spokeswoman said. "We had about 280 people each time. These services have a special quality. The decorations committee decorates all over the church."

Christ Church of the Heartland at 720 Bertling St. held a Dec. 18 Advent observance with guitarist, pianist and songwriter Kent Henry of St. Louis, and it had planned a Christmas Eve service with a candlelight communion to emphasize the spiritual meaning, said church outreach director Judy Nilsen.

"It's a special time for our congregation," Nilsen said. "About 200 people came on the night Mr. Henry was here, and Kim and Jenny Ferguson mix in spiritual readings.

"It is a great atmosphere, expecting the birth of Jesus."

Nilsen said the Fergusons read from the New Testament, recounting the prelude to and birth of Jesus, along with Old Testament passages like those in the Book of Isaiah that prophesied his advent and explained the role he would play more than 700 years before he was born.