New Advent devotional and global mission offering launches

The Ascent Movement is offering a new Advent devotional guide in conjunction with its newly established Advent Offering.

Ascent is a multidenominational collaboration of orthodox and confessional evangelical churches and individuals with the stated purpose of equipping “the church to live out the Great Commission in today’s context, reengaging North America, and sowing the gospel throughout the world.”

J.R. Briggs, author of The Art of Asking Better Questions, wrote the new Advent devotional guide titled God Comes Near. The devotional guide is available to individuals electronically and to churches in print.

“The resource is designed to support pastors and churches during a busy season” while “bringing global ministry into the rhythm of Advent reflection,” according to the press release.

The Advent Offering is one of two new offerings Ascent announced during its inaugural summit in March. The Pentecost Offering coincided with Easter.

Individuals and churches are not required to contribute to the Advent Offering to receive and participate in the Advent devotional guide.

Connecting Advent with missions

Each day’s reading will include an Advent devotional “alongside an impact story from a ministry connected to Ascent, highlighting how churches and missionaries meet critical needs as a pathway for sharing the gospel,” the release explains.

The connected ministries featured in the stories are Canadian Baptist Ministries, On Mission Network, Restore Hope, and TMS Global. More than 200 missionaries in nearly 40 countries are engaged through these four ministries, the release states.

Contributions to Ascent’s Advent Offering will provide financial support to these four ministries. In addition, funds will help support the Joined Horizon partnership, a three-year effort by the featured ministries to serve in Lebanon as part of a longer commitment there.

Recognizing “many congregations already have established traditions of holiday giving,” the release notes, “those with existing giving commitments can incorporate the devotional and mission stories into their season while continuing those commitments.”

The Ascent Advent Offering is not seen as competing with established Christmas mission offerings, as Chris Backert, Ascent’s senior director, explained.

Ascent includes congregations with no “precedent of collective generosity for missions during the Christmas season,” he said.

Likewise, for churches that have stopped giving to their historic collective offerings for various reasons, “this is an opportunity to return to that historic practice of collective generosity,” Backert added.

“I am not asking anyone to stop what they have been doing if they have been doing it,” he said.

Participating churches

First Baptist Church in Arlington and Pioneer Drive Baptist Church in Abilene are among Texas Baptist churches participating in the Advent devotion and offering.

“I believe we’re entering a new chapter of global mission, one that invites us to expand our imagination for cooperation beyond the institutions and structures we’ve inherited. That’s why I believe in, and our church contributes to, the Ascent Advent giving opportunity,” Ashley Berryhill, discipleship minister-engagement at First Baptist Church in Arlington, said.

Inviting churches “to invest in a vision of the church working together,” Berryhill said she sees the Advent offering as “an opportunity where generosity moves beyond organizational boundaries, overlooked needs become shared responsibilities, and the mission of God advances through the collective faithfulness of his people.”

“Advent is a special time of the year where our church leans in and focuses on preparing our hearts for Christ’s arrival,” John Whitten, senior pastor of Pioneer Drive Baptist Church, said. “This year we are excited to partner with Ascent and join with brothers and sisters from across North America as we celebrate the reality that God came near.”

“As we are trying to envision a new kind of relational and missional connection for churches across North America, we believe that uniting together for spiritual focus and missional impact is a compelling path during the upcoming season of giving,” Backert said.

The inaugural Pentecost Offering, which did not have a stated goal, received just over $40,000, Backert reported. Contributions to the Pentecost Offering support church planting and pioneer missions in North America. The inaugural Advent Offering goal is $50,000.

Contributions to Ascent’s Advent Offering are processed by the Baptist General Assembly of Virginia.

For more information about the Ascent Advent Journey, devotional resources, and accompanying giving opportunity, visit www.ascentmovement.org/advent.