The holidays are definitely approaching because we at Prayerworks Studio are feeling very merry around here! We have so much to share with you!
Big News #1: Advent Study
First, we have a new Advent study available. “Keeping Watch with the Shepherds: Spiritual Disciplines for the Season of Advent” is designed to help us learn new ways of preparing for the coming of the Christ child. We will journey with the shepherds who were “living in the fields” when God appeared to them in a big way. From them we will learn what it means to hear, go, see, and tell about Jesus’s birth.
I’ve co-written the study with my husband, Max. Many of y’all know we co-wrote Another Bead, Another Prayer: Devotions for Use with Protestant Prayer Beads, so it’s been fun to partner on a project with him again.
The study will be available online, or you can download it. The first half will be available 11/22/19 so that you’ll have plenty of time to read ahead or prepare to share it with a group. The second half will be available 12/6. The cost of the study is $17 for individuals, and $37 for a group. You can find out more about it here.
Big news #2: Loved Notes is going to be a podcast!
Last year, during the first week of Advent, I launched a new email newsletter called Loved Notes. Every Tuesday (ish), I send out a very short message that has one sole purpose: to remind you of just how deeply loved you are by God. This has easily been one of my favorite things I’ve ever done, and the response has been tremendous! Every week you tell me how much the Loved Notes mean to you. Which just makes my little heart just burst! So much so that I’ve decided to make Loved Notes a podcast!
Some of you know I tried podcasting almost two years ago. While it was well-received, I didn’t stick with it. Still, I’ve continued to want to do a podcast. One evening I was sitting with Max, talking about podcast ideas, when it hit us: everyone loves Loved Notes, so why not make Loved Notes a podcast?!? Brilliant!
The Loved Notes podcast will NOT replace the weekly email. You’ll still receive that little dose of God’s deep love in your inbox! Instead, the podcast will offer a way for me to talk about God’s deep love in other ways. I’ll be talking about how we know we are deeply loved, what keeps us from feeling or believing it, how we can learn to accept and own it, and ways we can live God’s deep love out in the world. I’ll also get to answer some of your questions. Sometimes it will be just me on the podcast, and sometimes I’ll have guests.
Speaking of guests: my first guest is going to be none other than Max himself! This is especially fitting because he’s the one who helped me come up with the idea, and because the first four episodes will be connected to our Advent study.
The podcast will launch 12/1/19 – the first Sunday of Advent. In the meantime, I’ll keep you posted with more details. I’m SO excited about this and can’t wait to have one more way to share God’s deep love with you!
Peace, Kristen
