top of page
Search

Your Fall Advent Programming Window Is Closing — Here's How to Use the Next 30 Days

  • Writer: Glenn Fletcher
    Glenn Fletcher
  • Aug 12
  • 3 min read

✦ The Herald Dispatch ✦

I want to talk directly to the pastors and church leaders reading this, because this is a message that has a very specific and limited window of usefulness.


The churches that have the most meaningful, most unified, most well-executed Advent seasons are the ones that made their key decisions in August. Not October. Not November. August.


I know this because I've been in and around church ministry for decades, and the pattern is consistent enough to be a rule: the quality of your December is determined by the preparation you do in August and September. What gets left to October is squeezed. What gets left to November is compromised.


What gets left to December is dropped.


If you are reading this in August and you haven't finalized your Advent programming, this post is for you.


The August Checklist

Here is a practical checklist for the decisions that need to be made in August to execute a strong Advent season:


Sermon series theme and structure. Four weeks, four themes — do you know what each Sunday is exploring? The traditional Hope, Peace, Joy, Love structure is tried and true. If you're doing something different, August is when you need to know what it is.


Congregational book or shared reading. If you want your congregation inhabiting the same narrative world during Advent, you need to decide and order now. Shipping, distribution planning, and integration with your sermon series all require lead time that October doesn't provide.


Christmas Eve service structure. Your highest-attendance service of the year deserves its own planning conversation, separate from the Advent series planning. What is the emotional arc of the service? What moment do you want your congregation to carry out the door?


Volunteer and team assignments. Who is doing what in December? Finalize your team now while people still have calendar flexibility. The volunteers you need in December become unavailable in October.


Budget finalization. Congregational books, special music, event costs, hospitality — all of it needs a budget number before September's programming decisions begin.


Marketing and communication plan. How will you communicate Advent programming to your

congregation? Email sequence, social posts, bulletin inserts, announcement timing — all of this needs a plan in place by September 1st.


Author visit or special event. If you're considering bringing in an outside voice for an Advent event, August is your last realistic window for outreach. Most schedules are finalized in September.

(story continues after ad)


The Cost of Waiting

Let me be direct about what waiting until October costs.


It costs you the best volunteers, who fill their fall schedules in September. It costs you the budget line items that get allocated to other things when the August planning conversation doesn't include them. It costs you the author visits and special events that are already booked. It costs you the congregational reading program that would have required September for distribution planning. It costs you the sermon series integration that would have required ten weeks to develop properly.


What's left is a scrambled version of what you intended, executed under pressure, without the preparation that would have made it excellent.


The good news is that you are reading this in August. The window is still open. The decisions that need to be made can still be made in time.


Start with the question of shared story. It's the highest-leverage Advent decision most churches are not making, and it's also the one with the longest lead time. If you want your congregation inhabiting the same narrative world during Advent, the time to decide — and to order — is this week.


I'm happy to have a conversation about what that could look like for your specific community. Email me at hello@marktheherald.com.


✦ Free pastoral review copies available. Bulk pricing starting at 11 copies.

Free congregational Advent devotional guide.

Comments

bottom of page