Inside Out - "Longing for Christmas"

Longing for Christmas

A special pre-Christmas edition of Family Life's "Inside Out" podcast

In a fractured world where teenagers often feel isolated, the weeks of Advent can open up the big picture of God’s continuing connection with His creation and highlight the hope of the Gospel. 

“What we want is for our teenagers, for our young children, eventually to come to a place where they know that the deepest longings they ever have will be fulfilled in Jesus. And so even in times of grief and loss and hardship—whatever that may look like—we want them to feel a sense of giddiness and anticipation for Jesus to come and make all things right, for Him to make all things new.” -- Chelsea Kingston Erickson

In a fractured world where teenagers often feel isolated, the weeks before Christmas can highlight the hope woven throughout God’s continuing connection with His creation. In these weeks, known to many Christians as Advent, teens--and everyone else—have a chance to grab onto the meaning of the first coming of Jesus as we anticipate His Second Coming.

“I think they are longing for beauty and truth and goodness,” Chelsea Kingston Erickson says of teens. “And many times they don’t know where to find it. But of course we in the church know we have the most beautiful resources in the Gospel to point them to a better world that is coming when Jesus comes again.”

Chelsea Kingston Erickson is the editor of Youth Ministry Content & Director of Publishing for Rooted Ministry. She’s edited the new Advent devotional book for teens titled “Longing for Christmas.”

“When we can connect them to that whole biblical story from Genesis to Revelation and show how it gives hope in their lives today, both socially and in sort of the global picture of things, I think that’s just earth-shattering, life-changing,” she says.

Listen to this eleven-and-a-half-minute conversation Martha Manikas-Foster had with Chelsea Kingston Erickson in this Family Life "Inside Out" podcast.

• Learn more about my guest at www.RootedMinistry.com.
• Learn about her book “Longing for Christmas”, which walks teens along a devotional journey into 25 promises fulfilled in Christ's incarnation. 
  

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