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Celebration is at the heart of the way of Christ. In this advent season, we consider how Jesus entered the world on a high note of jubilation.  The angel cried out, “I bring you good news of a great joy, which shall come to all the people” (Luke 2:10).

A season of Celebration started with the birth of Jesus Christ, then there was a quiet season, as He grew and matured.  More than 30 years after his birth, Jesus initiated His public ministry.  André Trocmé in Jésus-Christ et la révolution non-violente and later John Howard Yoder in The Politics of Jesus go to some length to demonstrate that Jesus began His public ministry by proclaiming the year of Jubilee (Luke 4:18, 19).

In the Old Testament all the social stipulations of the year of Jubilee—canceling all debts, releasing slaves, planting no crops, returning property to the original owner—were a celebration of the gracious provision of God.

Celebration brings joy into life, and joy makes us strong. Scripture tells us that the joy of the Lord is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10). That’s an important verse to our family, as it’s reflected in our Family Mission Statement.

Click here for more from Richard Foster on the Discipline of Celebration

For the Christian, individual knowledge of the direct, active, immediate leading of the Spirit is not sufficient. Individual guidance must yield to corporate guidance. There must also come a knowledge of the direct, active, immediate leading of the Spirit together.

Much of the teaching on divine guidance in our century has been noticeably deficient on the corporate aspect. We have received excellent instruction on how God leads us through Scripture and through reason and through circumstances and through the promptings of the Spirit upon the individual heart.

This is why Richard Foster listed guidance among the Corporate Disciplines and stressed its communal nature.

While God guides the individual richly and profoundly, He also guides groups of people and can instruct the individual through the group experience.

Perhaps the preoccupation with private guidance in Western cultures is the product of our emphasis upon individualism. The people of God have not always been so. God led the children of Israel out of bondage as a people.

Click here for more from Richard Foster on the Corporate Spiritual Discipline of Guidance