“I refuse to believe the lie that nothing I do matters.”

“I encourage so many people to tell their stories, because the more stories that we hear, the deeper that we can go into understanding people and welcoming people. That we shouldn’t be afraid of diversity. The diversity is what enriches our lives and we can be in solidarity with those other people that have been undermined or oppressed or subjugated.”

“Power cannot be divorced from context. And we know it’s undeniably the case that some people have more power than others, and this could be used for good and ill. So the students are critically analyzing the ways in which power has shaped the Christian experience, positively and negatively in a global context.”

“What Jesus is essentially saying is that we’re in the midst of a cosmic battle for our souls and that cosmic battle is between God and money.”

“How do I engage in this work that is so meaningful—that gives my life purpose, that I want to do—and yet, at the same time, it is something that takes so much out of me? I don’t know how to reconcile those two things.”

“I put the phrases seek justice and stay hopeful together. I really wanted to illustrate the fact that I value justice. And I also feel as though if we don’t have hope, we’re not going to make it. I personally don’t believe that hopelessness is something that you can survive. And so I want to weave that into everything I do. So whether it’s a sticker in my shop or a post online that’s speaking to some [serious] issue, I always want to trace back to hope. We have seen in history how people like us have overcome despite these terrible odds and keep that at the forefront because doom scrolling is real. Believing that all is lost is a very real feeling and I want to do what I can to kind of push against that.”

“[I want] to reclaim that name to its historical origins, where we are CHRIST—ians. Because we believe that God was fully revealed through the person, life, teachings, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We’re not BIBLE—ians. We don’t believe that the Bible is the full revelation of God in the world. It was Jesus. The Bible didn’t crawl up on the cross and die for us. Jesus did. And so when we are trying to understand and distinct our faith from the way it’s been hijacked and co-opted, we can unashamedly say we are called Christians because Jesus is the ultimate authority of our faith.”

“This is our invitation as Advent people: to embody His peace in how we show up in our relationships, in our communities, and the world.”

“The arrival of Jesus into the world was itself a profound act of divine justice—a living proclamation that in Christ, God liberates, restores, heals, and makes things right.”

“Advent begins in the dark.”—Fleming Rutledge