“Imagine Peace” is a fresh Advent resource with many applications. The authors indicated that they wanted to make peace “more visible, touchable and perceptible” as they sought to “focus on biblical aspects of peace and overcoming violence.” I think they have offered a vibrant and unique worship experience for this season of waiting and expectation.

While there is definitely a meditative component to this experience, it is also strongly interactive. Each of the four Sundays there is a way for the people gathered to go beyond the usual and expected singing, praying, standing up and sitting down, and call-response of worship. For example, one week strips of cloth that make blind folds at first become the tail of the star. Another week rocks are scattered as obstacles down the aisle, participants make the path straight. Benjamin Bloom’s table of verbs was used to evaluate the action present and available through Imagine Peace. This table has over 80 verbs in three categories: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. By using nearly every verb, the authors have truly created an experience that draws participants in through a wide variety of learning styles and preferences.

Each week there is a different “voice” for the mediation. People living out the real struggle for peace and justice interpret the gospel story in their situation. Their stories are filled with the challenge they face, living and growing in faith while they wait in hope that God hears their prayers. In this way the urgency for action becomes personal and not just another “issue.”

"Imagine Peace" lends itself to wide variety of possibilities. The scripture lessons and themes are distinctly Advent with Latin American influence in music and tradition. This would certainly spice up most Lutheran worship services during the dark and cold of December! A community feast with mangoes and salsa after worship might be an intriguing change from lutefisk and pickled herring, or at least a very interesting side dish. The possibilities for intergenerational Sunday School are nearly endless. The materials even have the beginnings of a service project. If four weeks of Latin rhythms and Spanish words would overwhelm, more familiar songs could easily be inserted; the authors have included the theme of each song too. The litanies and reflections would also work well in a “Prayer Around the Cross” type of worship setting.

In this Decade to Overcome Violence, this is an outstanding resource for the season of Advent. I appreciate the vision of inclusiveness, celebration of diversity and the reality that God loves all of God’s children.

This document gives reflection upon the word peace within typical Christian worship services. What does this word mean to the people in worship? Is there a deeper meaning than the letters in the word? The whole goal is to have peace as an experience and the meditations provided in this booklet do offer an opportunity for such an experience. There is also a global perspective woven throughout this resource that provides peace in a new light across the nations.

Throughout the document you hear different voices from different nations interact with the word of God and you can truly sense the Spirit in this conversation. These stories would be great for a devotion experience or a supplement to a sermon. The book Boundary Leaders by Gunderson would appreciate this resource as some of the stories/meditations come from the boundaries and often time these are the stories that reach people who are at the boundaries too. This resources interacts the text on the ‘edges’ which is how Jesus lived too; what a fitting resource.

Further on, the document provides great resource tools with a visual learning experience. This is an experiential resource that offers ideas for worship resource but could also be transformed into a Sunday school education hour. Actual music is provided in this document to support the theological content of background information. Knowing many Lutheran congregations, the music in the Spanish language would be a challenge to do use that in worship and be able have to congregation ‘sing-along’ and worship with this music—as the focus of pronunciation and musical tune is hard for most people.

I would recommend this article is a tool for reflection and thought during advent. There are resources to use to supplement what you are doing in your congregation and also resources to create an advent journey education hour. A new view of peace allows for reflective thought upon the peace the church can be in this world to all people.