• Waiting and hope at the heart of Giglio’s new Advent devotional

    advent-nov14

    What does the Christmas season have to do with our hopes and desires — the things we wait on and pray for? And how can Advent, the days leading up to Christmas, help us better learn about God, promise and fulfillment?

    “This season leading up to Christmas builds in us the hope that God is going to come through… Christmas is about a promise fulfilled,” says #Baylor alum Louie Giglio, whose well-known national ministry began during his time in Waco. His recently released Advent devotional, Waiting Here For You: An Advent Journey Of Hope, is designed for reading in the days leading up to Christmas. (The first Sunday of Advent is this Sunday, Nov. 30.)

    Advent, says Giglio, “simply means arrival.” Christ’s birth is a reminder that God delivers on his promises, and no matter what we go through, “while we are waiting on God, we are waiting with God. God is there the whole time.” Waiting Here For You focuses on the anticipation and the purpose of waiting in our lives in daily readings featuring scriptures and meditations to focus on during the hustle and busyness of the season.

    Giglio and his wife, Shelly, BBA ’86, formed their ministry here while both took classes at Baylor. Born with a mission to “see spiritual awakening come to college campuses,” Choice Ministries began in 1985 with a Waco Bible study that eventually drew over 10 percent of the student body at Baylor. After the Giglios moved to Atlanta in 1985, Choice Ministries would become better known for their yearly Passion Conferences that minister to tens of thousands of young people at arenas across the country.

    Today, the Giglios live out their calling in many ways. In addition to his writing and overseeing the conferences, Louie pastors a church in Atlanta. Shelly’s passion for college ministry informs her service to Baylor on the university’s Board of Regents. She also serves as chief strategist and manger to the bands at sixstepsrecords; the label’s artists include David Crowder, yet another Baylor alumnus.

    Sic ’em, Louie and Shelly Giglio!