An Unusual Advent:The Journey to True Change | An Advent Journey of Hope, Peace, Joy, Love, and Faith |2026 Theme: Church as Unusual

WEEK 5: UNUSUAL FAITH

“Stepping Into the New Year, Moving From Belief to Becoming”

Focus Scripture: Hebrews 11:1 (NIV), “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”

Community Connection, Faith in Forward Motion

Faith grows stronger when it walks with others. As you close this Advent journey, partner with your accountability friend, your family, or your ministry group to speak vision and declare victory together.

This week, challenge one another to:

• Share one bold faith goal for the coming year and pray it into being.
• Write a list of what you are leaving behind, and release it through prayer.
• End the year worshiping together, declaring that greater is coming.

Church as Unusual is not afraid to believe big. It is a movement that lives by faith, not fear, stepping into the unknown expecting a miracle.

Introduction

Faith is the bridge between what you believe and what you see. It moves mountains, opens doors, and changes the direction of your life. Unusual faith is not faith that sees the whole picture; it is faith that moves even when the picture is unclear.

As you prepare to cross into a new year, let your faith lead the way. You are not walking into uncertainty; you are walking into promise. The God who met you at the manger will carry you into your mission.

Day 35, Faith Forward

Habakkuk 2:3 (NIV), “For the revelation awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove false. Though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay.”

Unusual faith does not live in nostalgia; it lives in now. God is preparing a future that is already in motion. The next chapter is not coming; it is calling.

Prayer: Lord, I step into the new year with fearless faith and fresh focus.
Declaration: I am walking forward with expectation, elevation, and evidence.
Transformation Challenge: Write a one-line faith declaration for the new year and share it with your accountability partner.

Advent → Church as Unusual

Advent is a sacred season of anticipation, preparation, and renewal, the four weeks that lead us toward the celebration of Christ’s birth. The word Advent comes from the Latin adventus, meaning “coming” or “arrival.” It is during this time that the Church looks back with gratitude for Jesus’ first coming in Bethlehem and looks forward with expectation for His promised return.

Yet Advent is not only about remembering a past moment or awaiting a future one.
Advent invites us to make room for Christ to come alive in us, right now.

It calls us to slow down in a world that rushes, to listen in a world full of noise, and to prepare our hearts in a world more concerned with preparing for celebration than preparing for Christ. Advent is the discipline of intentional expectation, the practice of spiritual readiness, and the invitation to personal transformation.

This year at New Birth, we are embracing Advent through the lens of our 2026 theme: Church as Unusual

Advent reminds us that God rarely moves in predictable ways. Jesus came into the world unusually, born in a manger, announced to shepherds, wrapped in humility, yet carrying glory. His arrival was unexpected, unconventional, and undeniably transformative.

Advent itself is an unusual story.
And it calls us to become an unusual people.

As we journey through this devotional season, we prepare not only to celebrate Christ’s birth but to become a church that reflects the extraordinary nature of His Kingdom. Advent invites us to pause and welcome the God who still moves in unusual ways, through unusual people, to bring forth unusual results.

This year, we enter Advent determined to be a Church as Unusual:

• A church that expects God to move
• A church that prepares room for His presence
• A church that welcomes the unexpected work of the Holy Spirit
• A church transformed from the inside out by the coming King

May this Advent season awaken our hearts, deepen our hunger, and prepare us to walk boldly into the unusual story God is writing in and through New Birth.

ADVENT 2025 CALENDAR AND WEEKLY THEMES

Pastor’s Foreword

Dr. Jamal H. Bryant, Senior Pastor

As we enter this sacred Advent season, I sense God calling His church into a deeper dimension of expectation and preparedness. Advent is not merely a season of waiting; it is a season of becoming. It is the holy work of making room, not just in our calendars but in our character, not just in our homes but in our hearts.

Advent trains us to pause in a rushing world, to listen in a loud world, and to prepare in a distracted world. It reminds us that Christ did not come into comfort. He came into chaos and still brought peace, purpose, and power. The same Christ who arrived in an unusual way, in a manger, desires to come in unusual ways into our mindset, our habits, and our spiritual walk.

This year, our theme Church as Unusual is not a branding phrase. It is a spiritual summons. Advent itself is unusual because God entered the world in a way no one expected. Now, God is inviting us into that same kind of holy disruption:
To rise above routine religion.
To push beyond passive faith.
To embrace the kind of transformation that requires discipline, devotion, and daily surrender.

For too long, many have settled for inspiration without transformation, for quick conviction without lasting change. Advent reminds us that preparation comes before power. Growth requires both grace and grit. God is calling us into consistency, commitment, and spiritual maturity. He is inviting us to move from momentary emotion to sustained obedience.

Transformation does not come through convenience. It comes through conviction. It is not built on emotion but rooted in expectation. Advent teaches us that the God who came once wants to come again, into our thinking, our behavior, and our purpose.

This devotional is designed to guide you through that process. Each day will stretch your faith, sharpen your focus, and strengthen your spirit. It will help you experience Advent not as a sentimental season but as a strategy for spiritual renewal. As you walk through Unusual Hope, Unusual Peace, Unusual Joy, Unusual Love, and Unusual Faith, my prayer is that the unusual will not only surround you but transform you.

Let this be your declaration this Advent:

“I am not simply waiting for Christ to come; I am preparing for Him to change me.”

In His Service and Strength,

Dr. Jamal H. Bryant, Senior Pastor

INTRODUCTION

From Waiting to Becoming

Advent is the season of anticipation, a sacred time when we look back in gratitude for Christ’s first coming and forward in faith for His return. But this year, God is calling us to more than waiting; He’s calling us to becoming.

This is not just a countdown to Christmas, it’s a countdown to change.

Transformation doesn’t wait for January. It begins when we make room for Christ to be born again in our thoughts, our habits, and our hearts. The same power that turned a manger into a miracle wants to turn your waiting into becoming.

For too long, many of us have been held hostage by five simple words: “I don’t feel like it.” Those words have delayed dreams, weakened disciplines, and numbed spiritual growth. But this Advent, we’re declaring that feelings will no longer lead, faith will.

Even Jesus faced that moment in Gethsemane: “Father, not My will, but Yours be done.” He showed us that obedience is not always convenient, but it is always transformative. True change begins when we do what we don’t feel like doing, praying when we’re tired, forgiving when it hurts, giving when it’s inconvenient, worshiping when it’s uncomfortable.

This is how transformation happens: one obedient step at a time.

As you journey through these weeks of Unusual Hope, Unusual Peace, Unusual Joy, Unusual Love, and Unusual Faith, remember: Advent is not just about what God did then, it’s about what He’s doing now. He’s birthing something new in you.

Each reflection will end with a Transformation Challenge, a practical step to turn inspiration into action. Because God doesn’t just want you to read this devotional, He wants you to become it.

Let’s walk through this Advent season refusing to be ruled by feelings and ready to be renewed by faith. You’re not waiting for change. You are the change God is birthing in this season.