If you’ve noticed that the music during Advent feels different from the rest of the year, that’s intentional. Advent has its own musical “color,” a blend of expectation, longing, and quiet confidence in God’s promises. The Church has long understood that what we sing shapes how we pray and how we wait. Advent’s music slows us down just enough to notice where our hope truly rests.
Unlike Christmas, which celebrates what God has already done in sending His Son, Advent teaches us how to wait—how to watch for Christ’s coming with clear-eyed faith. That’s why many of our Advent hymns lean into minor modes, unhurried rhythms, and texts soaked in prophecy. Hymns such as “Savior of the Nations, Come” or “Comfort, Comfort Ye My People” draw us into the Old Testament’s longing for the Messiah, while still proclaiming the Christ who comes to us now in Word and Sacrament.
Advent’s music also helps us resist the cultural impulse to rush ahead. We don’t sing to “get to Christmas faster”; we sing to let Christ’s promises settle into our hearts. By the time Christmas arrives, our songs of joy are deeper because they’ve been shaped by faithful waiting. If Advent teaches us anything, it’s this: the Church sings differently because the Church hopes differently.
In Christ,
Zach Hastings
Director of Music
Zach Hastings is the Director of Music at Pacific Hills Lutheran Church in Omaha NebraskaZach studied organ performance at Iowa State University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music in 2016. He has been an organist, bell choir director, and director of worship primarily in the central Iowa area. He continually seeks opportunities to grow as a musician through various conferences and seminars. Zach currently serves on the Central Iowa American Guild of Organists (AGO) Executive Committee, and on the American Guild of Organists Young Organists (AGOYO) National Board.
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