Home for Christmas brings inspiring stories of hope and second chances into the Advent season. Author and pastor Justin Coleman matches real life stories of struggle and triumph to the Advent themes of hope, love, joy, and peace to show how the light of Christmas shines brightly even in hard times. Each chapter lifts up a scripture reflection alongside tales of men and women who reflect on the Advent themes with love and longing. Throughout each of the four chapters and the accompanying DVD for a small-group experience, Coleman captures the stories of formerly incarcerated men and women as they find work and opportunity through Homeboy Industries in Los Angeles, California. These men and women share their memories and experiences in light of the hope and new life they’ve experienced at Homeboy. Additional components for this four-week study include a comprehensive Leader Guide and a DVD featuring author and pastor Justin Coleman. Justin Coleman is the Senior Pastor of University United Methodist Church in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. A native of Houston, he is a graduate of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX, and Duke Divinity School in Durham, North Carolina. Rev. Coleman has also served as the Chief Ministry Officer for the United Methodist Publishing House in Nashville, TN, as Lead Pastor of the Gethsemane Campus of St. Luke’s United Methodist Church in Houston, TX. His ministry at University UMC includes leading the church as it seeks to live into radical kinship by loving God, serving others, and building Christian community. Rev. Coleman is married to Dr. Chaka Coleman and they have three sons. Rev. Coleman is the author of Home for Christmas: Tales of Hope and Second Chances and is the Old Testament presenter on Disciple Fast Track: Becoming Disciples Through Bible Study . Home for Christmas Leader Guide Tales of Hope and Second Chances By Justin Coleman Abingdon Press Copyright © 2018 Abingdon Press All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-5018-7046-0 Contents To the Leader, Hope, Love, Joy, Peace, CHAPTER 1 To the Leader "Home for Christmas" is a phrase that evokes images of walking into a warm shelter or safe space, smells of cinnamon and evergreen, and love from family and friends. It evokes feelings of hope, love, joy, and peace. It reminds us of the birth of Jesus. Yet, in this Advent season there are those who do not experience such a home. Rather, there are families who are experiencing deep grief in the loss of a loved one or a vanishing dream; war or violence in their families and communities; the outcomes of systemic discrimination or racism; or poverty and the lack of basic human needs. These next four weeks, the group will be introduced to Father Gregory Boyle with his wise insights and the transforming work at Homeboy Industries. More than 8,000 former gang members and formerly incarcerated men and women throughout Los Angeles come to Homeboy Industries each year. They are welcomed into a community of mutual kinship and provided a wide variety of services including tattoo removal, anger management classes, and parenting classes. Plus, 200 persons at a time qualify for an 18-month work program that not only hires them for full-time employment but also offers job training and helps them to re-identify themselves, and become contributing members of their community. In this study, we will focus on the common Advent themes of hope, love, joy, and peace. However, we will explore these themes through the stories of men and women who are a part of Homeboy Industries. Through their relationships and work at Homeboy Industries, they have experienced the hope, love, joy, and peace that God offers through the birth of Jesus Christ. As we study these stories of transformation and the Scriptures, Justin Coleman leads us to a deeper understanding to experience that hope, love, joy, and peace — the new home that God offers all of us. Coleman says: I pray you will see that that home is filled with a thrilling hope grounded in the certainty of new life God offers us in Christ. I want you to experience God's tender, steadfast love that always wins out over judgment, and will always offer us another chance, no matter how many times we've failed before. As you read, I hope you will experience the grateful joy of God's love for you, and carry that joy into your relationships with friends, family, and everyone in your community. And by the time you come to the end of this book, I hope that you will have found the full, all-encompassing peace we find in God, the peace that gives us the courage and strength to carry on with confidence, even when it seems nothing is going our way and nothing stays the same. And in all these things, my wish is that you share this home God offers us — especially with those who believe they have no home and no hope. My wish is that you make Advent and Christmas a time to practice this opening of hopeful doors with every person who comes yo