articles

Christmas is Hard! How Do You Handle It?

Mandy Thompson encourages us to thrive during the season. As a worship leader, I strongly disliked (aka. resented) the Advent/Christmas season. I would get so stressed out by the need to novelize Christmas songs that everyone knows, added to the pressure of making it good for visitors… (I know. Let’s…

10 Social Media Tips For Your Church This Christmas

Jeremy Smith offers ideas for online engagement: Churches are in the thick of the holiday season this Thanksgiving time, but it is already time to be thinking of the Advent season. Why not jump on your social media strategy for December? Just recovering from your turkey coma? We have ten tips for…

25 Last-Minute Christmas Worship Ideas

Robert Carnes says there’s enough time to add a little more to your Christmas plans. Develop a Christmas landing page on your website. This gives you one specific place to compile all relevant holiday information, such as a complete calendar of events. This way, you only have one URL to…

Modern Worship Resources: Christmas

Matthew Starner lists his favorite Christmas worship resources: Like I’m sure many of you would probably agree, Christmas has always been one of my favorite times in the church year. Spiritually, the incarnation and birth of our Savior is one of the most important parts of Christianity (without Jesus’ birth,…

Tips on How to Get the Best Sound Quality for Your Church Christmas Productions

Brad Duryea helps you avoid technical headaches. As you get ready for your big Christmas production, you’re likely to be faced with several challenging mic’ing situations. Perhaps you’re using a lot of wireless head-worn mics for actors and need to juggle console channels and manage the packs effectively backstage; maybe…

Worship Planning for the Christmas Season

A. Merril Smoak Jr. says we must reclaim the power of the public reading of Scripture. “On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, a partridge in a pear tree.” If you think about it, the phrase “the first day of Christmas” suggests that there must…

10 Tips for Christmas and New Year’s Planning

Unchurched people are very receptive to coming to church during this time. Plan for these important, but sometimes overlooked, elements of welcoming on Christmas Eve: Remind the congregation to greet old friends, who may be home for the holidays, AFTER they practice the “Rule of Three.” (The “Rule of Three”…

10 Tips to Achieve A Stunning Church Christmas Service

Sharefaith offers ideas for the best Christmas celebration you’ve ever had. If your church celebrates a Christmas service, you can make use of these 10 points to achieve the best Christmas celebration you have ever had. 1. Plan Well: Most churches have already started preparations and planning for their upcoming…

Streaming Christmas Services to Reach More Congregants

Dan Daley says streaming around holidays offers a multitude of benefits. Holidays are about more of everything. Everything, that is, except time. Some churches that have embraced streaming as a way to extend their reach are also realizing that more of it might just be the way to address some…

10 Ways To Be The Worst Worship Musician Ever

Jason Houtsma discourages bad worship habits. 10. Never stop playing. Not before the set starts. Not in between songs. Not when someone is talking. Not when someone is praying. Not even when the service is over and the sound guy has put the background music on. NOT EVER. Silence is…

The Matrix & Memorizing Worship Songs

Jed Smith advocates the Nashville number system. [editor’s note from Don Chapman: Jed uses the Nashville number system. When I memorize my worship music, I simply think of whether I’m playing a “1” chord or a “5” chord – basically the same thing!] “I’m trying to free your mind.”-Morpheus In…

10 Best In-Ears Practices For Worship Musicians

Dan Wilt lists the basics for in-ears use. It’s going to take time to get used to using IEMs, so decide now that, because you can’t go back, you’re going to keep getting better at using them. There are things to learn about how to wear them, how to keep…

Eight Things to Do When Team Leaders Leave to Start a New Church

Marc Brown offers ideas for what to do when a group of people from your congregation leave to begin a new work. As worship pastors, we spend ourselves working and asking God to build a team (a choir, an orchestra, a band) that will help our congregations hear, know and…

What is Excellence?

Hillsong’s Matt Hann says excellence is about growth and maturity. Excellence is not a set level of quality or perfectionism. It’s an ever-changing dynamic in both our personal journey and the collective journey of our teams. It’s about growth and maturity. Excellence should be a moving target of sorts. The…

Should We Dress For Church Like We’re Meeting With the President?

Steve Hafler debunks that old saying. I’ve often heard the argument that a person should dress for church like they’re meeting with the president. Perhaps you’ve heard a similar argument — that a pastor ought to wear a coat and tie on Sunday because NFL commentators still wear classy suits…

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