The holiday season is a hectic time for church leadership. In our well-intentioned efforts to make Advent extra special, we often overextend ourselves and our teams. Is the excessive stress worth it? Jon Nicol offers practical advice – both “do’s” and “don’ts” – for keeping things simple so Christmas stays relatively stress-free for you and your team. This season, retain the feel of your normal services while adding thoughtful elements that help people connect to the gospel message of the season. Burn bright, not out.
Christmas Eve on Sunday: The Big Opportunity
Christmas Eve falls on a Sunday this year – don’t scale back, go bigger! With holiday-minded guests and wandering prodigals likely attending in greater numbers, this rare alignment is a pivotal chance to make welcoming hospitality your best investment. Keep services short and encouraging, solve scheduling dilemmas simply, and leverage familiar songs and traditions to help even the unchurched participate. Tone down complexity, but go bigger in your celebration of Christ’s birth!
How A Worship Service Is Like A Meal
Think of planning a worship service like crafting a well-balanced meal – the songs are the courses, each with a unique flavor and purpose. Fill up on Christmas songs alone and you miss the main dishes of declaration and surrender. This year, limit holiday tunes to just a few per service, combined thoughtfully with meatier selections, so your congregation leaves spiritually nourished instead of stuffed with empty calories. The goal is a rich feast that satisfyingly points to Christ.
Getting and Keeping Volunteers for Christmas
Christmas services require extra volunteers, but relying solely on your regular team may leave you shorthanded. Deborah Ike is here to help. She offers practical strategies for recruiting the helpers you’ll need, from identifying roles to personal invites and follow-ups. Feed volunteers and send handwritten notes afterwards to show appreciation. With some effort and wisdom, you can serve guests smoothly and turn one-time volunteers into regular team members who fuel future ministry.
Embrace Tradition for Your Christmas Celebration
Zip up your ugly Christmas sweater and cozy up to tradition this season. When it comes to the holidays, people crave the classic – timeless tunes, candles aglow, familiar phrases from Luke. So embrace what they expect. There’s power in keeping things simple. Don’t reinvent the manger scene – let Linus recite again. Bake nostalgic cookies, sing cherished carols, relish the candlelight. A new song sprinkled in is fine, but keep it mostly old-school. Like Coca-Cola rolling out vintage Santa, lean into nostalgia. Play with tradition if you must, get silly with the glowsticks. But this Christmas, give people the familiar festivities they yearn for – it’s the greatest gift your church can offer.
Deeper Worship With Christmas Hymns
Christmas means tradition. This year, gift your congregation the nostalgic, soul-stirring worship experience they crave by embracing classic Christmas hymns. Reintroduce timeless carols that connect generations and tap into warm holiday memories. Modernize the melodies if you’d like, but retain the familiar lyrics that tell the Christmas story in a powerful way.
Regardless of your personal musical tastes, remember that Christmas worship is about the miracle of Christ’s birth. Through these enduring songs that focus eyes on the manger, guide your people into a shared spirit of wonder and reverence.
[PODCAST] Christmas Eve is on a Sunday in 2023. What Should My Church Do?
The calendar offers churches a great opportunity to reach more people on Christmas Eve in 2023. On this episode of the Church Answers Podcast, Thom Rainer discusses how the church can make a few great decisions to make it evangelistically effective this year.
The Importance of Christmas Eve
Imagine this scene: It’s after another praise team rehearsal, and we’re winding down with our favorite after rehearsal snack – sushi at the local sushi joint! As we gather around the table, one of our fellow worship leaders starts weaving a tale that captures the heart of why I believe Christmas Eve is so important to every ministry.
A Remarkable Redemption Story
It’s a classic redemption story. A few years ago he was far from God, leading a broken life, when he happened to be driving by the church on Christmas Eve and felt a pull he couldn’t resist (this is a megachurch is positioned on the exit of a major highway – he noticed a line of cars on the exit ramp!) He attended the service, ended up crying through the whole thing and gave his life back to the Lord. His world amazingly changed and he eventually ended up leading worship in rotation on the team. He even married one of the prettiest girls in the praise choir!
After I heard all this, I felt God saying to me “He’s a direct answer to your prayers!”
The Heartfelt Prayer Tradition
You see, when all the hectic preparation for my Christmas services were done through the years, my final touch would be to specifically pray that people would literally be drawn off the street to the church and meet Jesus. I’d usually pray this prayer the night before Christmas Eve as I’d be in the auditorium tidying up the stage, rearranging a music stand or moving a keyboard. Sometimes on my way out of the parking lot I’d even drive around the building a few times while I prayed over the building LOL!
For years, I’d been preaching about the importance of Christmas Eve here at Worshipideas, fueled by stories like the one I had just heard. But now, with a firsthand account in front of me, I knew without a doubt that Christmas Eve is hands down THE best time of year for people to have a meaningful encounter with Jesus. This is especially true for visitors, many of whom come with open and tender hearts.
Prayer and Preparation: A Winning Formula
As we approach this year’s Christmas Eve services, I urge you to do the same. Say a heartfelt prayer before your service(s), asking God to draw people to Himself. And when you see lives changed by His amazing power, remember that combining preparation and prayer is a winning formula for advancing His Kingdom.
Update 2023: This worship leader is still going strong, leading worship with his wife at church and at various church functions. Every time I see him post on Facebook about the wonderful, redeemed life he’s leading I think of this article 🙂
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