CHRISTMAS WORSHIP

I know what you're thinking...

Um, Todd...isn't Christmas over?

Yes. As a matter of fact, it is. Over at my YouTube channel, I've talked a lot about this season about the struggle to make sure that our singing during Advent maintained a sense of reverence...that we were engaging in worship and not just rehashing nostalgic songs.

Now that Christmas is finished, I've had some time to process our services and some of the comments I received. I am very grateful, because almost every comment I received was a positive one, some of them even saying,

"Wow. That carol was really worshipful."

Couldn't ask for more confirmation that that, right?

So, I've been thinking about what made that happen. In a real practical sense, what empowered us to make the Christmas singing still feel like something that was honoring to God. (Please understand...most any true carol is pretty God-honoring already. But after years and years and years of records and remakes and Christmas cantatas, those songs tend to get bland in our hearts and minds.)

Here are a few thing that helped us.

1. GOOD ARRANGEMENTS
   There are a lot of Christmas records out there. Lots of carols done by talented musicians and singers. But not all of them work in church. Every year, I'm amazed at how few usable songs I actually find at Christmas time. Granted, some of those remakes are very cool, but as always, I have to do my best to guess how that song is going to work with my congregation. In my experience, I've found that you can get creative with a lot of stuff as long as you leave the melody completely intact and the rhythm relatively intact. "Joy To The World" in 3/4 and Aminor? Not so much.
   
   This year, we found some great arrangements that were cool and pleasing to the ear...but they always "protected" the song, delivering the tunes in a way that everybody could engage.
   
   
2. FUN
   One thing that also worked for us was making worship fun. No, we didn't have the crowd sing "fa-la-la-la" or anything, but we take breaks in between songs to encourage people in a fun, familiar way. One example: before singing "Angels We Have Heard On High," I told the people that the "gloria" part felt like we were singing it for 3 days. Then I encouraged everybody to take that breath at different places. I even did a practice-run. Just singing the chorus w/ guitar until the band rocked in.
   
   It worked. I had a couple of people mention that it was a nice break...a "breather," if you will. In fact, one good friend said that so much of worship today seems so focused on flow that it still ends up feeling like a performance. YIKES! I love flow, but I don't want Sunday morning to feel like a performance.
   
   
3. TALKING MORE / TALKING DIFFERENT
   To be honest, I think this was the one the clinched the whole "worshipful" nature of the Christmas services.
   
   Worship leaders often make a mistake in how they talk about Christmas worship. Most often, we end up saying things that come off pretty stale. For example, if I'm singing "Hark The Herald Angels Sing," and I introduce the song by simply paraphrasing the lyrics, then I run the risk of losing connection with my congregation. In addition, if I just keep retelling the Christmas story before every song, folks aren't going to dig that either.
   
   This year, I did something different with my "talks." Instead of talking about the songs (which everybody knows,) I presented them as prayers. I encouraged the congregation (and myself) to use these songs as prayers that God would help us to connect to Christ's coming. This worked great because it killed the whole nostaliga aspect - where we're singing "O Holy Night" just because we always do. It also worked because it kept pointing us to an honest assessment of ourselves - that we need a better understanding of Advent - and it maintained that even in singing these tunes, we were in communion with the Father....that "worship" was happening still and that we needed His help.

I think these thoughts, and specifically the last one, speak to a common failing among those of us who lead worship. We just don't think about stuff.

So many of us get on that stage on Sunday morning or Wednesday night or some other service and we've not given any thought to what we're going to say...how we're going to encourage people...why we've even chosen these particular songs to sing.

Worship leaders, we've got to use our heads. We've got to carve out time to think through what we're going to say and not just start blabbing every time there's a break. I'm not saying that it's going to make you an instant genius...heck, your "talks" still may not work! But it will ensure that you are saying things that are true and those things remain beneficial to your the spiritual health of your people.

So...what about you?

WHAT WORKED AT CHRISTMAS?
WHAT DIDN'T?