As the Christmas season approaches, the demands for those overseeing the worship experience in our churches multiplies exponentially. Just like everyone else, our calendars fill up with parties, pageants and family gatherings, but unlike everyone else, as musicians, we are responsible for adding the soundtrack to the season. With 20 consecutive years of local church experience, Mike O’Brien equips you for surviving Christmas with some fresh perspectives to help in your worship planning this Christmas.
Here are some lessons learned in my journey that will help you not only survive, but thrive this Christmas!
Be a RECLAIMER
Instead of running from, or overreacting to culture’s misappropriation of Christmas, spend your time and energy reclaiming the season for His glory. Reclaim the songs. Reclaim the monotony. Reclaim the focus. When you sing on Sunday, worship your guts out to the classic Christmas hymns. Teach your congregations to actually worship God, instead of just mindlessly singing along. You might need to use more cues or encouragements as you lead like “worship Him!” or “lift your voice in praise.” Encourage your bands to worship fully with their bodies. Including scriptures and responsive readings will engage people into a deeper devotion. For those outside the Christian faith, Christmas might just be about holiday songs and gifts, but for those who have been saved, we know a truer meaning and purpose in the incarnation.
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Worship Leaders, let’s be shepherds for our congregations and lead them to a rich incarnational worship.
Be A STORYTELLER
Worship leaders are storytellers. We tell of God’s story of creation, incarnation, resurrection and eternal Kingdom. Leaving out a part of the story is just not a good plan! If we see Christmas as just the birth of Christ, we miss something truly beautiful. The weeks that precede Christmas are a precious time of longing and waiting. Just like the Israelites that were longing for a King, we re-enter into that narrative. Similar to Lent (the season before Easter), Advent is a time that we bring all our hopes and unfulfilled desires to God.
Advent is a crescendo. A stirring. A journey. Advent is not just a time to sing cheery Christmas hymns; it’s a time to sing to the God that waits with us. You can come alongside those that are waiting for something. As a community, we walk alongside those who long to be married, those struggling with infertility, the sick, the jobless and the poor. We, like the Israelites, are longing for heaven, longing for a King. Even though we already know the end of the story, it helps to retell it and to walk inside of it. As worship leaders, we write the and sing the soundtrack of this longing of the heart.
The slow rumble of the timpani gives birth to a crash and celebration of Christmas day! All that expectation makes the day of Christmas a true celebration. We reach our destination on Christmas day and enjoy fruits of our newborn King into the new year.
Worship Leaders, consider it an honor to tell the story of the incarnation again and again. Remember that some are new to the faith and we all benefit from hearing the story year after year.
