WorshipCentral

Hi Jess,

Christmas is pretty huge for us - loads of people come along for the one time a year so we try and make things accessible but also challenging - quite a difficult balance to get right! We've a youth-friendly service on the 14th Dec with band arrangements of familiar carols and some other worship songs, and a big traditional carol service with choir and orchestra on the 21st. And a nativity service for under 5s, and a family carols service, and a Christmas Eve midnight service and two on Christmas day morning... and a few others :)

One fantastic modern song I've used for the last four years is called 'What Kind of Throne', it's written by Joel Payne and was worshipcentral song of the month last December, it's meant to be a Christmas-themed song that also enables people to really worship God. It's a great song, do have a look at it, you can get the chords and mp3 for free here http://www.resoundworship.org/song/what_kind_...

Hope that helps, God bless

Matt

www.RESOUNDworship.org
Free New Worship Songs

We echo Matt's comments on Joel's song, which you can of course access via the pop-up player on the left of the screen here, or here http://www.worshipcentral.org/newsong and scroll through the songs.

Look out for a new Christmas song next month, coming out 1st Dec.

WC

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From The Editorial Team, Worship Central

Christmas is big for us also at our church, we have the nativity done by our pathfinders and ice-breakers, we have carols round the crib on christmas eve, we have worship the king at midnight Christmas eve plus a christmas morning family service and our choral society also do something every year. I have just listened to Joel's song and hopefully we will use it this year. We did a great song last year, called Joseph's lulaby, written by Bart Millard of MercyMe. It's not so much a congregational song, but a great solo song looking at the nativity from Joseph's point of view.

Andy

graham kendrick brought out a brilliant cd last yr called 'Dreaming of a holy night' with some superb new christmas songs on it. check out his website for details, free music downloads and mp3s.

www.grahamkendrick.co.uk

cheers,
gav.

Christmas is probably the biggest thing we'll do in the year, as everyone's been saying. We are doing things a little differently this year- we are having a "live nativity"!! No carols, no singing, it's going to be like one of those living history exhibits! You walk through the church, listening to monologues by the shepherds, inn keeper's wife, etc etc. We are having live animals in the car park. There might be a little sin song right at the end- still fine tuning plans.

We also are having a crib service on Christmas eve, Christmas day morning, Carols by candlelight the Sunday before Christmas, a Junior Church service on the 14th, so pretty busy!!

Why is Easter never this busy??

Emma

One of my favourite aspects of Christmas is watching kids bring up wrapped Christmas presents to the crib on the altar "for baby Jesus". The little rugrats are grinning from ear to ear as they bring a gift up to the Saviour before Mass. The toys and treats are all gathered up the weekend before Christmas and given to local families in financial difficulty.

Our folk group will be trying the usual blend of traditional carols (we had an a capella stab at an oldie last year that went "Lu lee, lu la, thou little tiny child..." aw what was it called?!?!) Will definitely try out the new ones from WC as our church overflows (like many others I guess) with homecomers and people who sadly only come once a year....so any chance to reach out and touch them and bring them back will be grabbed!

http://uk.myspace.com/lorenzotunes

John 3.16 --> 1 Jn 3.16 This is love.

Just as a PS to my previous post, we've just updated www.RESOUNDworship.org with a couple of new Christmas-themed worship songs, including one of mine that went several rounds through the songwriting clinic! Here's the lyrics, you can get mp3s, lead sheets and chord charts all for free from the site, as well music for another excellent Christmas song by Joel Payne (who wrote last December's song of the month)

1. On Christmas day, a humble girl
gives birth to hope for all the world,
this is Immanuel.
How awesome and mysterious,
the Lord of heaven draws near to us,
this is Immanuel.

2. The hands that once split night from day
now feebly clutch a blade of hay,
this is Immanuel.
Majestic king, now small and weak,
the Word of God must learn to speak,
this is Immanuel.

CHORUS
This is our God, seen by our eyes,
the love of the Father made known in Jesus Christ.
This is our God, worthy of praise,
the love of the Father revealed on Christmas day.

3. The shepherds come and bow to him,
the Lamb who takes away our sin,
this is Immanuel.
For God has entered time and space
to show the world his endless grace,
this is Immanuel.

Immanuel, Immanuel. Our God is with us now.
Immanuel, Immanuel. Our God is with us now.

www.RESOUNDworship.org
Free New Worship Songs

I think its such a shame that we have a habit of compromising our normal worship so we can enjoy traditions, some of which God tends to be forgotten in. Its a shame when worship stops being worship and, as you said Jessica, a sing along.

The story and message of christmas is amazing, and I believe we can help put that message across through the music we play. Iv spoken about this before, but things like 'O come let us adore him' (the chorus) is, (when you actually realize what your singing!) an incredible chorus. By leading these songs in an worshipful and meaningful way, I believe others would follow.

These songs are a blessing. thanks!

Wouldn't it be cool if on christmas day we weren't singing carols and actually thinking about the turkey and the christmas tree and the presents and all the chocolate waiting for us at home, but if christmas day service was a spirit filled expression of our love for God? This isnt something we're able to do, but through prayer it could happen!

The traditions we have a christmas are great, and we all enjoy them, but as long as we make sure they dont overtake our worship its all good!

sorry for the slightly irrelevant post!

God bless you all

Josh

Hey Josh,

That's pretty relevant I think - you're talking about spiritually planning for the holiday season, really embracing the waiting and planning of advent. Thing is, I was in Australia until recently and felt that I had to come home for Christmas because it would've felt so strange to be out there in the sun, on the beach on Christmas day. It also felt weird when they had a hippy midwinter festival at the end of July....which is when I realised how much of our gut-feeling associations with Christmas can be attributed to the pagan traditions adopted and hopefully turned around into genuine Christ-centred worship.

As a worship leader it's hard to know at any time of the year whether people are just coming to church for a sing-along or laying their lives down for Jesus. Hopefully as leading worshippers we can just concentrate on the object of our worship, rather than worrying if no-one's following behind us with the same heart - Christmas day or any day!

How many shopping days to go?!?!
http://uk.myspace.com/lorenzotunes

John 3.16 --> 1 Jn 3.16 Here is love.

This is so cool seeing what everyone else is doing for Christmas! Although, I'm not really sure I know what a "crib" service is, a couple of people have mentioned it so far. Is there an American term for it?

Well, I figured I should post what we are doing at my church since I started this thread and all! We are celebrating as a body on the Sunday before Christmas during our normal service time. We're having quite a mix of things going on this year. Some people had some ideas for "special" songs, and I wanted to make sure we had a point during the service where we could all worship together. So here is our order of service so far...

Away In A Manger (sung by cute children! also, a nativity type scene up front during this)
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (instrumental song with a special dance/flag routine)
Worship Set ("O Come All Ye Faithful", "Emmanuel" by Hillsong, and a couple more corporate worship songs I haven't decided on yet - perhaps some of you guys' suggestions!)
Scripture Reading
Silent Night (1st verse in German, the language it was originally written in, 2nd verse English, accompanied by a couple of people doing sign language to it)
Love Came Down (written by a gal named Andrea Schmaltz, kids do a special dance to this one)

I really hope it turns out to be a great mix of the familiar Christmas stuff everyone loves, but that the heart of worship is not sacrificed in the midst of the traditional. I'm really praying for a move of God, for a fun and festive time, and that our hearts will not be unmoved as we sing about Jesus.

http://www.kcctriad.com