1 Thought from Me

Many of us are currently working on Advent and Christmas services. This time of year can be both the easiest season of planning and the most challenging. It's easy because people genuinely love their favorite carols. As long as we don't obscure the melody or mess with what makes them great, the congregation will sing and be edified by the words they know by heart. But it's also hard because we're telling the same story every year, and we want it to feel fresh.

The good news is that we’ve been charged with retelling the best story ever told. God became man to rescue us, taking on flesh so that he could be crushed for our iniquities and raised up to new life. By all means, bring the best of your church’s artistic gifts and creativity to tell the story. If anything deserves our best artistic efforts, it's the arrival of the Messiah. But don’t let your creative expressions obscure the message. Don’t let the arrangement of the melody overshadow the melody itself. Keep the main thing the main thing. At the end of the day, we want everyone to walk away with HIM.

2 Quotes

I.
Jesus was God and man in one person, that God and man might be happy together again. George Whitefield (Source)

II.
Four thousand years from the creation
The world lay groaning under sin.
No one could e’er expect salvation,
No one could enter Heaven.
’Twas Adam’s fall had damned us all
To Hell, to endless pains forlorn:
’Twas so decreed we’d have ne’er been freed,
Had not this heavenly Babe been born. - Anonymous (Source)

3 Opposite Songs

Three songs that are opposite of traditional carols:

I.
It was not a silent night, there was blood on the ground.
You could hear a woman crying in the middle of the night
On the streets of David’s town. - Andrew Peterson (Source)

II.
O come, all you unfaithful,
Come, weak and unstable,
Come, know you are not alone.
O come, barren and waiting ones,
Weary praying, come,
See what your God has done.

Christ is born, Christ is born,
Christ is born for you. - Lisa Clow & Bob Kauflin (Source)

III.
Silent night, lonely night,
All but calm, all but bright.
Darkened clouds have hidden God’s face,
Deepening doubts have veiled his grace.
Have you heard our cries? - Lacy Condy & Lisa Clow (Source)