Worship Leaders Network | Worship Leader Forum | Worship Leader Resources

Right, I'm starting a Discussion! And it's about....

CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Okay, tell me what you love and hate about being a worship leader st Christmas.

Your absolute worst experience and your favourite time of all time.

The thing I hate is when the pastor says, 'We need to talk about the Christmas carol service'. Something inside me just dies. I think it's because my husband and I were converted at and through a Christmas carol concert done WELL (ie with the Gospel message central) and since then, so many we've been involved in have been wasted opportunities for mission. People like their traditions and they like to do things the way they've always been done. And generally, the fluff outweighs the truth.

Odd moments still happen that I love, though. Like 4 people singing parts for 'Let all mortal flesh keep silence' in a darkened room lit by candle-light...hair on the back of my neck stood up for that one.

Over to you.

0 members like this

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by SOS Vocals on September 20, 2010 at 1:51pm

Ah, Christmas. A subject so dare to my heart that, in an actual fact, I do not celebrate it.

Now there's something for conversation ...

Permalink Reply by Howard Francis on September 20, 2010 at 2:06pm

why don't you celebrate it?

Permalink Reply by Dorothy Murphy on September 20, 2010 at 2:09pm

Somewhere else please...

Permalink Reply by Howard Francis on September 20, 2010 at 4:14pm

gosh sorry!

Permalink Reply by SOS Vocals on September 20, 2010 at 4:25pm

Shot down for asking a question!

I answered you anyway!

Permalink Reply by SOS Vocals on September 20, 2010 at 4:21pm

Well to keep it short, Howard

It's too commercial

The essence of what christmas should be about has been lost.

Greed has set in.

More an holiday rather than an observance

Christmas trees

Explotation

and so on

I sound like Scrooge. Bah Humbug! :-)

Permalink Reply by Dorothy Murphy on September 20, 2010 at 5:25pm

As I said, feel free to start your own thread about why you don't celebrate Christmas. That's not what this thread is about, though.

Permalink Reply by Dorothy Murphy on September 20, 2010 at 2:08pm

Do we have to discuss that here? I have lots of Christian friends who don't celebrate Christmas. BTDT, heard all the arguments and bought the tee-shirt.

Feel free to start another thread though :-)

Permalink Reply by James Goodman on September 20, 2010 at 4:09pm

Actually I really like our main Christmas carol service because it is very definitely a Sunday evening where I am not involved musically. We are blessed to have some classical musicians who always come up with a lovely medley of carols arranged for strings etc. It's a deliberately open service because we have a community centre at the rear of the building and all the groups who use it are invited to take part in the service.

So we might have a community choir singing or an art class showing suitably seasonal images that they have been working on. We have the police and local business community in, including the guy who runs the Christian Bookshop over the road, who comes from a very traditional reformed Evangelical background. The wackiest is that there's a belly dance class that contributes a Middle Eastern dance each year (reminds us of where Christianity started!). There were a few very highly-raised eyebrows the first year, but the great thing is that some of the women have started coming to the regular church services now!

It's a service where we get far more unchurched people attending than the rest of the year put together, and there is always a central Gospel message as well as traditional hymns which most people will be familiar with - unlike a lot of the material we do week on week. I absolutely love having the time to talk to people afterwards over a cuppa to see their reactions! So on balance, I think that this service is a really great opportunity for the Gospel!

Permalink Reply by Dorothy Murphy on September 20, 2010 at 5:29pm

That's what I love about it, James. It's the one point in the year at which the secular and Christian worlds intersect. And I owe my salvation to an evangelic church putting on a really good carol service which didn't fudge the gospel message.

Belly dancers, eh? That's amazing! LOL!

Lucky for you that you are not expected to be involved in that service and get to have a rest,

Permalink Reply by James Goodman on September 20, 2010 at 11:50pm

Well, I asked to join the belly dance class, but they weren't admitting men... :-)

I loved your idea of the 4 part singing of 'let all mortal flesh keep silence'. Just listened to Fernando Ortega's beautiful version on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wl4u8lnDQs&feature=related

That's a great idea for this Christmas - thank you!

It's easy to become negative about the season, and I too hate the over-commercialisation etc, but truly I think that people seek that place of quiet in the midst of all the crazy rush. It's still an opportunity to reach out with the love of Christ, as you yourself experienced.

Blessings

Permalink Reply by Dorothy Murphy on September 21, 2010 at 5:45am

That was a nice way to start the day, listening to that, James.

PS I did mean evengelical, not evangelic, not sure that's a word? ;-}