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worshipideas

10 Rules for Keeping Christmas Simple

The holiday season is a hectic time for church leadership. In our well-intentioned efforts to make Advent extra special, we often overextend ourselves and our teams. Is the excessive stress worth it? Jon Nicol offers practical advice – both “do’s” and “don’ts” – for keeping things simple so Christmas stays relatively stress-free for you and your team. This season, retain the feel of your normal services while adding thoughtful elements that help people connect to the gospel message of the season. Burn bright, not out.

 

Getting and Keeping Volunteers for Christmas

Christmas services require extra volunteers, but relying solely on your regular team may leave you shorthanded. Deborah Ike is here to help. She offers practical strategies for recruiting the helpers you’ll need, from identifying roles to personal invites and follow-ups. Feed volunteers and send handwritten notes afterwards to show appreciation. With some effort and wisdom, you can serve guests smoothly and turn one-time volunteers into regular team members who fuel future ministry.

 

How A Worship Service Is Like A Meal

Think of planning a worship service like crafting a well-balanced meal – the songs are the courses, each with a unique flavor and purpose. Fill up on Christmas songs alone and you miss the main dishes of declaration and surrender. This year, limit holiday tunes to just a few per service, combined thoughtfully with meatier selections, so your congregation leaves spiritually nourished instead of stuffed with empty calories. The goal is a rich feast that satisfyingly points to Christ.

 

Christmas Eve on Sunday: The Big Opportunity

Christmas Eve falls on a Sunday this year – don’t scale back, go bigger! With holiday-minded guests and wandering prodigals likely attending in greater numbers, this rare alignment is a pivotal chance to make welcoming hospitality your best investment. Keep services short and encouraging, solve scheduling dilemmas simply, and leverage familiar songs and traditions to help even the unchurched participate. Tone down complexity, but go bigger in your celebration of Christ’s birth!

 

Setting the Stage for Christmas

Christmas is an extremely busy time for churches. Creating the perfect Christmas Eve service takes a lot of planning and preparation. As a stage designer, you may feel pressure to go all out with an elaborate, over-the-top set design. But how necessary – not to mention realistic – is that? Remember why you do this in the first place – to gather people and share the Christmas story of Jesus. Maintain perspective and joy this season amidst the busyness of it all.

Worshiphymns on Spotify and Amazon Music!

 

"Alexa, play Come Thou Long Expected Jesus by Worshiphymns"

 

Spotify link: Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus

The Story Behind: Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus

 

Among the most beloved Christmas carols, “Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus” powerfully captures the Advent themes of waiting, preparation, and hopeful anticipation. Though over 275 years old, this hymn by the prolific hymn writer Charles Wesley continues to speak to the deep needs and cries of humanity while renewing our faith in Christ’s coming.

 

Learn more and listen.

How To Create A Quick, Easy and FANTASTIC Christmas Eve Service

 

Don't scramble to pull your Christmas Eve service together. The holidays sneak up on all of us, but Worshipscore.com's Christmas Eve Underscores are here to save the day.

 

These narrations and piano underscores integrate seamlessly with your favorite Christmas songs, tying everything together into a gorgeous sonic journey through the Nativity narrative. You’ll have an instant customized Christmas Eve service with all the polish but none of the painstaking preparation.

 

Join hundreds of churches using Worshipscores.com to lift the creative burden this Christmas season. Discover just how quick, easy, and fantastic a Christmas Eve service can be!

 

Learn more and listen.

A note from Don Chapman

 

I'm excited to announce the launch of my brand new website, Worshiphymns.com! This has been a passion project of mine for years in the making. Using hymns in your worship set doesn’t have to be awkward. Worshiphymns.com provides modern arrangements of classic hymns that are accessible for worship bands while retaining their theological depth and beauty.

 

I'm launching with 5 core hymn arrangements, including the timeless "Great Is Thy Faithfulness," plus 4 Christmas carols that will be perfect for your upcoming holiday worship. I'll be adding more Christmas carols right up until Christmas!

 

Worshiphymns.com builds on the foundation of my original website Hymncharts.com by taking hymn arrangements to the next level for modern worship. Worshiphymns.com has everything you need - chord charts, sheet music, and multitracks - for unlimited access. Let’s come together to mix the classics we know and love with new sounds and styles that help connect people to God in a fresh way.

 

Learn more about Worshiphymns.com

worshipideas

1. Goodness Of God

Fielding, Johnson, Cash, Ingram, Johnson

UNDERSCORE

 

2. Build My Life

Younker, Martin, Kaple, Redman, Barrett

UNDERSCORE

 

3. Gratitude

Hastings, Lake, Bowe

UNDERSCORE

 

4. Great Are You Lord

Leonard, Ingram, Jordan

UNDERSCORE

 

5. How Great Is Our God

Tomlin, Cash, Reeves

UNDERSCORE

 

6. House of the Lord

Smith, Wickham

UNDERSCORE

 

7. What a Beautiful Name

Fielding, Ligertwood

UNDERSCORE

 

8. 10,000 Reasons (Bless The Lord)

Myrin, Redman

UNDERSCORE

 

9. King of Kings

Ligertwood, Ligertwood, Ingram

 

10. Graves Into Gardens

Lake, Brown, Furtick, Hudson

11. Way Maker

Okoro Egbu

UNDERSCORE

 

12. Living Hope

Johnson, Wickham

 

13. Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)

Tomlin, Newton, Giglio

UNDERSCORE

 

14. How Great Thou Art

Wesley, Hine

 

15. This Is Amazing Grace

Riddle, Farro, Wickham

UNDERSCORE

 

16. I Speak Jesus

Benton, Prince, Smith, Reeves, Dutton, Pratt

UNDERSCORE

 

17. Here I Am to Worship

Hughes

UNDERSCORE

 

18. Battle Belongs

Johnson, Wickham

 

19. Lord I Need You

Nockels, Carson, Reeves, Stanfill, Maher

 

20. Great Things

Myrin, Wickham

Keep track of the top 20 Hymncharts, CCLI, Praisecharts, CCM radio songshear the music, watch videos and download lyrics!

 

YouTube Worship Playlist: Enjoy the top 20 Praisecharts and CCLI on the worshipflow worship playlist.

The Importance of Christmas Eve

 

Imagine this scene: It’s after another praise team rehearsal, and we’re winding down with our favorite after rehearsal snack – sushi at the local sushi joint! As we gather around the table, one of our fellow worship leaders starts weaving a tale that captures the heart of why I believe Christmas Eve is so important to every ministry.

 

Continue reading.

The worshipideas newsletter lists the top 20 songs from CCLI one week and PraiseCharts the next week to help you keep aware of what churches are singing. CCLI tends to reflect a more broad sampling of both contemporary and blended churches, PraiseCharts shows what's popular right now in churches that are more contemporary.

 

 

About: Don Chapman’s passion is for the Church, music and technology, and he blends all three into resource websites devoted to contemporary worship: hymncharts(.)com and worshipflow(.)com.

He’s the editor of the weekly worshipideas(.)com newsletter that’s read by over 30,000 worship leaders across the world. A prolific arranger and songwriter, Don has had songs published by Word, Integrity Music, G3worship and Worship Today, and has orchestrated music for Christian artists Chris Sligh and Jeremy Camp. He’s been featured on the 700 Club, has been quoted in USAToday and is a guest lecturer at Liberty University.

 

The first worshipideas email newsletter went out to about 400 people on February 11, 2002 (in the heyday, right before the blog explosion, the newsletter amassed over 100,000 subscribers. These days it hovers around 30,000.) Worshipideas was born out of Don’s own desire to share what he was learning as a first-time worship leader at a church plant. Back in 2002 contemporary worship was still fairly new and the worshipideas newsletter and website helped worship leaders across the world figure out this new form of worship.

 

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Hearts to God Music, Inc. may disclose your Personal Data in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to:

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worshipideas: essential reading for worship leaders since 2002