Report: Christmas Coming Early this Year?

Have you seen the news headlines this week?

It seems Christmas is coming early this year (or at least Christmas shopping is!). More and more stores are planning to open their doors for “Black Friday” before the Thanksgiving turkey has even been carved on Thursday.

Now – whether you’re for it, against it, or could care less, it does tell us one thing. Christmas is on our minds!

And it should be. After all, the retail world is already “selling” Christmas, and you and I need to be “planning” Christmas!

That’s why in October, our music planning team began pulling together song ideas for our upcoming December message series. We listened to Christmas music (yes – before Halloween!). We emailed our team members and asked for their suggestions. We looked for new Christmas albums coming out this year. We looked at past worship orders to see what has worked well in previous years. We drank peppermint hot chocolate (OK, so that last one was just for me – ha!).

And then, last week I sat down with our music planning team and we began planning the worship sets for our December message series.

I know, I know. We’re almost as bad as the department stores opening before Thanksgiving. I mean – it’s almost two months to Christmas!

But planning your Christmas worship sets now can be a BIG win for you and your team this year. So, here are three great reasons to get ALL of your Christmas worship sets planned early:

#1 – YOU CAN PRAYERFULLY CONSIDER WHAT MUSIC YOU WILL DO THIS CHRISTMAS. Rushing to put the music together week-to-week in December means your focus is on “just getting it done” rather than asking, “God, what’s the best thing we can do?” Pray and plan now, and when December rolls around you’ll feel better prepared and will have more powerful moments of life-transformation in your worship sets.

#2 – YOUR WORSHIP TEAM NEEDS EXTRA TIME TO PREPARE. For your music team, nearly every song arrangement at Christmas will be new. So give your team the gift of “time to prepare”. They’ll thank you for it!

#3 – PLANNING NOW MEANS MORE TIME IN DECEMBER FOR ___________________.
Your December is probably like mine. Busy! By planning your Christmas worship sets now, you’ll open up some needed time in December to focus on your Christmas Eve service, plan for your January and February message series, or just remove the chaos and enjoy the Christmas season.

So – what can you do this week to get yourself (and your team) ready for Christmas? Make a goal to have all of your December worship sets planned by Thanksgiving, and ask God to show you how to make those worship sets life-transformational this Christmas!

Your partner in ministry,

PS – Whether your doing classic carols, or brand new originals, you will definitely be TEACHING NEW MUSIC to your congregation this Christmas.

Teaching a song for the first time can be a make-or-break experience. If it goes well, the congregation may sing it all week. If it goes wrong, well… we’ve all been there!

So, how do you introduce new Christmas or Worship songs to your team and your congregation so that they “stick”? Discover the answers in the Making New Songs Stick downloadable resource. Here’s just a sample of what you will learn:

How to select the RIGHT songs for your congregation… and your worship team!
The questions you should ask BEFORE you introduce a new song
How to develop a music planning team to help you make wise decisions in selecting new songs
The 3 Principles for introducing your own ORIGINAL music to the church
How to BEST help your team learn a new song
How to develop your plan for teaching a new song in rehearsal.
How to help your team focus on “worship” rather than “lyrics and chord changes” when introducing a new song
How to make it EASY for your congregation to learn a new song
The #1 reason your congregation doesn’t sing a new song on the first Sunday you teach it, and how to remove that obstacle
How to teach a song through repetition
How many Sundays does it take to teach a new song, and how to develop a plan for when you will bring a new song back
Plus much, much more!

Immediately download the complete mp3 Today!

About Nelson Searcy

Nelson Searcy is an experienced church growth strategist, pastor, church planter and coach, consulting with churches around the world. As founder of Church Leader Insights and the Renegade Pastors Network, he has personally trained more than 3,500 church leaders in over 45 denominations through live events, seminars and monthly coaching. Nelson is also the Founding and Lead Pastor of The Journey Church, with locations across New York City and in Boca Raton, FL. Nelson and his church routinely appear on lists such as “The 50 Most Influential Churches” and “The 25 Most Innovative Leaders.” He is the author of over 100 church growth resources and 18+ books, including The Renegade Pastor: Abandoning Average in Your Life, Ministry and The Difference Maker: Using Your Everyday Life for Eternal Impact, and At the Cross with the People Who Were There. He and his wife, Kelley, have one son, Alexander.