Christmas Things

My mind is still reeling from all the Christmas songs we’ve been playing through December at Calvary Kendall. “Mild He lays His glory by, born that man no more may die” “O come desire of nations bind, in one the hearts of all mankind” “Come to Bethlehem and see, Him who’s birth the angels sing”.

For Calvary Kendall, we started singing songs the first weekend of December. This year, I added a few new ones to our 2009 repertoire, which was mainly off Chris Tomlin’s Glory In The Highest album. Here’s the 2009 roster:

Angels We Have Heard On High
Emmanuel (Hallowed Manger Ground)
Hark the Herald Angels Sing
Joy To The World (Unspeakable Joy)
Light Of The World
O Come All Ye Faithful
O Come O Come Emmanuel

And then we brought two new songs into the mix:

Joyful (The One Who Saves)
He Has Come For Us (God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen)

Joyful is by Brenton Brown. Fantastic rendition. And He Has Come For Us is a rendition of God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen off Northpoint’s Christmas album. The “He Has Come For Us” is from the new chorus they added to the song. Super powerful and strong, I love that chorus!

We had our own renditions for a few of the songs, such as Hark The Herald Angels Sing and O Come O Come Emmanuel (man these song names are long!). There’s always something special about singing songs that were birthed right from the church, songs that sort of “belong” to the church. For both of these songs I revised the chord structure a bit, the song format and wrote new choruses. This is the second year we’ve sang them and the church was for sure catching on this time around!

But something I’ve always been concerned with is making sure the people aren’t just getting slammed with confusing Christmas lyrics and the seventh verse of O Come All Ye Faithful. It doesn’t matter what time of the year it is, if the people don’t have a song to sing to God, that’s my problem! This is why I’m careful with my song selection during this time of the year. I usually ease into it at first, mixing Christmas songs with “normal” songs. And the Christmas songs we do play usually have some kind of singable chorus in them.

I think it’s super important to have a good mix of playing the classics but at the same time making sure the people are still worshipping and connecting with their God. I think at Calvary Kendall (and RebelChurch) this year, we definitely found that balance.

Oh, and another important tip I’ve been learning each year, plan ahead! Not just for Christmas either, for everything! For Christmas this year, we started planning almost six months in advance. And I can honestly say, it wasn’t overkill!

Today (Christmas) I had a great time with my wife. Chrissy and I sang a few songs together, read Isaiah 9:6 and Luke 2, and prayed, thanking God for everything He’s given us, including our baby boy! Even though Landon isn’t even born, he somehow got hooked up with presents to open!

I hope you had a great Christmas, but most of all, I hope you’re keeping Christ at the center of all the festivities. Have a good one!