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.

As you know, teaching a song for the first time can be a make-or-break experience.