Biblical Worship

Years ago I served with a dear pastor who enjoyed the Christmas season, but was quite ready for it to be over after a couple of weeks.  He thought that people are so distracted by the trappings of the holiday season that they are not spiritually focused and not moving forward in their Christian walk.  In our worship planning we would agree to only use Christmas music on certain Sundays which usually ended up being the first 3 Sundays of December - not before or after.  He believed that much of the Christmas music used in worship only led to sentimental reflections of Christmas seasons gone by with little real focus on Christ.

We must admit much of what happens at Christmas often has little to do with the real reason for the celebration - Jesus.  How can a worship leader select music for worship during this season that helps to keep the proper perspective on Christmas?  Here are some suggestions:

1. Avoid songs that over sentimentalize the season such as songs that focus on the “most wonderful time of the year.”  Are we in love with the season or with Christ?

2. Avoid songs that are strictly secular in their association.  Some churches choose to do several of these type songs at the beginning of their musicals at Christmas to either “entertain” or “attract non-believers.”  I believe these type songs have no place in a worship service especially when it is intended to be evangelistic.  What’s evangelistic about singing secular songs?  I think sometimes we can be so entertainment focused that we can be in danger of entertaining them to hell.  Point your people to Christ.

3.  Choose songs that correctly describe the Christmas story according to Scripture.  Many of our songs really do not portray the story very well.  Look for songs that are clear in communicating the story.

4.  Choose songs that tell the whole Gospel Story- Jesus birth, his ministry, his death on a cross and his resurrection.  The problem with many Christmas songs is that they leave Jesus in the manger.  Christians and non-Christians need to hear the whole Gospel at Christmas.  Look for songs that go beyond the manger.  He came to be our Savior. 

5.  Choose Christmas songs that your congregation can sing.  Many songs of this season (old and new) are difficult to sing in a congregational setting.  Consider the key of the song and the rhythmic structure.

Do all Christmas songs have to fit every criteria listed above? No, but a good group of your songs should.  Let’s help our people keep Christ in their Christmas season by using great songs that lead us to the Messiah - Our Savior and Lord. 

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir to God.

Galatians 4:4-7 (ESV)

 In the book The Story of Christian Music (Fortress Press, 1992, ISBN 0-8006-3474-8), author Andrew Wilson-Dickson shares an eyewitness account written by deacon Paul Gerhardt, of a Christmas morning worship service at the Nikolaikirke (St. Nicholas Church) in Berlin in 1659.  The Nikolaikirke is one of Berlin’s oldest churches dating back to the thirteenth century.  Here’s a glimpse into a worship service from three hundred years ago:

The church is cold. Candles are being lighted. The people are coming and taking their places.  A group of schoolboys is at one side of the gallery and a choir of mixed voices at the other side.  Below the pulpit we see a Collegium Musicum, a voluntary musical society composed of tradesmen and craftsmen, who perform on violins and woodwind instruments, gathered around a small moveable organ.  Then there is a male quartet, also a military band with trumpets, kettledrums and drums.

After the organ prelude a chorale [Lutheran Hymn] is sung . . . Now three clergymen with white clergymen’s bands and black robes have appeared at the altar.  The entire liturgy is sung in Latin [the use of Latin or German varied from place to place]  by the choirs and the schoolchildren.  Next a college student, dressed as an angel with large white wings, sings from the pulpit an Old Testament prophecy, accompanied by the Collegium Musicum below.

More chanting from the altar, and then the principal door of the church opens, and in comes a procession of girls, headed by the teacher, all dressed as angels.  They proceed to the high altar, where the teacher sings from the first verse of “Vom Himmel hock”[From Heaven Above], and the second verse is sung by the girls in two-part counterpoint.  The third verse is taken by the organ and the choir in the gallery as a beautiful five-part motet.  While the procession has been marching down the aisle, one of the ministers chants a “Gloria” answered by the electoral court-and-field of trumpeters with fanfares and drumrolls.

After the sermon there is more chanting by the liturgist, and the instrumentalists play a boisterous “Te Deum” [To God]. Then follows another Latin anthem by the school children.

Things now begin to happen in the organ loft: over the railing is raised a cradle with a doll, while some boys with incessant mooing imitate the animals in the Bethlehem stable.  The choir and congregation sing a hymn, and at this point high up on the organ facade a Bethlehem star, illuminated  and supplied with small bells, is turned round and round, operated by an organ stop.  Three wooden images, representing the three Wise Men, with their traditional attributes, solemnly move forward and bow before the doll in the cradle.  At the same time we notice two puppets, representing Moors, standing on each side of the central group.  One blows a trumpet, and the other beats a drum.  Throughout this scene on the gallery railing the Collegium Musicum plays a ritornello [an instrumental refrain].

A boy soprano intones “In Dulci Jubilo” [Good Christian Men, Rejoice], which is continued by male voices, accompanied by shawms, and bombards.  The song is scarcely over before a sight exceedingly beloved of the children appears in the centre aisle.  It is old Father Christmas himself in his white beard, with pointed cap on his head and a large sack on his back, soon surrounded by ‘angels’ and children, who vie with each other for the good things that are to be given out.  When the large sack is empty and Old Father Christmas has disappeared behind the sacristy door, then is sung as the closing chorale “Puer natue est Bethlehem” [A Child is Born in Bethlehem]. 

quoted from The Story of Christian Music, page 89.

The season of Christmas includes a great amount of beautiful Christmas songs that we hear and sing in our worship services.  Some of these songs do a great job of keeping the Gospel at the center of the celebration.  Hymns like “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing” and “Joy to the World” express both the coming of Christ and the purpose of His coming.  Other songs that we sing at Christmas are cherished traditional songs that tend to dwell on a sentimental thought of the babe in the manger with little depth of meaning.  Some churches today even sing the secular holiday songs associated with Christmas to attract unbelievers. 

As a worship leader, I believe that we should be singing biblical truth and nothing but biblical truth at Christmas and year round in worship services.  Christmas songs that do not speak of Christ’s coming or reflect on the Gospel should not have a place in our worship services.  Let someone else sing the secular Christmas songs.  Let the church proclaim the Gospel in song in our worship services.

When planning the musical portion of our Christmas services, balance the simple “baby Jesus” songs with songs that tell the whole story of redemption in Christ.  As one pastor has said before, “don’t leave baby Jesus in the manger.”  Tell about his work on the cross and his glorious resurrection.  What a great opportunity we have to tell the Gospel during this season.

Worship Leader - look for Christmas songs that faithfully share the Gospel.  If you are looking for newer songs, check out the worship songs by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend.  They have written a few songs specifically for this time of year.  (www.keithgetty.com)

Nobody enjoys beautiful Christmas music more than I do. (And this season has a lot wonderful music).  However, let’s tell the whole Gospel for our families, and for those who do not know the Lord. 

“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory; glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”  John 1:14