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worshipideas

Creating A Last Minute Christmas Eve Service

Yes, even small churches can have a memorable Christmas Eve. In fact, a simpler service better serves this special night, and can give an unsaved visitor space to pause and reflect.

 

Nine Lessons and Carols for Christmastide

Discover the timeless magic of the “Nine Lessons and Carols” service—a traditional English Christmas service that is beginning to take hold in America. This beautifully structured worship experience weaves together nine Scripture readings and carefully selected carols into a profound narrative of God’s redemptive love. If you’re wanting to do something a little different this year, “Nine Lessons and Carols” is something simple to prepare, but more importantly, something your congregation will remember long after the last carol fades.

 

Uplifting Christmas Eve Worship Songs for a Joyful Celebration

Weaving together timeless classics like “Silent Night” and “O Holy Night” with contemporary praise songs can breathe new life into the Christmas story. This guide will wants to help you transform your church service with a musical journey that’ll have your congregation moved and inspired. It isn’t just another song list—it’s your roadmap to crafting a worship experience that’ll help your church feel the true magic of Christ’s birth.

 

Last-Minute Christmas Eve Service Ideas

Planning a meaningful Christmas Eve service can be challenging, especially when done at the last minute. However, there are several strategies worship leaders can use to pull together an impactful service with limited time.

 

5 Tips for a Successful Christmas Eve Service

Christmas Eve services present a great opportunity to create an atmosphere that resonates with both church members and first-time guests. When planning music, aim for a balance of familiar traditions and fun new arrangements. Keep traditional Christmas song melodies and lyrics intact for singability, but feel free to get creative with modern musical elements like synth parts. Mashups with modern worship songs are a great way to bridge between old and new.

The Story Behind: I Heard the Bells

 

Peace seems impossible when suffering surrounds us. The Christmas bells ring out their message of hope, yet our hearts often struggle to believe. Such was the case for Henry Wadsworth Longfellow when he penned one of Christianity’s most poignant Christmas carols – a hymn born from the depths of personal tragedy and national strife. Try closing your Christmas Eve service with this modern arrangement!

 

Learn more and listen.

The Story Behind: This Is Christ the King

 

Sometimes the most powerful moments in worship come when old meets new – when timeless truth finds fresh expression. The story behind the new melody for “What Child Is This?” perfectly captures God’s pattern of using ordinary people to create extraordinary moments. In 1865, a humble insurance manager named William Chatterton Dix found himself confined to his bed, wrestling with a severe illness that had brought his busy life to a sudden halt. During this time of forced rest, depression crept in, leading him to question his purpose and direction. Yet God had bigger plans for this season of suffering.

 

Learn more and listen.

worshipideas

1. Holy Forever

Johnson, Tomlin, Ingram, Johnson, Wickham

 

2. King of Kings

Awake / Hillsong Worship

 

3. Goodness of God

Fielding, Johnson, Cash, Ingram, Johnson

 

4. Here I Am to Worship

Hughes

 

5. Gratitude

Lake, Hastings, Bowe

 

6. What a Beautiful Name

Fielding, Ligertwood

 

7. Great Are You Lord

Leonard, Ingram, Jordan

 

8. Worthy of It All

Brymer, Hall

 

9. Praise

Lake, Moore, Brown, Carnes, Barrett, Furtick

 

10. Trust In God

Lake, Brown, Wong, Furtick

11. How Great Is Our God

Tomlin, Cash, Reeves

 

12. I Speak Jesus

Here Be Lions

 

13. Firm Foundation (He Won't)

Davis, Moore, Carne

 

14. Way Maker

Sinach

 

15. Build My Life

Younker, Martin, Kaple, Redman, Barrett

 

16. Worthy

Hallelujah Here Below

 

17. Agnus Dei

Michael W. Smith

 

18. Jesus Messiah

Chris Tomlin

 

19. Make Room

Meredith Andrews

 

20. I Thank God

Moses, Butler, Bowe, Holmes, Cline, George

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.

Get A Jump On Your Christmas Planning

 

Larger ministries with special Christmas events have been planning for months. However, when I was a worship leader at a smaller church I wouldn’t start thinking about Christmas until mid to late November as Christmas for us (in our early years meeting in an elementary school) simply meant adding a few Christmas carols to my praise sets.

 

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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worshipideas: essential reading for worship leaders since 2002