Adore Him / Christmas Eve

TWO posts in ONE day. Turning a new leaf, must be a productive day...

Now,  my job entails MANY things, not just selecting music, but I'll just focus on the part that is highlighted in this blog:

It takes a long time to choose music for a contemporary worship service-- or at least I think it should take a little more than just a few minutes! Think of it as doing research for a sermon, except the message is through music, so the research is done by finding the right songs for your congregation that pertain the the gospel, the Christian calendar, and many other things. Things such as "flow", "energy", "arrangement" go into just thinking about the music involved. Of course we have our favorites, and especially when it comes to Christmas music, we have our traditional Christmas carols, and with this massive wave of modern music over the past 2 decades, there are many, MANY different arrangements of these "traditional" carols. ALL of this world of music is at my fingertips to be sorted through and arranged nicely into an hour long worship service that must not only be audibly pleasing, but singable for everyone!

Consequently, I am amazed on a weekly basis by how everything comes together in such a perfect way. I don't think I have conducted a service where the music and the message haven't gone hand in hand. I know that part of it is that the Gospel, the story of our salvation works hand in hand and the scriptures work together to form a cohesiveness that only could be arranged by God, the Creator himself.

Still, it is amazing how when I focus on the "energy" of a service, I find that the "thematics" come together beautifully. Take Christmas Eve this year as an example:


1. We begin the service with a wild kind of processional drum beat and call to worship:

O Come Let Us Adore Him (off of Hillsong's Born Is The King), incorporating the traditional carol with a powerful progression to a new chorus "O come all ye faithful, come let us adore him...".

2. We have been on "The Journey", Adam Hamilton's series that takes us through the historical places of the Nativity story. We have "journeyed" along with Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth, and all involved. I have focused much of my attention on portraying that journey, musically. There are some march-like rhythms, songs that discuss the "journey", etc. We have done "Emmanuel, Hallowed Manger Ground" each week as a call to worship, with a reading for Advent mixed in. (https://www.planningcenteronline.com/plans/3310311/public

3. Anyway, we go through the service, focused on this journey. And all of the sudden, after hours of arranging music, uploading songs, downloading chord charts, arranging more music, tedious project after tedious project to ensure that all the potential music is up on our planning site, I noticed... that from the opening of the serivce to communion, we come full circle-- calling people in and to worship, and then again, calling people in from the journey to discover where it has led: The Bread of life, our salvation... Jesus Christ, in child form, lived, died, risen, and now alive. It is amazing, it is inspiring. The story itself beckons us to come, adore Him.


Let us all prepare room for Him in our hearts this Christmas.