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Each year, our church works hard to put on a Christmas program. This year it was called “A First Christmas,” and rather than a drama it was more of a Christmas concert.
Christmas programs have always made me a little nervous. Seeing as how Christmas and Easter are two holidays where most non-churched folks would come, it worries me that what we do for programs has a tendency to focus too much on inviting people to come to our church, thereby inadvertently glorifying man rather than God.
Also, I find it is harder to focus on family in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the Christmas Consumer Shopping Season, and occasionally some church Christmas programs can be just another slot to fill up time. But, thankfully our program this year had a very God centered theme, and there was also an unexpected feeling of family and community among everyone who was involved.
The program started out with an upbeat song, followed by 4 more upbeat songs. There was narration in between that both guided the people and introduced the next song. One song in particular called “This is our God” included a video that depicted the crucifixion of Christ and took God’s Son from birth to death to resurrection right within the song (something you don’t often see in Christmas programs).
There would be 10 songs in all, each with a distinct message and an amazing musical arrangement. The theme of the program was “Come Home.” This theme was focused upon in the second to last song, and our worship leader gave everyone a chance to come up to the front and pray if they felt that they needed to. The soloists who sang did a great job.
It was neat to be part of an event that took so much time and planning. I spent close to 80 hours this week working on the set up for our program, and that may be why it felt more like a family, because all of the participants invested so much time with one another we had a sense of community. Now that it’s over, I can try to finish up some homework! Oh, and it was Emily who flawlessly ran all the lights – really I’m thankful to everyone who volunteered.