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May 2012

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Tis the Season … to Plan Christmas

Church staffs share their tips for planning for the greatest outreach opportunity of the year.

by Jim Kumorek

Christmas is considered the most opportune time of the year for reaching out to the local community, as people are more receptive to spiritual discussions during the Christmas season than any other time of the year. But if your church services are pretty consistent from week to week, they may not need significant planning. Christmas services, on the other hand, can bring on a lot of stress, fear and trepidation. Before it gets too late, let's take a look at what churches of various sizes and styles do to prepare for Christmas.

Introductions

Kent Henderson is the worship leader at Grace Fellowship Church in Kinston, N.C. Grace has a weekly attendance of about 300 people, but they don't let their smaller size dissuade them from making Christmas special.

Daniel Merk-Benitez is the weekend service producer at Journey Community Church in La Mesa, Calif., which has a weekly attendance of 2,400. “We try as much as possible to keep our Christmas Eve services similar to our regular weekend services,” he states. “They do take on a slightly larger feel than our weekends; there is something about Christmas services that lend a sense of awe and wonder.”

Getting Started

Both agree that preparation is key. Three months before Christmas, Henderson puts together a master schedule listing all practices, indicating which teams are needed for each. And conceptual planning begins even earlier to be able to pull the schedule together.

Brainstorming

Both also agree that a brainstorming team is the best way to begin. “Our creative team consists of the teaching pastor, service producer, music director, programming director, technical arts director, video producer, and several artist/creative-types,” states Merk-Benitez. “Our technical arts director sits in on every meeting and is intricately involved in the process. Following our initial meeting, we devote time during our weekly programming meetings to talk through Christmas Eve services.”

Henderson adds, “Even for a small church, a volunteer brainstorming team of three to five people can be very beneficial to come up with great ideas and direction. We’ve learned that some folks are gifted creatively and others are more comfortable on the administrative/task oriented side. Knowing who is good at which will remove a lot of frustration.”

Henderson also recommends that you write your own program instead of using a “canned” script. “You know your people, and can tailor the program to them. It’s much more effective for us to choose a song knowing an actor's voice and character than hearing a prepackaged cantata song and trying to force it onto someone who can't really pull it off.”

Building Teams

Pulling out the stops at Christmas usually means ramping up the volunteer team as well. At Grace, they add several people to the technical team to act as stage hands to help manage the entrances and exits. However, the overall event requires a large number of extra volunteers. “We recruit largely through our house-church (small group) ministry,” states Henderson. “We find these people are already committed and engaged in the ministry of the church. Several house-churches have taken on roles as a group, which helped promote unity and gave them an opportunity to serve side by side. For the artistic roles, we mostly recruit by word-of-mouth beginning with our praise teams.”

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Jim Kumorek is the owner of Spreading Flames Media, providing video/media production and writing services to the A/V/L, technology, architectural and hospitality industries. He has led audio, video and lighting teams in churches as both staff and a volunteer for over 10 years. He can be contacted at james@spreadingflamesmedia.com.