Christmas at Christ Community Church, Chicago, IL
Christmas services may be out of sight for 11 months of the year, but for many churches, they’re never out of mind.
For arguably the biggest and most involving event of the church’s calendar year, it’s not uncommon for many ministries to begin planning months in advance, even as early as the summer.
While there’s no magic formula for exactly how far in advance a ministry should begin having vision meetings and planning discussions, the key concept is that starting the process early provides more runway and margin. Preparation is the key to success.
“We usually start talking about Christmas Eve in August because our Senior Pastor takes a two-month study break over the summer to plan for the next ministry year,” says Nicole Lucas, the Creative Arts Pastor at Chicago’s Christ Community Church.
“It’s just about knowing what your spaces and teams are set up to do well.”—Nicole Lucas, the Creative Arts Pastor, Christ Community Church.
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“This year, I got info from our senior pastor the second week of August, and we’ll start our brainstorm meetings the first week of September. And then we’ll be presenting the plan to him mid-September. This means we’ll have plans finalized for the teams to start working on by the end of September. We’ll be full speed ahead creating content starting the first week of October. Hopefully,” she added, laughing.
While there are many benefits to starting the process early in the year, one of the key ones is that it allows plenty of time for the right people to be in the room during the brainstorming process, so the “wow” ideas have plenty of time to percolate before the “how” discussions need to begin.
For churches that are multisite, additional lead time during the planning process is crucial.
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Christmas at Soul City Church, Chicago, IL
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Lyndsey Van Wyk, Service & Event Producer, Soul City Church, Chicago, IL.
“We are very intentional about who is in the room when we are brainstorming,” notes Lyndsey Van Wyk, the Service & Event Producer at Soul City Church, another Chicago-area ministry. “We also include different people from our team/community at each meeting (in addition to our core creative team). We always want to ensure that we have different voices in the room all the time because it can bring a new perspective.”
However, there’s also importance in clarifying the actual goal of each meeting so that those invited know the expected outcome.
“For every decision that we make, we ask ourselves, ‘Is this going to tie into our theme, and minister to people?’”—Lyndsey Van Wyk, Service & Event Producer, Soul City Church
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“We also make it very clear at the top of the meeting what the meeting is about and what our objective is,” she continues. “For example, this is a ‘wow’ meeting (what are the big themes/ideas) or this is a ‘how’ meeting (how can we accomplish those big themes/ideas).”
For Soul City, each year’s planning process actually begins with a debrief in early January so that key takeaways and learning moments are freshly captured after services conclude. Then, theme and conceptual conversations happen in June and further “creative asset brainstorming” happens in July.
Starting sooner with vision and creative planning provides stress-free time to then whittle down ideas and explore the logistical side of those decisions.
If any sort of equipment needs to be rented for the event, greater lead time can make it easier to find a rental house that has available gear in their inventory, as opposed to an eleventh-hour request that may incur extra freight charges from having to be shipped halfway across the country.
That lead time can also make it easier to pivot when the harsh realities of a “how” conversation bring a great “wow” idea crashing down to earth due to budget or time constraints.
“…nothing really compares to candlelight and Silent Night.” —Ryland Russell, Worship & Arts Pastor, Central Baptist Church
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“One year we had a theme of ‘This Will Be A Sign’ and the star to Bethlehem was our visual inspiration,” Soul City’s Van Wyk recalls. “Originally we had the idea of all these star lights on our trees, around the entire building and within our auditorium, but due to budgeting we could not afford to purchase the stars that we wanted. We knew we needed stars to be the center point of our Christmas experience, so we had to get scrappy with how we did that. So instead, I bought paper and printed out the Christmas story on each page and then brought in a handful of volunteers and folded paper stars the entire night. We ended up with hundreds of stars that we placed all over the building and it even became a centerpiece in a creative element in our service.”
While limited time is a restraint that can force creative adjustments, a limited budget can result in the same level of adaptation. And when there’s more time to plan for how to implement a more cost-effective solution, it can result in something that still feels thought-out and intentional, instead of haphazard and shoddy.
Ryland Russell has spent the last 14 years as the Worship & Arts Pastor at Central Baptist Church of Owasso, Okla., and has plenty of first-hand experience with modifying an idea to fit a more streamlined budget.
“We really wanted to bring in an ice-skating rink for our ‘Christmas Town’ and fill the whole [outdoor] courtyard with snow,” Russell says, “but we didn’t have $20k laying around. Instead we had a fun-filled moment during one song where the whole congregation had a snowball fight with 1,000 fluffy snow balls hidden under their seats as a few snow machines rained down fluffy soap from the rafters.”
The result was an “epic” moment that created special memories for the whole congregation that year. Could it have happened as a last-minute idea? Possibly. But was it more effective because it had been planned out farther in advance? Probably so.
"I believe multisite [ministries] should always consider scalability (‘Is this doable at our other campuses?’),” says Nicole Lucas, Creative Arts Pastor, Christ Community Church, Chicago, IL
For churches that are multisite, additional lead time during the planning process is crucial. Not only does it provide the opportunity to scale ideas to multiple locations, all of which may have different types or sizes of venues and skill levels in the worship and production areas, but it also gives plenty of time to communicate vision and details so that all teams are fully aware of the end goal and the path to achieve it.
“I believe multisite [ministries] should always consider scalability (‘Is this doable at our other campuses?’),” says Lucas, who herself has to consider each of the five different CCC locations when planning special events. “In the past, when we’ve identified that a song would be hard to pull off at our other campuses, we’ve done one of two things: (1.) We’ve partnered with them to provide the resources (hired contractors or shared volunteers from other campuses) to help them do it well, or (2.) we’ve come up with a different song that would communicate the same message but is more accessible for the campus team. This way, each campus is able to succeed and none of them feel limited or hindered by the others.”
"We rarely find ourselves saying, ‘This doesn’t work here.’ Instead we’re usually asking, ‘What other ways can we accomplish the same goal?’” shares Nicole Lucas, Creative Arts Pastor at Chicago's Christ Community Church.
“It’s just about knowing what your spaces and teams are set up to do well,” she added, “and then being willing to adapt to fit the situation. We rarely find ourselves saying, ‘This doesn’t work here.’ Instead we’re usually asking, ‘What other ways can we accomplish the same goal?’”
Knowing that volunteers don’t live and breathe event planning and execution like staff does is a critical piece of understanding that can help shape a planning process also.
Planning a service farther out gives a production team leader more time to ascertain which volunteers would be best suited for certain roles and allows them more lead time to adjust schedules to be present for rehearsals or trainings. And if a service will require an additional level of execution the team hasn’t previously experienced, more lead time gives more opportunities for training and coaching the team on how to execute those newer things (like learning to use a new handheld camera or program and run a certain lighting cue, for instance).
Juggling a separate full-time job and family, and then coming in to serve is already a tremendous exercise in multi-tasking for a typical volunteer. But also asking that person to fly by the seat of their pants with limited information at arguably the biggest event of the year? That leans more towards leadership malpractice.
“Our entire production and worship team is volunteer-based, minus our production manager,” Soul City’s Van Wyk points out. “In those instances where we have a large idea, we give a lot of guidance, coaching and time with those people so that they feel supported and aren’t guessing what we need or are looking for. This means we are present during all programming and come in with all the patience and grace.”
This advance time not only allows volunteers to prepare and practice for critical or intricate creative moments, but it also ensures that they fully understand the vision behind it. Without that, the service could lack cohesion if different elements (like lighting, or IMAG camera directing) are left to figure things out on their own, based on their own preferences or interpretations of the moment.
“It is crucial to have a North Star when planning a Christmas (or any) service,” Van Wyk cautions. “For every decision that we make, we ask ourselves, ‘Is this going to tie into our theme, and minister to people?’ Even on a week-to-week basis when looking at our Sunday services we ask ourselves, ‘Is this moving the mission of our church forward?’ If you do not have that ‘through line’ in every aspect of your experience (that includes the service and even decor) it could feel disconnected and unintentional.’
“Don’t be consumed with being unique or original,” says Central Baptist Church Owasso’s Ryland Russell. “Use resources that are available. We are a church that runs 450 people. That’s large to some and really small to others. We’ve had breakdancing Santas, synced cell phone light shows, giant choirs, string quartets, and Elvis (yes, Elvis!), but the reality is that nothing really compares to candlelight and Silent Night.”
Developing that North Star concept is much easier to do when there’s time to get the right people in the room and flesh it out, and it’s easier to then tie in any necessary creative element that helps drive the point home.
But having more time to plan doesn’t necessarily mean that a church needs to feel pressure to use that time to come up with something big. More than anything it’s about understanding their own vision and how to best utilize their resources to bring that to life.
“Don’t be consumed with being unique or original,” says CBC Owasso’s Russell. “Use resources that are available. We are a church that runs 450 people. That’s large to some and really small to others. We’ve had breakdancing Santas, synced cell phone light shows, giant choirs, string quartets, and Elvis (yes, Elvis!), but the reality is that nothing really compares to candlelight and Silent Night.”
And that may be a welcome word for churches that may not have the teams or margin to try and plan anything extravagant. Is months of lead time always necessary for everyone? Not at all. But what is critical is being intentional about the ultimate goal of the service.
“If we can plan and produce a service that includes songs, stories, and teaching that invites people (believers and non-believers alike) to come together to remember and celebrate what Christmas is really about, we can’t go wrong,” explained CCC’s Lucas. “Strip it back, remove the lights, the haze, and graphics, and what you have is a timeless message that the Holy Spirit can use to transform people’s lives. The rest of the production stuff is just glitter – it’s stuff we can do – but the one thing we must do is to share the good news of Jesus. Focus on that first and the rest will fall into place.”
