For those of us in the world of the technical arts, its crunch time. As the group of people that have to make the Christmas production ideas happen, we are staring down the barrel of a giant Yule log.
I'm a huge fan of not making the same mistakes over and over again. In the midst of this Christmas production season, I want to make sure that we are going to have a series of great services, but I also want to make sure the “getting there” is just as good.
Therein lies the challenge. I have worked almost every Christmas Eve for over 30 years ... and I'm not that old. It was a part of the culture of our family; we volunteered at church to help pull off the services at Christmastime. Sometimes I marvel that I have survived all these years.
I have worked almost every Christmas Eve for over 30 years ... and I'm not that old.
If I look back at them all, some have been amazing and others I would rather forget. Some were super-memorable and others are a blur. In most cases, I don't remember much about the service itself, but more about the process of getting to that service.
Many tech types get tunnel vision on the “product” of Christmas and only consider the process leading up to the service after they are already in the middle of it. That's too late to do anything about it.
I'd like to suggest we enter this Christmas season with a few things in mind. So after you put on some Christmas music to get in the spirit, read on:
“Run in such a way …”
I immediately thought about Paul's advice to the Corinthians concerning self-discipline:
24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. 27 No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).
Since we are talking about Christmas, what does it mean to win? How do we create a win? Where is the finish line? How do I make it across the line?
There is no question that preparing for a Christmas service these days requires tons of work. I don't have to wonder if I will be putting in extra hours to make Christmas happen. The challenge is to figure out how many extra hours it should take to make Christmas all that it needs to be.
While there is no formula for this, I think one thing is clear to me from Paul's advice: when Christmas is over, am I still in the race or have I fried my soles in the pursuit of a Christmas program?
I don't think that God wants us to do whatever it takes to make Christmas happen, if it leads to us being disqualified from continuing to do ministry. At the end of this Christmas season, ask yourself, is this the last one you do or are you in it for another?
The challenge here is that Paul is talking about self-discipline. This isn't someone else's problem; this is something that we all need to deal with. We must pace ourselves. And we must train in such a way as to win the race. It is no one else's responsibility to do this.
What if we were able to be self-disciplined enough to get this right? Not only would our congregation experience a potentially life-changing service, but also our lives could be changed. Maybe even our families would have a great Christmas experience with us. Unthinkable!
Cast a vision
This isn't what you think it is. Working in the church, we hear all kinds of things about leadership and the need for our teams to have a vision for what we are doing. This is true, especially at Christmas. But there is another group that needs vision: your family.
During one particularly intense Christmas, I was not home very much. At a certain point, my wife was getting upset that I was working day and night. It was pretty easy for me to get defensive and explain how important Christmas was and that is just what it took to get things done. Also, as the leader of the production team, I felt like it was my responsibility to be there with my team, to be the first one there and the last one out.
I don't think it is part of God's plan that my family would feel abandoned by me during the run up to Christmas.
She said something that I hope I will never forget: “I understand that your team needs to be led and needs a vision for Christmas, but your family needs a vision for Christmas too, about why you are gone in the month of December.”
Ouch … and so true. So often I can just leave my family behind while I go off and “do amazing things for God.” Going back to the idea of running the race to win the prize, I don't think it is part of God's plan that my family would feel abandoned by me during the run up to Christmas.
At the end of a Christmas season, not only should I be ready to sign up for another, but my family should too. Does that mean it will be easy? No. Does it mean that I need to continually cast vision to my family for the importance of our efforts and sacrifices for the sake of people that will come to our Christmas services and hear the gospel for maybe the first time? Yes.
When my family isn't behind me, it is difficult to run the race to win. I need their support to keep going. My family needs to feel like they are a part of my life and that we are in this together. That doesn't happen magically by itself. That is up to you and me to gain their buy in.
We've talked a lot about our individual responsibility for surviving Christmas, but for those of you who lead teams of people to accomplish Christmas, how does this translate to how you lead through this year's process?
Create a culture of winning
As a leader, leading yourself well is the first step to leading your team well. That is why figuring out how you can run the race yourself is so important. You can't expect to lead your volunteers in a healthy process if you aren't living one yourself.
So how do we translate these concepts to the people on your team? I feel like the most important is not only living the example of a healthy life, but creating a culture where the expectation is to run a sustainable race.
[It] takes tons of discipline to say “no” to some pretty cool ideas. If you are the leader, your team needs you to do this for them.
One of the mistakes I have made over the years, is that I set up an expectation that involves pulling a few all-nighters during the course of Christmas. The problem with this is that I am starting my plan with no margin. It is important to come up with a plan that involves a reasonable schedule, so that when the emergency comes up, there is space to take care of it.
Eventually I settled at a church where we scheduled rehearsals to end at 9:00 p.m. So early! They very rarely ended at 9:00, but that was the plan we started with.
I know of some churches that plan for rehearsals lasting till midnight. So when they go long, they go really late. After rehearsals are over, that's when the production team actually gets work done. This makes for some unrealistically long days.
It is important to create a plan that has margin and is sustainable over the course of the set-up and rehearsal process. This takes tons of discipline to say “no” to some pretty cool ideas. If you are the leader, your team needs you to do this for them.
For most of the years I've been doing Christmas, we would use the event to stretch ourselves into new technologies and bigger ideas. It is one of the things I love about Christmas. Yet, the challenge is creating a Christmas program that your team can actually do—one that isn't so much of a stretch that it falls into the destructive category.
I don't know about you, but anytime I try something I've never done before, it takes three to five times longer and costs way more than I planned. This can be a difficult lesson to learn. I want to say "yes" to some cool new idea. When we do too much of this, we set our teams up for failure as it relates to sustainability.
Another important reason to build in margin to the schedule and the expectations is so you can invest in your team.
So not only do we need to think about margin from a schedule standpoint, but from a technology standpoint. How many new things can we actually accomplish this year?
Another important reason to build in margin to the schedule and the expectations is so you can invest in your team. Our volunteers are giving up huge chunks of their time to help create life-changing moments for people at our Christmas program, and it is important for them to understand why they are doing it.
My knee-jerk reaction is to try and have my team at church the least amount of time possible so they can be with their families. This is not a bad thing. It helps me think about which rehearsals they should come to, and making sure things are prepared for them when they do come. But sometimes I err on not allowing enough time for us to connect and enjoy community together.
Your team needs vision for what you are about, so that they can cast vision to their families. This doesn't happen without some margin and some intentionality. In the past few years, we have started our first Christmas rehearsal with everyone on stage in a circle. We introduce ourselves and what role we are playing in the service. We then hear from an elder or a senior church leader about what we hope to accomplish through the service. We sometimes all get milkshakes. This has been a great team-building experience that we all share together. This doesn't happen without some margin built in.
Winning at Christmas doesn't just mean that you have a great program on December 24th. Winning at Christmas involves running in such a way that you're ready to sign up for another one. This requires each of us to be self-disciplined in our own lives, to cast vision to our families, and to provide these things for our teams.
Wouldn't it be great to say, “We're winning!” from now until December 25th? That's the race I'm going to try and run this year.
