The first Christmas after my wife and I moved into a new community a few years ago, we attended a number of local Christmas worship services.

At one popular church, we were greeted by elves issuing earplugs at the doors.  The lead guitarist illustrated his skill in pulling off a “Christmas-shredding-solo,” while the female lead singer pranced about the stage in skin-tight black leather with a red Christmas bandana across her head.  To their credit, the Christmas story was read by the pastor, but he hesitated throughout the reading as he awkwardly tried to pause and pace for the canned video/musical cues that were supposed to match his narration.  I felt like standing up and yelling, “Just read the story to us!”

In another church, we heard the Luke 2 narrative of the angels’ visitation of the shepherds in the field “keeping watch over their flocks by night.”   She (an associate pastor) said, “those shepherds weren’t just frightened.  They had the BA-JESUS scared out of them.”  We left.

Finally, we attended another church with a more traditional approach.  They performed a Christmas cantata, complete with orchestra, choir, soloists and narration.  All the of the carols were performed for us, with the conductor turning around to cue the audience when we were allowed to sing along on one verse or a chorus (“Glo-o-o-o-o-or-or-or-or-or-o-o-o-o-oria”) – only to cut off the singalong, turn back around to re-cue the orchestra and choir for the next pre-arranged segment.  As we stared mostly at the conductor’s backside all evening, listening to “Christmas-sung-for-us,” our daughter turned to me and said, “Dad, you talk about wallpaper worship?  This is it!”

Each of these examples is real.  Each happened within a few miles of our house.   Recalling each experience gives me a feeling of dread as we stare at the upcoming Christmas season.

I have always felt there are certain holidays in our church-worship-year that nudge corporate worship to be executed differently than our regular weekly services.  Christmas is the easiest of church holidays for church leaders to NOT screw up – but we manage to do so anyway.  With all the latest worship resources, flashy gear, hip song arrangements and YouTube clips to mimic (posted by huge churches and commercial worship companies who have better talent and more money than most local churches have), it is tempting to employ every tool at our church’s disposal and unleash it all on our heaviest attended service.

With the retail world already unleashing Christmas hype on us by October, is being “unleashed on” what our congregants want or need on Christmas Eve?  With all the noisy and crowded places church-goers frequent during the holidays (malls, shops, restaurants, parties) perhaps congregants would consider their church leadership incredibly creative and brave for delivering a Christmas Eve worship experience that’s simple, real and authentic.

You know…simple, real, authentic – kind of like how Jesus entered the world.

In her Washington Post op/ed a few years ago, millennial Rachel Held Evans wrote:  “The trick isn’t to make church cool; it’s to keep worship weird. You can be dazzled by a light show at a concert on any given weekend, but church is the only place that fills a sanctuary with candlelight and hymns on Christmas Eve.”

This year – if you’re a leader – why not plan a Christmas Eve service that is simple, real and authentic?  If you are an attendee, chances are good that you will leave a simple, real and authentic Christmas Eve service thinking: “Thank you!  That was refreshing.”

“The perfect church service would have been the one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God.  But every novelty prevents this.”     – C.S. Lewis

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If you are a leader in a smaller church (or you know one!) and you are wondering what to do for Christmas Eve, we are launching a 3-part online training course:  LEADING A CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICE YOUR CONGREGANTS WILL THANK YOU FOR.  This course will give you tips, ideas and proven principles that are usable in any church culture. The course launches Friday, November 22 and run through December 3. Cost: $99.   Give your church a Christmas Eve service this year that they will thank you for.  Sign up for the course HERE!