How Church Leaders Can Plan for and Preach at Christmas Eve Services
Christmas Eve services are among the most attended church services in the entire year, a fact that raises a series of questions:
- What can church leaders do to plan for this special day?
- How should you adapt the message you preach?
- How can you welcome and reach a mix of faithful congregants, out-of-towners, and people who are newly exploring the idea of faith?
At Clarity House, we’re a team of people who have been there—pastors and worship leaders who have planned and preached at Christmas Eve services big, small, and completely over the top. We support church leaders throughout the year with training and consulting that helps them develop disciple-making churches in the context of their city.
We combined the input of several members of our team—Dave Rhodes, David Loveless, Steve Finkill, and Shane Stacey—to offer some personal, spiritual, and practical tips that we hope will reduce the struggle you may be feeling at this time of year. While we certainly don’t claim to have all the answers, we have some time-tested advice we’ve consolidated below for preaching and leading on Christmas Eve.
Take the Pressure Off
Right off the bat, church leaders can diffuse the sense of pressure that naturally comes ahead of Christmas Eve by thinking of it as “a” service, not “the biggest” service. Self-inflicted pressure to over-plan or over-produce it will drain you and your team.
A second way to relieve pressure is to remember a simple truth: people remember your presence more than your presentation. In other words, a year from now, they will remember a warm greeting and your overall tone more than they will remember all the details of your sermon. Be authentic and trust your strengths as a leader.
“People remember your presence more than your presentation.”
Return to the Heart of What People Need
It may seem counterintuitive, but simplicity is particularly meaningful on Christmas Eve, more so than pageantry and performance. To reach people’s hearts, consider what they are seeking both practically and spiritually.
Practically speaking, people want three things from a Christmas Eve service:
- They want to sing their favorite carols.
- They want to get pictures with their family.
- They want to light a candle during “Silent Night.”
The practical aspects of a service are a great starting point to build a service around. Even with a deeply moving sermon, a family that leaves church without the above experiences will feel something was missing.
Spiritually speaking, people want:
- To make or strengthen human connections
- To receive a profound but familiar message of hope and faith
- To feel a sense of home
At this time of year when people can feel overwhelmed, lonely, or disconnected, human connections and messages of hope give people the spiritual food they need. There are certain messages the human heart never gets tired of hearing. People want to feel a sense of “home” again and again, and messages that there is a place where “all is calm, all is bright.”
What churches leaders often think people want from a Christmas Eve service (but they actually don’t):
- Surprises and creativity—to hear or see something completely new
- A call to make major decisions about their journey of faith
- A service they passively observe rather than participate in
Christmas Eve is not the time to program a brand new song, change up the dress code, or otherwise introduce surprises into a service. Nor is it a time to gather people passively to “watch” Christmas Eve happen. People find renewal in the familiar and in active participation from recitation, singing, and engagement.
While it may be tempting to over-focus on visitors or the unchurched, pushing too hard to make major decisions about faith or church attendance can backfire. The “win” of Christmas Eve is not usually how many decisions for Christ were made, but how many people feel they’d be willing to return.
Structuring a Service
The Welcome and Orientation: The arrival is significant to people on Christmas Eve (returning again to the importance of a warm greeting). The welcome and exit are book-ends that can transform a churchgoer’s experience, but these moments are often under-planned. Take time with your staff to plan out how you will orient people to the service, how you will welcome them in (even before the service begins), and how you can facilitate connections between them.
The Sermon: Because Christmas Eve is a unique time in which the deeply faithful sit side by side with the unchurched, the de-churched, and the spiritually curious, pastors can reach the entire group by first acknowledging the points of commonality. “You may be here feeling frazzled from the busy season, you may be missing a loved one …” and so on. From there, you can acknowledge what’s different: “Some of you are here every week, some of you may be exploring the concept of faith, some of you may simply be here as guests …”. This crowd acknowledgment will make everyone there feel connected and seen.
Within the sermon, to draw people closer to God, ask them to consider real examples of where God has come near them in recent weeks. Was it an unexpected act of kindness? A message received in prayer? What’s beautiful, timeless, and profound about the Christmas story is that God comes to us, wherever we are, even in the middle of dislocation.
“When we preach, we always want to offer both an invitation and a challenge to people. The invitation at Christmas is to experience God’s nearness. The challenge at Christmas is to not be distracted, but to be aware of His nearness — to not miss it.” – Dave Rhodes
To be extremely practical, Christmas Eve services are the time for a shorter-than-normal message. Oftentimes, families worship together (especially those who don’t attend very often; some churches don’t offer full kids ministry programs on Christmas Eve). Either limit your message to about 15 minutes and/or intersperse participatory elements in between your different points. Remember, your presence is much more important than your presentation.
The Benediction and Exit: At the end of the service, people will be leaving the sanctuary of the church and going back into a world that seems discordant and confusing. Offering a prophetic, poetic blessing they can take with them can extend the service beyond the time itself. A message like: “May the light of Christmas continue to shine into your life, and may the love of Christmas permeate that which feels hopeless” sends people out into the world in peace.
A Note for Church Leaders
The entire Christmas season creates additional demands on your time and attention. This is a period to acknowledge where you are personally and examine the current conditions of your soul. Take extra time to be still and pray for what you need. With God’s guidance, His light can flood your own soul so that you can “repeat the sounding joy” of the season.
Questions for Application and Discussion
Use the questions below to evaluate your plan for your Christmas message. These can also be used in a collaborative setting with your team.
- How will we warmly welcome people and invite them to step into the experience we’ve crafted for them?
- How long is the message or sermon time going to be? Should we include songs or corporate responsive readings at certain points in the message?
- Are we providing enough elements for people to participate (songs, responsive readings, corporate prayer, etc.)?
- What is the simple invitation we will offer to encourage guests to come back on a Sunday in January?
- How will we intentionally bless people at the end of the service, reminding them of what they’ve experienced? What will be said and who will say it?
Crafting a great Christmas or Christmas Eve service takes intention and planning, but it doesn’t require your message to be the only or primary thing the service is built around. Give people the opportunity to connect with each other, experience the warmth, familiarity and peace of home, and remind them that God is near to them wherever they might be.
At Clarity House, we specialize in guiding church teams in articulating a shared vision coupled with disciple-making clarity. We’d love to help you and your team. If you want us to assess your current mission statement, feel free to set up a free conversation with our team.