Description
Service Theme
It all comes down to faith. Because all the preparations, parties, shopping, decorating, baking, gifts, concerts, and children’s programs are meaningless if we don’t believe the events that started it all. Forgiveness, hope, purpose of life, salvation, love, and eternal life have no meaning – if we don’t believe that a young virgin gave birth to the Savior of the world, and that He lived, died, and rose again. For us. This night we return to the roots of the story through a simple service of Lessons and Carols. We begin with the Old Testament prophets who even named the Baby and where He would be born. And we end with the joy and assurance that this Baby is now born. We believe that Christ was born for us. We believe that Christ died for us. We believe that He rose up from the dead. And we believe that He’s going to come again; this Lamb of God who was born in a manger!
Service Notes
- The theme of this service of Lessons & Carols is “We Believe!”, based on the song by Diane Riegal and recorded by Diane Riegal & Robyn Lensch.
- A lead line and chord chart of the song, with permission to print, is included in the package.
- A complete order of worship, with optional service elements of Communion and Congregational Candle Lighting included.
- Message Outline and sermon ideas.
- Nine readers are utilized for the Lessons. We encourage you to include male and females of all ages.
- If you have access to live animals, including these in the Nativity story is a wonderful addition. Depending upon your location, possible sources would be local animal rescue, farmers or ranchers, or animal rental companies. Suggested animals would include a donkey and a few sheep and/or goats, and if you’re really fortunate to find, a camel.
- We also encourage you to use actual parents with a newborn for the Nativity story, and a two year old boy for the Wise Men reading.
- The final carol includes optional bell ringing. You may ask worshipers in weeks prior to bring bells, distribute small jingle bells, and/or encourage worshipers to download and play bell apps from their smart phones. You may give to all worshipers or children only. Supplies can be purchased at a local craft store, fabric store, or Oriental Trading Company to make your own, or you can purchase bell bracelets at Oriental Trading.
- Keepsake Bell-Shaped Ornaments (These would adorn at least one of your Christmas trees, preferably at the front side/s of the church, for worshipers to take from the tree when they return from Communion. You could also have 3rd grade and older children to distribute.) Several designs and prices can be found by doing an internet search for “bell-shaped ornaments”.
- Your church must have CCLI and CVLI Licenses to legally use the suggested music and videos.
Graphic
The banner graphic shown above is custom-designed and copyrighted for this service. Purchase of this service includes permission to use it as you wish (banner, bulletin cover, posters, electronic and print ads, etc.). It is included in this package along with custom-created background slide options.
Preservice Suggestions
- Offer a time of fellowship with refreshments both prior to and following worship
- Play Preservice music, with looping background videos, Christmas music videos (purchased or via free download from YouTube), or purchased thematic videos from sites such as WorshipHouseMedia, Sermon Spice, Shift Worship, Motion Worship, ShareFaith, and Centerline New Media.
Welcome and Words about Service
[Aisles: Explain the need to keep the aisles clear during the Nativity story, as the characters will be using them for entrances and exits.]
[Bell Sounds: Explain that we want the closing carol to include sounds of all kinds of bells. Encourage worshipers to use the chime tone or to download a bell app on their smartphones during the offering time (if they hadn’t come prepared) and for children to ring the bells that will be handed to them at Communion]
The Processional Hymn
Once In Royal David’s City
Cecil Frances Humphreys Alexander | Henry John Gauntlett, © Public Domain
[Alternate Option]
Once in Royal David’s City
CH 286; CHH 165; EH 102; ELW 269; HWC 155; HLC 109; LBW 376; LSB 376; LW 58; NCH 145; PH 49; RS 526; STTL 170; WC 161; UMH 250; WOV 643; WAR 183
The Bidding Prayer
Pastor: As we gather for worship on this Christmas Eve, let us prepare with open hearts and delight to hear again the message of the angels; in heart and mind and to go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which is come to pass, and the Babe lying in a manger.
Let us read and mark in Holy Scripture the account of the loving purposes of God, from the first days of our disobedience as His children all the way to the glorious Redemption brought to us by this Holy Child. By quieting our hearts and minds, we dedicate these sacred moments to the true living God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, gladdened with our carols of praise.
But first let us pray for the needs of His whole world; for peace and goodwill over all the earth; for those upon whom His favor rests; for unity and brotherhood within the Christian Church that Jesus came to build:
And because this of all things would bring joy to the Lord, we remember in His name the poor and the helpless, the cold, the hungry, and the oppressed; the sick in body and in mind and them that mourn; the lonely and the unloved; the aged and the little children; all who know not the Lord Jesus, or who love Him not, or who by sin have grieved his heart of love. So, Lord, tonight we ask you to enable us to even more so be your hands and feet in this world. Cause us to not only be hearers of Your word, but also doers of it.
Lastly, let us remember before God all those who rejoice with us, but upon another shore and in a greater light, that multitude which no man can number, whose hope was in the Word made flesh, and with whom, in this Lord Jesus, we for evermore are one.
Greet One Another
Opening Carol
O Come All Ye Faithful, vs. 1,2
- Frederick Oakeley | John Francis Wade, © Public Domain
John Francis Wade, © several publishers
Available on www.PraiseCharts.com, www.LifewayWorship.com, www.MusicNotes.com
[Alternate Option]
O Come, All Ye Faithful
BH 75 81; BH 91 89; CH 249; CHH 148; EH 83; ELW 283; HWC 145; HPW 20; HFG 193; HLC 103; HGP 78; HSP 332; LBW 45; LSB 379; LW 41; NCH 135; PH 41; RH 133; RS 499; STTL 175; WC 173; UMH 234; WAR 182; WHM 133; WIS 178
[During the singing of the carol, Reader 1 takes his/her place at the lectern to begin reading after the song ends.]
FIRST LESSON – GENESIS 3:8-15
Reader 1: In this reading God tells sinful Adam that he has lost the life of Paradise
and that his seed will bruise the serpent’s head. This reading is from Genesis chapter 3.
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked so I hid.” And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
To the woman he said, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.” To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”
