I’m in my Sunday School hour break – recuperating from the 8:30 service and readying for 11:00. I am between series right now (finished Proverbs and didn’t want to start something new until after the holidays). So, I preached a Christmas-themed sermon today. That means I will probably preach 4 Christmas sermons during this year – it’s not easy to keep that many sermons fresh and free of sappy sentimentality.
I have often said that the reason pastors move from church to church is that they run out of fresh ideas for Christmas. I was at my last church 14 Christmases, and this is my 8th Christmas in Sioux City. Not easy to find a new slant and people don’t always like to hear recycled sermons.
Anyway, I’m wondering how the Voices community handles Christmas preaching. Do you:
- Ignore the season and continue your series?
- Only preach a Christmas sermon the last Sunday before the 25th?
- Preach Christmas themed messages throughout the month of December?
- Perhaps follow an Advent theme?
What do you do at Christmas time?
At times in the past, I have:
- Continued my series and tie the messages to Christmas in some way (worked well when I was in Romans, not so well in other series.)
- Preach a theme during the entire season (one year it was the key figures of Christmas, another it was “The Gifts of Christmas” – blessings that are ours because of what Christ did, etc)
- Sometimes I just mix and match Christmas themes.
- I’ve always preached at least two Christmas-themed sermons each year (plus Christmas Eve) but sometimes (like this year) I go the whole month of December.
I’m not only interested in what you do, but why you do it. Tell us what you do at Christmas and the preaching philosophy and thought-process that goes into it.
