![\"christmas\"](\"http:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/christmas-300x145.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
leader provide clarity to your team as to why you are hosting 5 Christmas concerts, 14 Christmas Eve Services, 4 Christmas Day services, and a couple of Christmas banquets.<\/p>\nBrace yourself.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re a leader in a local church you know that the wave of ministry overload is about to hit you and your team, if it hasn\u2019t already.<\/p>\n
To survive, it is vital that you as a church leader provide clarity to your team as to why you are hosting 5 Christmas concerts, 14 Christmas Eve Services, 4 Christmas Day services, and a couple of Christmas banquets.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Without that clarity you can easily fall prey to the 5 Myths of Church Christmas Craziness.<\/strong><\/p>\n MYTH #1: CHRISTMAS PROGRAMS LEAD TO AN ATTENDANCE SPIKE IN JANUARY<\/strong><\/p>\n This rarely happens. Unchurched people from the community may, indeed, attend your Christmas concert, but rarely do they arrive en masse to weekend services in the New Year.<\/p>\n MYTH #2: CHRISTMAS PROGRAM TRADITIONS ARE SACRED<\/strong><\/p>\n No, they\u2019re not.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t drop a tradition on a whim, but be very clear why<\/em> you are about to present The Christmas Handbell Choir Concert<\/em> for the 93rd<\/sup> consecutive year.<\/p>\n MYTH #3: IF WE DROP OUR CONCERT EVERYONE WILL GO TO THAT OTHER CHURCH\u2019S CONCERT<\/em> INSTEAD<\/strong><\/p>\n Indeed they might.<\/p>\n Take a deep breath.<\/p>\n Get over it.<\/p>\n MYTH #4: CHRISTMAS CONCERTS ARE MISSIONAL<\/strong><\/p>\n A Christmas concert can indeed lead<\/em> to missional activity, but it is not in and of itself missional.<\/p>\n A friend of mine used to invite upwards of 20 co-workers to our church\u2019s annual Christmas event, and afterwards would bring them all back to his home for a Christmas party where they could discuss their experience at the church.<\/p>\n That\u2019s<\/em> missional.<\/p>\n MYTH #5: A CHRISTMAS EVENT GIVES PEOPLE A TASTE OF WHAT OUR CHURCH IS LIKE<\/strong><\/p>\n Beware the temptation to bait and switch.<\/p>\n Many churches present Star Wars-like production in their Christmas program, with the unspoken promise that \u201cthis is what our church is really like<\/em>\u201d. Better to convey genuine authenticity than a promise of a weekly Cirque du Soleil production.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n My wish for you this Christmas is that all that you do as a church will truly impact your congregation and community in a profound way.<\/p>\n Just remember, that without providing crystal clarity as to why<\/em> you\u2019re doing all you\u2019re doing, you can easily be blind-sided by Church Christmas Craziness.<\/p>\n What myths have you learned with respect to Christmas programs?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Brace yourself. If you\u2019re a leader in a local church you know that the wave of ministry overload is about to hit you and your team, if it hasn\u2019t already. To survive, it is vital that you as a church leader provide clarity to your team as to why you are hosting 5 Christmas concerts,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,752],"tags":[993,985,753,754,755],"class_list":["post-1475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","category-seasonal","tag-christmas","tag-missional","tag-myths","tag-programs","tag-traditions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1475"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1549,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1475\/revisions\/1549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}