We’ve just had our Carols night and it was great! The team putting together the song list did a great job of mixing traditional carols, new Christmas songs… and they even included some “fun” Christmas songs… like Jingle Bell Rock, Little Drummer Boy, 12 days of Christmas, etc… (see the Carols booklet here).

Now, I have to admit, when I first saw the song list, I put my grinch on and thought, “Why on earth would we waste time singing Christmas songs that have nothing to do with Jesus!?! We’ve got this great opportunity to tell people about Jesus and we’re singing secular Christmas songs?! Bah-humbug!”

But there’s a very good reason for it… in fact, its the very reason I initially thought we shouldn’t do it. Because yes, we want to tell people about Jesus… but even more than that, we want people to listen and hear the message about Jesus!

Can you see the difference? It’s the same reason you play games at youth group. You need to give people breaks, they need interludes, they need breathers and rests and time to warm up to hear the thing you really want them to hear.

It’s the same reason you don’t preach for 2 hours at a time. People just can’t deal with intense ideas for that long. In fact, it’s not loving to subject them to that.

So, use the fun, secular songs to your advantage… give people interludes and be intentional as you try and focus them towards the really important stuff.