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Well, it’s March 21 and in Washington State, we’re 5 days into a partial shutdown of all bars, restaurants, coffee shops, recreational facilities, massage studios and gyms. That was after the massive wave of event cancellations the week before.  

It’s Saturday so my church will have its second livestream service tomorrow morning. Last Sunday the service was limited to preaching, Scripture reading, and prayer – no music.  We’ll see if there’s any sort of worship leading tomorrow, but earlier this week an associate pastor sent out an email to 34 people with a sweeping cancellation of all special music plans for the next 6-8 weeks. 

And while quiet Saturdays writing blocks (albeit in my room rather than a coffee shop) are nothing new to me, what is new is today’s project.

You see, while most of this blog focuses on Christmas productions, I’ve also been working on producing my church’s Good Friday cantata. I had the concept for it over a year ago, wrote much of the script last spring, polished it in the fall, and then since January I’ve been wrangling people, music and logistics (you can see my general timeline here) and actually had just gotten every one of the seven pieces of music assigned when our local world changed. 

I’ll admit, I was pretty upset at first. Honestly, I hope it wasn’t a pride thing (MY program, MY ideas, MY plans all have to change) as much as the firm belief that this particular program would make some small impact, would touch someone’s heart, would be what someone in my church needed to hear.

At this point, I don’t know if we’ll even have a Good Friday service. If Washington State follows New York and California and shuts down, we won’t. Much can change in the next 3 weeks in that regard. 

But there’s always hope in following through with one’s responsibility. And that is my project today. To take my 20+ pages of plans and cut them down, striking out all the effects and lighting changes, reducing to the most minimal of participant count, rewriting the tenor of the songs as spoken word, and all in all adapting the program to fit the restrictions of today. 

And accepting the reality of today is so important. If I hung onto the what-ifs and maybes and I wishes, I would be stuck in dreaming of the past rather than striding confidently into the future that God has set out. 

Even if I rewrite the entire script and the service gets cancelled or church leadership decides to do a sermon-based livestream, I now have two developed variations of the same program, and perhaps either of them will bless different churches in different ways in future Holy Weeks.  

The impact of any special service is ultimately in God’s hands. As much as I strongly believe in crafting quality material and producing it with excellence, I also have to accept this reality, and trust that perhaps a simple scripted conversation between two narrators sitting in front of a single camera is what God has chosen to use in the hearts of my church family, rather than the beautiful music and incredible lyrics that are so painful to cut.  

Perhaps He’ll choose to cancel the entire program, and He’ll still ask me to look to Him and learn the lessons of trust and dependence – in my drive for giving something of beauty to the world and the Church, do I make an idol of that gift rather than the ultimate Giver who has blessed me with those talents? Can I accept that the hidden hours and months of working on this project are perhaps to be a sacrifice of praise to Him alone for now?

So for now, we wait. And we work, so that in doing or not doing, in a produced program or a silent sacrifice, God will have His glory.

March 27 EDIT: I heard the final decision this week. Church leadership has made the wise and practical decision to pivot to something much simpler than even a pared-down version of The Curse & the Cross.

So as coordinator, my work wasn’t quite finished. I needed to tell my team who have been involved in the project since early February:

“And THANK YOU to each of you for stepping into your parts, practicing the music, collaborating with each other, giving me feedback and improvements that made the script stronger than what it would have been, and all the ways you gave of your time and talent. I’m grateful to you, and I know that time and service given in the King’s name is never wasted (1 Cor 5:58).”

Ironically (or else just another glimpse of God’s sovereignty), the entire theme of The Curse and the Cross is trusting in God through all that we encounter. One of the pieces I had included was Lauren Daigle’s “Trust in You”:

“Truth is, You know what tomorrow brings
There’s not a day ahead You have not seen
So let all things be my life and breath
I want what You want Lord and nothing less”

If this is a new world to you, taking an idea and turning it into a full-fledged production is a daunting task. This whole blog is here to help you break it down, delegate it out, take it one step at a time, and all in all make the project a success. This post in particular is an overview of all the major steps to take your concept from idea to done.

Phase 1: Writing 

Phase 1 is so easy and beautiful and you can make things happen whenever and however you want them – because it’s just you. No one’s asking you questions and the production is still months away and most people might not even know you’re working on it. There’s little pressure, just a lot of creative work and digging into Scripture and listening to hours of songs and wrestling with your own ideas. (Not sure you like your ideas? Check out Brainstorm Central for over 50 ideas). It’s all behind the scenes work, and these afternoons in a coffee shop are truly a delight. 

At some point in Phase 1 is the pitch. It’s the email to the pastor saying “Hey, I have an idea and I’d like to show it to you” or it’s the going out for coffee with the music minister to present your finished script, or maybe it never really happened; you just ambled into Phase 1 knowing that you’d be responsible for creating something and making it happen.

Depending on your church’s culture and if you’ve done this before, you might do a lot of writing prior to the pitch meeting or you might get delegated the role early on and create the project afterwards. I usually have had a strong concept & partial outline before sending the initial proposal email, and a 90-95% completed script prior to the meeting with leadership.

What to do in Phase 1:

• Develop the concept and outline
• Write the script
• Choose the music 
• Present to decision makers (if needed)

Your Deadline:
Phase 1 can be weeks or months depending on how far away the target production date is, but I would suggest that this stage should be completed at a minimum of 3-4 months prior to the production date. 

Phase 2: Casting

Once you have the green light to make your program happen, it’s time to get the people who will be the voices and musicians. I usually write a pretty detailed email outlining the vision of the overall production and the part I would like to cast them in – speaking, singing, playing an instrument, etc. Often I ask the same person to do two or three parts. 

Deadlines are your friend
My goal is to have the requests out and the first wave of answers back in pretty short order. If someone takes two weeks to then say no, you’ve lost that amount of time in finding the right person to say yes. So when you ask someone to participate, especially as a soloist, give them a hard deadline to respond. 

Also, people talk. It’s a bit awkward to hear that your friend was asked to sing a month ago, and you just got an email yesterday from the coordinator inviting you too – makes you wonder how many people said no before you, right? Actually, I’ve sometimes avoided asking my most experienced/multi-talented people until I get the first wave of yeses and nos, because I know they can take on a couple different parts if needed (haha they’re like that blood type that’s a universal donor). 

The early coordinator gets the Yes
And when you’re planning ahead to the casting phase, check the community calendar – if Easter is bookending Spring Break, you might have a harder time lining up people who are making out of town plans. I pretty much assume to have about a quarter to a third of responses be a no for the Christmas season programs but what I’ve also learned is that while a lot of people inevitably say no to different holiday events, if they’ve committed a yes in August or September, you’re not the one they’re saying no to!

What to Do In Phase 2:

• Match up speakers, singers, instrumentalists, readers, etc to each part in your program
• Order music in the appropriate key for each special number
• Create script & music binders and deliver to each participant
• Set up the first group rehearsal (if applicable)

Your Deadline:
Have all music and scripts out to participants 2-3 months prior to the production (2 months for a simpler service; if the group will be doing rehearsals together, 3 months is much better).

Phase 3: Rehearsals

Now is when the hard work you’ve been working on for so long starts to see the light of day. Whether you wrote the entire script yourself, or compiled extracts of Scripture around pieces of music, or some blend of the two, there is a certain quiet joy in seeing something that you’ve created start to take on a life of its own. 

For my most involved production, where every person was a narrator as well as involved in the music, I set up a rehearsal calendar for each Sunday after church during the rehearsal phase. For my current Good Friday service project, each set (pianist & singer/s) is coordinating their own practices of their own accord and we’ll all get together once for a tech rehearsal.

Even though we won’t have any group rehearsals until the end, I’ll also check in with each musical number and ask to sit in on a practice, just to see how it’s coming along. I encourage each group to take the song and make it their own, I just love seeing them start to take shape.

What to Do in Phase 3:

• Coordinate or clearly delegate rehearsals
• Check in
• Set up final group rehearsal/s or tech rehearsal

Your Deadline:
Rehearsals take us all the way to the week of the production. If you’ve been running on time up til now, that means your cast has 8-12 weeks to learn their parts and get together with their singing partners to practice. 

Phase 4: Logistics

As rehearsals continue, it’s time for you as the coordinator to make sure all the other pieces are coming together too. Anything else that needs to be decided, delegated, or done, is on you until you hand it off to someone else. Set design, programs, notes for the A/V team, communication with the church office – take initiative on these so that it’s rare for people to have to come to you first.

What to Do in Phase 4:

• Programs written & designed
• A/V team lined up 
• Sound & lighting notes written and given to A/V team
• Ushers, childcare, other support lined up as needed
• Any costumes/set design, etc. decided upon and procured
• PowerPoint created
• Coordinate with church office as needed for pastoral opening prayer, auxiliary congregational singing that you’re not handling, etc.

Your Deadline:
Like rehearsals, these components go all the way up to the day of production, but it’s best for most of these to be decided on or sorted by about two weeks to go time – it just gives you buffer time to deal with any last-minute issues that may arise.  That way, when you send around reminders the week of (which you should!) they will be reminders, not new information. 

Phase 5: The Week Of

This is when everything comes together for real. Props and costumes are physically in someone’s car, the program comes out from the printer, the candle lighters are brought down from the attic and refilled, and the cast collects to do a final group and tech rehearsal. 

What to Do in Phase 5:

• Print or have programs and additional scripts/cheat sheets for cast printed
• Coordinate any physical set up/staging of the platform
• Conduct final rehearsal and confirm expectation for dress code & arrival time for the production
• Send reminder emails to church office, head usher, A/V techs, cast, etc. with any final instructions, expectations, last minute changes and so on 

Your Deadline:
Showtime!

So that’s it! 5 steps to take you from idea to production.  What phase are you in right now? I’d love to hear about your project at designorganizecreate@gmail.com, and if you just came across this site, be sure to start here.

There are times when a song fits a script beautifully, except for two or three phrases. Or you want to reframe the context so that it’s even more powerful.

You can write new lyrics from scratch.

Here’s how I’ve done it

In one Christmas Eve production, I wanted the Joseph character to sing Casting Crown’s “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” but that song was originally written in context of New England in the 1800s (and then beautifully rewritten for the modern arrangement – see the lyrics here).

So I rewrote sections, and here’s how it turned out:

I hear the cry of the baby
Son of God, now son of man
I own, I fear His presence here, 
The sin on earth, evil of man

But angels are singing 
Against the darkness singing
In my heart I hear them
Peace on earth, good will to men

But in despair I bowed my head
There is no peace on earth I said
For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, goodwill to men

But angels are singing
Hear the angels singing
Give me faith to hear it
Peace on earth, good will to men

Then rang the truth more loud and deep
God is not dead, nor does He sleep
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, because of Him!

You strengthen my heart as I pray
I am resolved, I will obey
In faith, to trust Your plan for us,
Of peace on earth, goodwill to men

And angels are singing
Hear the angels singing
Glory to God in heaven
And peace on earth, because of Him.

So today let’s look at a pattern for rewriting sections of songs (and check out this post for another way to accomplish the same purpose).

First off, I’m no lyricist.

I don’t know the first thing about how real musicians go about writing their songs.

I’m just a regular Jane who listens to a lot of music, took piano lessons as a kid, and has a halfway decent ear for tempo. 

Now that we have that out of the way…

Today’s sample is Fernando Ortega’s “Creation Song (Glory to the Lamb)”:

He wraps Himself in light
As with a garment,
He spreads out the heavens
And walks on the wings of the wind.

He marked out the span 
of Earth’s measure
And laid down its footings
He built up the dry land
Surrounded by waters
Bursting from springs of the sea

He made the moon for its seasons
The sun knows its setting             
He looks at the Earth and it trembles
He touches the mountains and they smoke

He sends forth the springs from the valleys
That flow between mountains
The birds of the air
Dwell by the waters
Lifting their voices in song

Psych. One of these verses is not like the others. When I was designing the program for that year, I decided to write an additional verse.

I honestly don’t remember why.

I probably needed more length to fill out the time. I possibly wanted to round out the song since I was cutting the extra choruses at the end.

Honestly though, I probably just wanted to. Because it’s a challenge, and there’s no demerits for failing.

Analysis

Structure

When I listened to this song (over and over and over) I realized that the first verse and the third (Ortega’s second) were shorter, and the fourth was longer.

So structurally I modeled my stanza (the second one) after the fourth, to create a parallel/repetition.

I also liked how verse one and four had longer sentences; I wasn’t a huge fan of how so many lines in verse 3 begin with “He + verb”.

I then adopted the same structure for my new draft. The verse is in two sentences, with three lines each. That cut the work in two feasible chunks: I just needed two ideas. 

Themes

I took notes on the themes or ideas in each of the Ortega verses:

He wraps Himself in light
As with a garment,
He spreads out the heavens
And walks on the wings of the wind.
[Let there be light, heavenly, airy, windy, spacious firmament]

He made the moon for its seasons
The sun knows its setting
He looks at the Earth and it trembles
He touches the mountains and they smoke
[space, sun & moon, mountains]

He sends forth the springs
From the valleys
That flow between mountains
The birds of the air
Dwell by the waters
Lifting their voices in song
[water, mountains again, birds. Small and close – nothing big or grand]

Style

This is a descriptive song. There’s a lightness and simplicity to it. It’s describing Creation and its attributes, and reflecting that Creation’s glory back to its Creator. There’s no deep doctrine explained; there’s no direct message, them, or call to action in the verses. It would feel forced (or simply beyond my skill) to craft a stanza that explained a doctrine, so I needed to stay in the descriptive style.

Writing the New Lyrics

The three original verses reference wind, air, space, the sun, mountains, birds, valleys and rivers. So I decided to expand on the references to physical earth, and include some water as well. 

To inspire me for the lyrics themselves, I read the creation accounts in Genesis but wasn’t quite inspired.  So I thought

“where else in Scripture are there descriptions of creation?”

• In Psalm 8 the psalmist references the heavens, the moon and stars, flocks and herds and fish of the sea.
• Psalm 33 summarizes the creation of the heavens and the waters.
• Psalm 65 writes in detail about God’s ongoing care for His creation, down to meadows and crops and grain. 

But I’m not well versed in the Psalms, so I missed out on these references… This is where different experiences with Scripture could easily result in different directions. Which is really the beauty of this creative process – all of us will collide with Scripture differently.

Job 38, on the other hand, is one of my favorite Old Testament passages so it stood out to me.

When God first speaks to Job, He asks him a series of rhetorical questions that display His power and glory through what He has created.  I could take those questions, restructure them as statements, and have a solid reference to a well-known Scriptural source.

And this gave me a link back to Genesis 1 – the creation account originally had too many options, but now that I had a lens provided by Job 38, I could pick out pieces of this chapter that fit best.

Here is when the writing work really happened, and there aren’t any tricks or techniques in particular that I can think of. I just summarized the verses, trying out different words and turns of phrase. I also sung it over and over in my head with the original song playing in the background, to make sure that the syllabic emphasis of my lyrics fit the music as well as possible.

But having a strong structure and direction gave those thoughts focus: I knew where I was going and I knew that if I followed my list, I’d have something strong.

Miscellaneous Tips

• Once you find your Scriptural inspiration, try reading those passages in different translations; it’s a thesaurus with all the right context!
• Do this in multiple sittings and let it percolate in between. 
• Don’t stress about getting it perfect, and be okay with some of the attempts just not working out.

Here’s another example:

Have you ever rewritten song lyrics? What’s your process? What works and what doesn’t? I’d love to hear! Let me know at designorganizecreate@gmail.com.

What are three major currencies in a modern society?

Money, time, and energy.

When you pitch a new Christmas production, you’ll come across each of these as objections in some form. Heck, you’ll probably have all these objections within yourself!

We’re going to talk about money today. After all, we all know programs and special services can get expensive. Printing costs, set pieces, costumes, makeup, new tech components – all of this can really add up, especially if it’s a new script each year. 

When I first wanted to produce a Christmas program, I was a bit stumped with this. I wanted to do more than just have a mini version of a church service – some congregational singing, a special song or too, and a message. I had a script more or less ready, but how could I produce it without it costing an arm and a leg, and also avoid having bathrobed shepherds?

What we spent money on:

Music: the primary cost each was licensing enough copies of the music we ordered. Be sure to follow copyright law & usage requirements!

Tech Supplies: The first year we did have to buy more mics. I needed to have eight speakers up front at once – our church doesn’t have a worship band so this was a new thing. I could have made it work with fewer, but thankfully the purchase fit into the church’s A/V budget for that year. This was a one-time cost, and we’ve been using these mics for three years and counting.

Script Binders: Our church uses smaller folders for choir music, and I used those the first year. For Year 2 I purchased a set of twelve black 3-ring binders on Amazon. These housed scripts, director’s notes, pianists’ music, A/V notes, etc. and were a lot more spacious and practical. (This also saved me a ton of time formatting the script to fit the smaller folders) I keep them in a plastic bin in my garage so we can maximize the set by using them year after year.

How we kept the budget down:

• No costumes. Participants wore dressy church clothes in black, gray, and dark Christmas colors, with dashes of gold and silver. I’ve considered implementing specific costumes in the future – like to have a costumed actor for a specific monologue.
• Speaking of participants, none of ours were paid. Our pianists, singers, speakers, A/V techs, and setup people all volunteered their time to participate. *Side note: the more organized you are, and the better your script is, the easier time you will have with buy-in from your participants.
• No sets. Setup was our regular Christmas decor – 5-7 trees across the stage, and a backlit cross. We dimmed the lights and projected backdrops onto the screens. (This is something else I’ll likely amplify in future years. I’m working on a Good Friday program for 2020, and am designing a display to use as a set piece.)
• Free specialty backdrops. Each year I picked specific fonts and a custom graphic (courtesy of our church’s phenomenal administrative assistant). The unique font & color combinations kept the look different than our regular services.  
• Using the tech capabilities and supplies the church already owned. This meant I had to plan the sound setup to work with our limitations – like having only three monitors and two monitor channels – or get larger expenses approved ahead of time, like when we ordered a new set of mics. Again, the more organized and prepared you are, the easier it will be to justify these expenses.  
• Some costs were accounted as other aspects of church expenses. We printed all the scripts and music at church, so those specific expenses were absorbed into the general office printing expenses. 
• Maximizing on what really matters. Keeping costs down isn’t so much about “what won’t we do” or “what can’t we have” but it’s “what really truly matters” and keeping those priorities straight. For me as a director, what really matters is 

eternal truth presented through meaningful words and beautiful music.

If you have to purchase everything- scripts, music, sets, costumes – your production can get really expensive. And if that’s in the budget, go for it! But if you’re in the same situation I was, and need to create beauty through minimalism, you can make up the ‘budget’ by bringing together a great team and giving them time to create magic. The real cost is then that of time, creative energy, and the heart that pumps the life into this program

And let me tell you, there is an incredible reward that will be yours when you see the program that’s been pumping through your heart for months comes to life. 

When we’re creative to the praise of God, we are acting out a special part of our role as His image-bearers. 

I thrive with boundaries – a definition, a rule, a general structure – these give me clarity and help me understand something that’s vague. They also help me communicate to others.

When I first started writing Christmas Eve service scripts and tried to explain the concepts I had, some people heard “different than what we normally do” (a sermon-based program with some special music” and immediately thought full-on dramatic production with costumes, sets, the works.

That wasn’t what I had in mind at all. So this is how I break down the artistic world of Christmas programs in the conservative church.

What’s ironic is since writing this, I myself have broken out of these styles – especially with my latest script, Hadassah of Susa, which is a 40-minute monologue broken up with congregational singing.

And certainly the characteristics or types I outline below are by no means a hard and fast rule – anything creative allows for fluidity, mixing-and-matching, and really crafting a service that is unique to your vision.

Oh well, these are still general categories that might be helpful if you need shorter terms for reference, or if your church family has been stuck in one specific style for many years of same-old, same-old Christmas programs and is ready to try something (just a little) different.

If you haven’t yet, be sure to read The Ultimate Church Questionnaire to guide you through picking the production style that will be the best fit for your specific situation.

Candlelight Service

It’s quiet, it’s sober, it’s rejoicing.

Speakers present their own devotionals (either multiple short ones or one sermon that is the bulk of the service) and the ‘specialness’ of the service is highlighted by extra music, dim lighting, and of course a traditional candlelighting ceremony at the end.

Emmanuel: The Promise Fulfilled is a textbook Candlelight Service (You can download the FREE outline & production guide here). It requires 5 lay speakers, opens and closes with congregational singing, and speckles special music throughout.

While simple, a Candlelight Service doesn’t have to be boring. Building the service around one strong theme, adding in special moments, giving your speaker/s strong guidance, and choosing powerful music with keep it anything but blase.

Check out this post that includes 15 different concepts and several dozen elements you can choose from while you’re developing your service.

Christmas Cantata

The main characteristics of a Christmas Cantata are a heavy emphasis on music, and a touch of the dramatic. This style often also involves monologues, narrators, and a tight blend of words and music.

First off, the script. This style is more work than a Candlelight Service because instead of delegating some of the writing to your speakers, you (or your team) are creating the word-for-word complete script.

It begins to blend in elements of a theatrical performance – perhaps more lighting changes, some background sound effects, maybe a monologue is performed in costume.

Or perhaps the program is entirely music-based, with little to no spoken words, instead conveying the meaning through a series of songs, both instrumental and sung, and maybe augmented by videos projected across the backdrop.

Both Light Out of Darkness (Christmas Eve) and The Curse & the Cross (Good Friday) are written in a cantata style.

Theatrical Performance

A theatrical production has a heavy emphasis on acting in character. It’s highly visual, and creates an immersive experience for your audiences through set pieces, costumes, makeup, lighting, sound effects, etc.

What to consider: The set pieces and costumes make the production cost much higher; it’s also difficult to avoid a kitschy design (so check out our Staging Inspiration Pinterest board for ideas on succeeding with this!). Theatrical productions also generally require a higher time commitment from your tech team and participants, to ensure that the pieces flow smoothly.

Do you have enough acting talent to pull off a multi-character production?Also consider your church’s culture around acting and performance. Would actors be seen as showing off or attention-seeking? If so, consider easing into this style by including one or two costumed performance monologues as part of a Candlelight or Cantata style production.

A note: there certainly is a way to do a scaled-back variation of this style, like a radio theater setup or using a minimalistic set and costuming- almost a blend between the Theatrical and the Cantata styles. As I mentioned before, anything creative like this is a spectrum, and you can land on it wherever you choose!

Kids’ Production

A Kids’ Production is the junior version of a blend of the Cantata and the Theatrical. It usually relies heavily on songs, with readings and recitations interspersed. Since the production is carried by children, the audience tolerance for thrown-together costumes, amateur acting ability, and cardboard scenery is generally much higher than it would be for the Theatrical performance.

Kids’ productions don’t necessarily exclude teens and adults – some churches may choose to cast adults in the main roles, or as narrators/readers, and certainly behind the scenes. The defining characteristic is that kids are highlighted.

What to consider:

Do you have plenty of kids at your church?

Do you have an engaged youth program and Sunday School program?

If so, there’s a great opportunity for delegating portions of the program to the teachers/youth leaders, and also preset rehearsal times. It’s much easier to have classes practice their song/section for 15 minutes out of an hour-long Sunday School class, than it is to arrange a time for parents to bring their kids back outside of the regular church schedule.

Will parents be willing to provide the volunteer time and cost needed to bring their children to rehearsals (if needed), help put together sets, provide the costume for their child, and remind their child to practice the part, during the Christmas season? Some families would find this a happy tradition to be part of; others will be overwhelmed by yet another holiday activity.

How to choose a style

Consider mapping out what your church has done in the past – what genres does it fall into? Is your goal to stay squarely in the same style, or stretch it towards something else? If you’re looking to stretch a bit, consider what elements of the other styles you might be able to incorporate.

And be sure to read The Ultimate Church Questionnaire to guide you through picking the production style that will be the best fit for your specific situation.

What you’ll find here

I Organized That specializes in the Candlelight & Cantata styles – they’re what I primarily have experience in and have written scripts for.

Last Sunday, during the morning worship service, I had a brilliant idea for next year’s Good Friday program. There, in the dim sanctuary, I typed up notes so I could later update the half-finished script.

The next morning, driving two hours away, I mentally added more detail to the vision and it felt…right.

Then the next evening I opened up Drive, found the doc, and began editing, and it felt…

Wrong.

Applying that brilliant idea meant changing aspects I still really liked, and had spent time working on. It would also change the production style, stretching my church’s cultural comfort zone.

Already I could hear the whispers that my insecurities tell me will be spoken behind my back:

“Hmmm, that was a bit showy”

“A bit of an attention seeker, I think?”

“Huh, so she writes the script then casts herself in that role?”

Services like Good Friday and Christmas Eve are so special, and should be handled so carefully, that I hesitate to risk certain artistic techniques. I never want the “show” to be the forefront; I want it to be a detailed, powerful channel so that the message can shine.

However….

Sometimes we need to move away from what is safe to what is powerful.

Away from what is easy to what is most effective.

Away from what is normal to what is magnificent.

Consider these questions to:

• inform what type of production will be a strong fit for your group
• strengthen your script pitch (if you’re presenting one to leadership)
• know what you can delegate
• avoid committing your church to too large (or too small!) of a project

Time

Consider the time you’ll need to design and compile the program, plus administrative time to coordinate the participants and set up rehearsals; then the actual rehearsal and production calendar (read Staying Organized: Production Phases & How to Manage Them).

• How much time do you want to commit to writing, producing and directing?
• How many weeks/months do you have to prepare?

Team

• Would you rather coordinate the program, or direct it, or both?
• Will you be running this alone, or can you bring on some creative partners? (Administrative Coordinator, Creative Director, Music Coordinator, Costumes & Staging, Tech Team, etc.)
• How about on the administrative front? Will church staff provide support for coordinating ushers & childcare, ordering sheet music, designing programs?

Talent

• What age ranges are your likely participants? Consider if any are going through major life changes (marriage, new baby, job changes, etc) that are likely to affect them saying yes to participating.
• How many people can you expect to have in your cast & crew?
• What kind of workload are you able to put on your participants? Does your church use the same group of people for special music all four Sunday of Advent? Is your talent pool likely to be available for group rehearsals?
• Would you need to run each rehearsal, or can you delegate songs to individuals or groups, and just coordinate a couple ensemble run-throughs at the end?

Tech

• What is your church’s technical range and capabilities?
• Do you have plenty of equipment – standing mics, instrument mics, lavalier/headset mics, monitors, instruments, lighting, projectors for displays/graphics? (for example, my church had to buy more mics the first year I directed – thankfully we found that out in August!)
• What technical standard is the norm for your church?  Do you have a sound, lighting and camera crew on rotation, or is it one person at the soundboard on Sunday morning?
• What is culturally acceptable for technical effects at your church? Are graphics, projections, and uplighting normal, or is your church one that has only recently switched from hymnals to using a PowerPoint for lyrics?

Church Culture & Community Expectations

Consider what has been done at your church in years past. What needs to stay the same, and where do you have creative leeway?

For example, my home church keeps the service under an hour each year. We open with congregational singing of a Christmas carol, and close with lighting candles while singing Silent Night. These components take 10-15 minutes, so the programs I’ve written are about 45 minutes long. This is a fairly contracted service, so it’s been a great challenge to include the content development of the program’s theme, enough music, and also fit into the time frame.

What program length is expected?

• Consider the often-unspoken culture around creative projects in the church. Are you expected to ask certain people? Will it make waves if you broaden the scope/age/size of the talent pool? If someone “always” sings on Christmas Eve, should you consider asking them to participate to avoid drama? Or pitch for a completely different, fresh group this time around?
• Consider your church’s culture around presenting doctrinal truth. Are speakers preapproved, then they can present what they prepare? Does your script have to go through an approval process? Are there guidelines or expectations around women speaking? Is is different if they’re reading a script versus preparing a devotional?
• Consider your church’s musical style. Could it use a little freshening up? Would you need to modify the backup music (e.g. having a pianist play instead of using a band’s recorded performance track) to make it fit the style your congregation is used to?
• What is your church culture around dramatic performance? Would a theatrical performance be seen as showing off? Would a dramatic monologue as part of a cantata be too over the top? In practice, does your church skew more towards the philosophy of “humble attitude over technical skill” or “we’d better get it right or people will talk” or “excellence in all things”.

I believe that special services can – and maybe should – push the bounds of what is normally done, but you should avoid putting a burden on your people’s capabilities, and you certainly don’t want to introduce something completely against the norm. Special services should enhance what is normal for your church, not strain it.

The Purpose

• Who is the target audience for this production? Are you envisioning this as primarily an evangelistic outreach to the unchurched in your community, or a sober service primarily for the family of God? or a way for a lot of families to get involved in a Christmas celebration?
• Also consider your purpose for taking this on. Which of the four types (if any) best fit what your church has done in the past, and what should be changing this time around? Are you wanting to bring in variety, challenge the status quo, or just get better at the style you’re used to?

While I was writing Brainstorm Central: 15 Concepts and 50 Components and listing out a few Christmas phrases one could use as starter inspiration, I got annoyed with myself. As is often the result, I had a Smeagol-Gollum type chat with myself (internally, thankfully, as I was in a busy coffee shop at the time) that went something like this:

“You’re just spouting off random phrases that sound like Christmas.”

“No, these are actual terms directly from the Bible, or a longstanding Christmas hymn. They’re immediately recognizable and carry a lot of inspirational weight.“

“How can you expect a person to write anything meaningful, with just a few words?”

“It’s not that hard- you just see what songs and Scripture matches up with the concept, and put them into a logical sequence. It’s the fleshing it out later that is the difficult part.”

“You’re just making your reader do all the work – how are you even helping anyone?”

“Fine then. I’ll write up a pattern for how I’d take this from concept to a workable outline. Satisfied?”

“Only if you pick a concept you haven’t produced before. No fair to reverse engineer from a completed script.”

I picked “Fear Not” (what the angel says to Mary) and brainstormed for just over an hour. And here’s what I came up with:

Search the Scripture

Always a good place to start.

I did some searching with an online concordance. (Who am I kidding: I went to Google and found blog posts compiling verses about fear). Someone wrote that there are about/at least 80 commands in Scripture NOT to fear…and I asked myself:

Why are we commanded to “Fear not”:

• God promises that He has overcome the world (John 16:33)
• God says He has redeemed us and called us His own (Isaiah 43:1)
• God says He is with us (Isaiah 41:10)

So we see that God is all-powerful, He’s claimed us as His own, and He promises to be with us and give us His peace.

Looking for music

You’re putting together a rough list of songs that “might” fit. You’re not looking for perfect fits; this is a process!

Part 1: Search YouTube & Google for songs that reference your keyword theme, whether or not they’re technically Christmas songs.

Here’s what I found in my brainstorming session:

Fear Not (Point of Grace)

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day (Casting Crowns)

Part 2: Look for any songs that quote the specific Scriptures you’ve found. In this case, since one reason we have not to fear is “God is with us”, we can also search for songs that reference “Emmanuel.”

Emmanuel (Michael W. Smith)

Build a progression of thought

What concepts naturally follow each other? One pattern is: story opens – doctrine – reflection – story closes – application, such as the following:

• Story opens: Mary’s legitimate fear & the angel’s command to “Fear not”.
• Doctrine: Exploration of Biblical commands not to fear (whether read from Scripture or sung), and the reasons given in those commands.
• Reflection: Reflection on God’s character.
• Story closes: Mary’s response in Luke 1:38 – “I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”
• Application: Expression of what our response should be – fear into faith.

Here is where the brainstorming session itself ended, but I mapped out what I’d do next:

Structuring the program

Determine what key points will be emphasized, and what concepts might be subsections or just references. Decide how long to allow for each section. Consider if any additional themes should be developed in parallel (say, “God with us” is very relevant both to the Christmas story and the overall theme).

Themes don’t have to be heavy-handed. Light and subtle is still powerful; it gives the main thought precedence while allowing for depth and complexity. ***This is important: new churchgoers & unbelieving visitors will grasp the main concept without too much being thrown at them, and longtime believers will pick up on a new dimension they might not have reflected on.***

Choose your production elements

A costumed Mary giving two separate monologues? A sermon explaining the doctrine and reflection, or several readers narrating a script you’ll write? What points do you want to highlight with music? (see the 40+ elements you can use for various effects)

Decide on the music

Collecting a body of music that “might” relate to the theme is very helpful at the beginning of the process to inspire you. Now is the time to cull out the extra and just keep what really fits well.

Search out new songs that add depth for the points you want to emphasize. The section on Mary’s response is a perfect time to include a song; perhaps the Getty arrangement of “Magnificat”, or Amy Grant’s “Breath of Heaven”.

And you’re well on your way to a full, fleshed out, cohesive and powerful script, just from two words!

Pushing a timeframe wasn’t so much about seeing how much content I could come up with in a short amount of time. It was more to give a deadline that forced me to distill the process from “hours of Googling in coffee shops” into a short, logical checklist:

• Search the Scripture
• Look for music options
• Build a progression of thought
• Structure the program
• Choose production elements