It’s not that I don’t like Christmas music. I just don’t much like it for church use, that is, I question it’s usefulness for the worship of God. Few songs address God directly. They’re retellings of various aspects of the Christmas story, which can be useful until we sing the same kind of song four different times.

But my biggest concern is how traditional Christmas music evokes feelings of nostalgia and notions of the importance of family. Neither of which I’m against—both of which I regularly indulge in without guilt—but that’s not what Christmas ultimately is about. 

I feel like it’s my job as a worship leader to shake people out of vague feelings of warmth and into feelings of amazement that God would take on flesh and blood. With my innate skepticism and cynicism, I need to be shaken a good deal too. Every Christmas.

Can you tell me some Christmas songs that will shake me up?

There’s a long practice of praying the Psalms in corporate worship. The psalms is read by one person and the group repeats a refrain at the end of every section. These folks added music, which isn’t a new idea, but this is the one that reminded me how cool it is.

stthomasthedoubter:

Refrain by Benj Pocta and Read by Sean McCoy