How do you find a theme for your Christmas outreach, sermons, blogs, or for content for your website that visitors might read?
One of the best resources is in the classic Christmas carols. The content is rich with biblical references and truth. The carols make a perfect communication starting place because people, both church members and unchurched are familiar with them, but may not be aware of the truth they reflect.
Following are some suggestions of ways you might want to use Christmas carols, but before you pick one, be sure to pick a carol that is in the Public Domain (copyrights expired) so that if you want to quote all or part of it you aren't breaking any laws. Sixteen of the most popular ones are listed below.
For an extensive list of all the carols with lyrics in the public domain, including many little-known, historical ones: http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/HTML/index_of_carols_ab.htm
A limited choice of lyrics of some of the more popular carols:
http://songsofpraise.org/christmaslyrics.htm
Short list of some public domain Christmas Carols, suggestions for use follow this list
- Oh Little Town of Bethlehem
- Silent Night
- Jingle Bells
- Deck the Halls
- Oh Little Town Of Bethlehem
- Angels We Have Heard on High
- Away In a Manger
- Deck the Halls
- Here We Come A-Caroling
- The First Noel
- It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
- Jolly Old St. Nicholas
- Joy to the World
- The Twelve Days of Christmas
- We Wish You a Merry Christmas
- What Child is This?
Some suggestions for ways to use the content of carols in outreach, sermons and blogs
From: Oh Little Town of Bethlehem
O little town of Bethlehem
How still we see thee lie
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by
Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light
The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in thee tonight
The idea of hope and fear--a combination of emotions as old as the years before Christ and as new as contemporary Christmas expectations.
From: Joy to the World
The title alone is great inspiration.
We all need JOY and the reason we can have it now and forever is because of the second line of the song: "the Lord has come"
From: What Child is This?
A good sermon series or Christmas Day sermon title or for a series of Q & A on your website. The answer is in the song: "this is Christ the King."
From: Deck the Halls
"Deck the halls with boughs of holly......tis the season to be jolly...."
Why is it a season to be happy? Again, back to the idea that salvation has become real and tangible in the birth of Jesus. God fulfilled thousands of years of promise in the birth of the Messiah.
Please share your thoughts, comments, questions!