Five Quick Tips for Planning Christmas
Christmas is supposed to be the most wonderful time of year. But often as a Pastor or Church Staff member, it can feel more like chaos than calm.
“By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin
On average, pastors spend 10 ½ hours preparing each message. It is an arduous journey, especially when the sermon topic is exactly the same year over year. By preparing in advance, you ensure that one of the biggest boulders on your plate is finished so you can focus on your team and your congregation.
Planning isn’t just about good ideas or fail-safes, it’s good stewardship. If a church is planning more than 3 months in advance, they are way more likely to be a growing church.
“The plans of the diligent lead to profit.” – Proverbs 21:5
5 Key Principles to Planning Christmas Services
While it’s not the easiest of seasons for Church Leaders, there are 5 key principles to making this season not only less exhausting but also more effective.
1. Start talking about Christmas earlier than you’re used to.
The music industry is releasing music about 2 weeks earlier than usual because they know people are ready for it. Start talking about Christmas in October in your church.
2. Prepare your sermon series at least a month in advance.
This takes a lot of mental energy, and is often the bottleneck for things like series design and invite cards.
3. Plan for online and in-person and recognize that these may be two different programs.
In this case, you might not just want to stream an in-person service; you might want to create content exclusively for an online audience.
4. Narrow your “Asks.”
Really understand what you’re asking people to do, and make sure you aren’t spreading your CTA’s (Call To Action’s) too thin. Consider the constraint of two CTA’s; a CTA for a church member and a CTA for a non-church member.
5. Make Christmas more about your community and less about your church.
How can you tell your city about the Christmas Story? Provide invitational resources through Facebook posts, invite cards, and online events.
Free Resource for Planning Christmas
At Church Fuel, we’d like to help ease the burden of the Christmas season by offering our Ultimate Christmas Kit FREE OF CHARGE. We know that communications and marketing are often the last steps in your Christmas planning. This free kit makes it front and center and does all the heavy lifting for you. In it, you’ll find everything you’ll need to have the best Christmas ever at your church.
Here’s what’s in the Ultimate Christmas Kit:
- Planning & Prep: The first step to an impactful Christmas is intentional planning. Step 1 of this kit is designed to guide you in your Christmas planning with administrative tools for planning, full branded graphics, Canva DIY templates and branded print pieces.
- Invites: Christmas is one of the best times to invite people to church. We’ve got strategies with corresponding resources to help you invite more people than ever before. Search Invites, Event Invites, Online Invites for your Website and Social Media posts and, of course, strategies and invitation printed materials
- Connections: We’ve got all the scripts, tech, and resources you need to plan for visitors, follow-up with them, and get them connected fast! Insanely practical resources like a super-host strategy, materials and strategies for fully engaging your congregation and strategies and materials to follow up and engage all visitors this Christmas – no more asking where did everyone go after Christmas!
- Services: Christmas is often one of the most attended times of the year for most churches. We’ve got in-service graphics and videos to make the experience special and help with photography – even ideas and materials for a photo booth so guests feel special as well.
Get your FREE Ultimate Christmas Kit and make this year the best Christmas ever – for you, your staff and the people you are called to shepherd.
