It’s quite possible that you’re stressed out of your mind right now.
If you’re not, you will be soon. Why? Because it’s Christmas time. Not only is it the season for wrapped gifts, christmas parties, egg nog, red cups at starbucks, and lots of gift cards…
It’s the season of long rehearsals, massive productions, and many services. For the normal American, Christmas time is a season to relax.
For the pastor, it’s work.
While some are roasting chestnuts on an open fire, you brain is probably roasting with information overload.
But it’s important that you don’t crumble this holiday season. That you remember what’s important. That you stay sane.
How do we do that when there’s so much to get done?
Be With People
It’s likely that you’re asking a lot from your volunteers. The reason being, of course, we can’t do what we do without them.
Slow yourself down and thank them for their investment. Honor them individually. Don’t allow the hustle to bury your team with appreciation.
Also, be sure to spend time with those you love. In the midst of our stress, those closest to us typically feel distanced from you. The roar of the crowds is fading but your family is constant. Take time to enjoy them and appreciate them as well.
It’s sobering to step back and realize that all our hard work is pointless if we’re not investing in people. That’s where it counts.
Stay Inspired
Take some time to read great books. I gather inspiration from a lot of different sources. Seth Godin’s We Are All Weird
Do the Work
As for music, I’d recommend a subscription to Rdio. Similar to Spotify, but even more awesome. It’s a fantastic resource for discovering new music.
Something else I’m trying is to take a day to unplug from technology. I’m finding as a worship leader it’s less about how well I perform and more about how connected I am to the Source.
Also, if you’re able, experiment with a new instrument this holiday season. Sometimes that’s all you need to be inspired and take your creativity in a new direction.
Enlist Great Christmas Resources
Christmas music can be stressful. All worship leaders feel the pressure to come up with something original.
If that’s your thing, great. But some of you reading this blog aren’t able to create your own arrangement, which is totally fine. All you need to do is find some great arrangements already done that you can use. Here are a few of my favorites:
- Chris Tomlin’s Glory In The Highest
is a great resource of Christmas arrangements.
- North Point Christmas
is an incredible album.
- Future of Forestry Christmas EP’s are the stuff of legend. Here’s Volume 1
and Volume 2
. Go and do.
- For pure fun, don’t miss out on Sufjan Stevens’ Songs For Christmas
. Brilliant.
Don’t allow the holiday season to swallow you. Intentionally slow down. Enjoy what is most important. I’m believing for an outpouring of God’s grace and goodness on your life.
Question: What are you doing to stay sane this holiday season? What is currently inspiring you? I’d love to expand this list so please share your thoughts in the comments!
Disclosure: Many of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means I make a tiny commission on the $$ you spend, which helps to support this site and its continued development. Thank you!
Thanks!
No problem!
Thank you!!
From a stressed-out-of-her-mind music director.
I hope you’re not too stressed out! Got big Christmas production plans?
Keeping the basics covered is important for the holidays. The usual responsibilities do not go away, so being careful to keep them in mind and in priority helps with balance. Bible time, family time, check book balances, meal planning, schedules and coordination, house chores, grooming, clean up as you go kind of stuff.
Praying for/with and listening and enjoying His presence and other people is really important. Everyone seems a little extra stressed during the holidays, for good reason. So being flexible is important as well as staying on top of essentials.
I like Amy Grants “I need a silent night” The line about children crying at the mall cause mom wants a cute picture with Santa describes the superficial things we can get caught up in.
Being realistic on projects and participation in Holiday things in relation to what will be the reality come January, February and beyond helps. More filing for divorce occur right after the Holidays every year, so working diligently and in healthy ways on those core relationships is more important than keeping up appearances.
Taking days off technology has not been hurting, although my blog is bleak on content lately, my home and service and work have been rich in opportunity, challenge and learning and for giving.
Being in the moment where we are, the grocery, the home, the work place can bring opportunities to notice others in their situations and reach out appropriately, or even accept encouragement or feedback they are offering. If we are too focused on the thing or event or task, we might miss the reason He has put us there, and while His work gets done, we might miss the happiness of being part of that wonderful or tough situation He is working through.
Taking the giving part of Christmas and combining it with simplifying instead of adding to helps a lot. Working with groups to sponsor a world vision kid, adopt a family, or relative who really need some help this year makes it easier than focusing on ourselves or trying to do everything we are asked to participate in.
Picking a few meaningful things and talking about real and substantial needs seems the tone this year in our communities.
He never stops working, whether we call a Holiday or not. And He is not that 6 pound blue baby boy anymore either. I hope lots of visitors come to church these next month and enjoy being with believers.
Our church is not having services Christmas Sunday, but we have four Christmas Eve ones! No kids child classes, but we will have childcare for toddlers and infants. This is the kind of trade up that flows and welcomes and works with volunteers.
I would miss the touchstone of meeting with the church community somewhere weekly, but the traditions and rituals are not as important.
We will have opportunity to meet and sing and share with family we do not always see or spend a lot of time with. That can be stressful, or wonderful.
Constant prayers and tongue bits and sincere kind interactions are always in fashion year round, are they not?
Have a really nice end of 2011 David and thank you for this fabulous blog. I admire how you draw out participation and perspectives, it really helps form the topics and show how this stuff applies in real life situations.
Dude, you hit the nail on the head here. Christmas stresses me out when it comes to worship stuff. I’m doing my best to keep things cool and not freak out, but you have some great pointers I’ll put into practice to help me succeed this year.
The one thing that has helped me most these last few weeks has been putting God first before anything else. With a laundry list of songs to arrange and so many other tasks on my plate, I want to just walk in the door and get to work. But reading my Bible and praying and worshiping God before getting started with my day has helped me stay sane.
In fact, the few days that I failed to do this were absolutely miserable. I’m not saying that’s God’s fault, but I know that by putting him first, my attitude was better and I felt a lot more at peace.
Thanks for the great post, friend!
Good point, Ryan. It’s easy to bypass time with Jesus to get onto more “productive” things. But really, it’s the most productive thing you can do.
I have taken December off, letting others lead the Christmas songs. ( I can’t sing them anyway!!!) Plus we have a brass band to an the extra dimension to the carols. This gives me a chance to enjoy the Christmas time and focus on the import message it brings. Light of the world!!! The coming weeks give me a ton of motivation for the start of the new year.
Mark