Lighting the Advent Candle:
Person One: “That night there were shepherds staying in the fields nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord’s glory surrounded them. They were terrified, but the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Saviour—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David!” Luke 2:8-11
Person Two: We light this Advent candle as reminder that our Advent journey ends with good news that will bring great joy
*Light the candle*
Gathering & Confession:
Joy to The World
Resources needed:
- A Christmas Tree
- Box of Christmas Tree decorations.
- Upbeat version of Joy To The World – Joy The World (Unspeakable Joy) by Chris Tomlin, from the album Glory In The Highest would be perfect as would Hillsong’s version from the album Celebrating Christmas.
- A large tub of chocolates (Quality Street/Roses/Miniature Heroes etc) to give out at the end.
Instructions:
As this is our last Sunday together before Christmas day this service is going to be a bit of a party. No Christmas party would be complete without a properly decorated Christmas tree so we’re going to need a few volunteers to decorate our tree for us this morning. To make it a bit more of a challenge you are only going to have the length of one song (about three minutes) to get the tree decorated. On your marks, get set, go!
Start the music and encourage the congregation to cheer them on. Once they have finished give out sweets/chocolates to all of your volunteers and then explain that since you’re feeling festive they can share out the rest of the sweets so that everybody in the room has one!
Pray to start the service:
Heavenly Father as we gather to celebrate your gift to us in Jesus, fill us with the joy that comes from knowing that you are present with us today. We bring to you the things that we have done wrong that have hurt you, others or ourselves and we thank you that you forgive us for those things and invite us back into a joyous relationship with you! Amen.