Tag: Christmas

Songs for advent and Christmas

advent, all age, children's ministry, christingle, christmas, church resources, hymns, worship

Here are all the songs I’ve written for:
– The Lighting of the Advent Wreath
– Christingle (whenever it’s held)
– Advent generally
– Christmas

We’ll kindle a flame (Tune: Colours of Day) – for Christingles held in Advent

Jesus, you’re coming, bringing the love
That draws the earth near to heaven above,
We’ll wait as the darkness covers the earth,
And long for the joy of remembering your birth.

We’ll kindle a flame to shine through the night,
Living our lives to shine with your light,
And sharing your love in all that we do,
your wonderful story is our story too.

Fruit of the seasons, blessings to share,
This wondrous creation placed in our care,
The city and forest, ocean and land,
The whole world is treasured in God’s gentle hand.

We’ll kindle a flame to shine through the night,
Living our lives to shine with your light,
And sharing your love in all that we do,
your wonderful story is our story too. 

Love like a circle, love never ends,
The love of a God who calls us your friends,
A love without price, a free gift of grace,
That holds all the world in a heavenly embrace.

We’ll kindle a flame to shine through the night,
Living our lives to shine with your light,
And sharing your love in all that we do,
Your wonderful story is our story too. 

An extra verse to ‘This little light of mine’ for use with the sparkly Christingle talk:

When I am feeling dull and grey,
and sunshine seems so far away,
when I don’t know quite where to start,
I remember the stardust in my heart:
all it needs is a tiny spark
to get me shining in the dark,
So Jesus, give me your fire divine
to let my little light shine!

Advent Wreath Song (to the tune ‘Father we place into your hands’)

Mothers and fathers of the faith, who lived in times of old,
Leaders and judges, kings and queens were faithful, true and bold,
Travelers, heroes, shepherds, all with stories to be told:
Still they show us how to follow you.

Prophets and seers who spoke the truth in answer to your call,
finding new ways to bring your word to people great and small,
living their lives to show your love was meant for one and all,
still they show us how to follow you.

John, in the desert calling out, ‘The Kingdom has come near.’
‘Come and repent, and be baptised, there’s nothing then to fear.’
‘Jesus is coming now, the One you’re waiting for is here.’
Still he shows us how to follow you.

Mother of Jesus, angels called her favoured, full of grace,
Holding the Son of God, the Prince of Peace, in her embrace,
She is the one whose ‘yes’ helped God to save the human race,
still she shows us how to follow you.

And this last verse, for Christmas day, is by my friend and colleague Gill Robertson:

Jesus our Saviour, born a king, we welcome you today,
Lord of all time, Immanuel, with joyful hearts we say:
You are the Christ who came to earth for us; and now we pray,
Help us all to daily follow you.

Advent Sunday song (Tune: Sing hosanna)

There’s a story to tell of creation,
And the patriarchs’ faith of old,
There are stories of prophets and sages,
We’ll repeat them ‘til the world’s been told:

Sing together! sing together!
Sing to welcome in the King of Kings.
Sing together! Sing together!
Sing to welcome in the King.

There are stories of sin and forgiveness,
Of a Kingdom of truth and love.
Of a girl who gave birth to a baby,
To fulfil God’s promise from above:

As God’s people prepare for his coming,
And remember those days long gone,
Our own stories are yet to be written,
As we live to make God’s kingdom come:

We will patiently wait for the morning,
Through the night we will watch and pray,
As we look for the light that is dawning,
We’ll be ready at the break of day:

Advent Hymn (Tune: Picardy)

Longing for a hope-filled morning,
Kingdom of the Son, draw near!
Waiting for the day soon dawning,
Light of love that casts out fear.
Dayspring, come from heav’n, in lowly birth,
Come to warm this cold, dark earth.

Sorrow through the world is sweeping,
Bitter conflict rages still,
Heaven hears its children weeping:
cost of humankind’s freewill.
Come, O Price* of Peace, in lowly birth,
Come to mend this broken earth.

Pattern of the world’s salvation,
God and human side by side.
Colour, language, creed or nation,
No more should the world divide:
Come, Emmanuel, in lowly birth,
Show how heav’n embraces earth.

*This word started off as a typo, but I quite like it, as it echoes the ‘cost’ of the previous line…  If you use the hymn, you can choose whether to use Price or Prince

Little baby (Tune: The Sugar Plum Fairy)

Little baby, sweetly slumbering,
Cradled and cuddled in Mary’s loving arms.
In the sky are angels gathering,
but for now, here below, all is still and calm.

Little baby, our Emmanuel,
God with us, one of us, born to be our king.
Little baby, while you slumber,
Far above you angels sing.

We know you came to save us all…
But how can God become so small…?
For God so loved all he had made
He sent his Son the world to save……

Little baby…

Here we are giving (Tune: Bunessan) – Christingle song for Christmas/Epiphany

Here we are giving
Out of our plenty,
Fruit of thanksgiving,
Tribute of love.
Hearts overflowing
Cannot stand empty
Constantly growing
With grace from above.

Gathered as one, and
Thankfully bringing
All that we are and
All that we do.
Serving and caring,
Praying and singing,
Building and sharing,
Offered to you.

Love beyond measure,
Total compassion,
We are your treasure,
Wonderfully giv’n.
Made in your likeness,
Imaged and fashioned,
Life that is priceless,
Valued by heaven.

Star of wonder (Tune: Sing Hosanna) – Christingle song for Epiphany

We give gold for a king, keep us serving,
We give gold for a king today,
As we give, it is Christ we are serving,
We’ll keep serving Jesus every day.

Star of wonder! Lead us onwards,
Show the way to find the world’s true light.
Star of wonder! Lead us onwards,
Shine around us through the night.

We bring incense today, keep us praying,
We bring incense to him today.
For the needs of the world, keep us praying.
Keep us praying to him every day.

Star of wonder…

We bring myrrh to remember his passion,
As he shared in his people’s pain,
In our lives we will show his compassion,
As we live for Jesus every day.

Star of wonder…

Hope for God’s world (Tune: Favourite Things) – Christingle song for Candlemas

Earth is so small
in the whole of creation,
Continents, oceans
And each unique nation,
Cultures and languages,
All so diverse,
All on one planet
In one universe!

Thanks be to God
For a million reasons,
Food on our plates
From the fruit of the seasons,
All that we have
Is a gift from above,
Plenty for all
if we share it with love.

Light of the world
For a people in sorrow,
Faith that can give us
Real hope for tomorrow,
Since on the cross
Jesus bore the world’s pain,
Bringing new life
At his rising again:

When the world seems
Full of trouble,
God will hear our prayer:
Our mission is living as lights in the world
for everyone everywhere!

Bits and bobs for Advent

advent, Advent Illustrated, all age, art, bible, church resources, hymns, worship

Here are some bits and pieces that might be useful for Advent. Starting with some pictures, and then some hymns.

line drawing of candle flame
Candle light
word art for the hymn, Hills of the North
Hills of the North
Line drawing of pregnant Mary
Mary
Painting of Mary and Elizabeth, both pregnant
Visitation
Painting of advent wreath
Advent wreath

line drawing of Mary and the Holy Spirit as a dove
Annunciation

 

ADVENT HYMN (would work for late Advent)

Words of the prophets since the world began
So long before salvation’s human birth
Speaking of God’s tremendous loving plan
for heav’n to touch the long-estrangèd earth.

Those ancient words at last began to be
in flesh and skin and bone and blood unfurled
In maiden womb and half-made family –
so heaven stooped to touch a fallen world.

Amongst the stable beasts behind the inn,
the baby’s eyes saw first a mother’s love;
and though their world, like ours, was full of sin,
yet in their gaze the earth met heav’n above.

We cry aloud for peace, goodwill to all,
and for God’s heaven to touch his earth again,
We bend our ears to hear the angels’ call,
and raise our voice to join the great Amen.

 

ADVENT HYMN (tune: Picardy)

Longing for a hope-filled morning,
Kingdom of the Son, draw near!
Waiting for the day soon dawning,
Light of love that casts out fear.
Dayspring, come from heav’n, in lowly birth,
Come to warm this cold, dark earth.

Sorrow through the world is sweeping,
Bitter conflict rages still,
Heaven hears its children weeping:
cost of humankind’s freewill.
Come, O Price* of Peace, in lowly birth,
Come to mend this broken earth.

Pattern of the world’s salvation,
God and human side by side.
Colour, language, creed or nation,
No more should the world divide:
Come, Emmanuel, in lowly birth,
Show how heav’n embraces earth.

*This word started off as a typo, but I quite like it, as it echoes the ‘cost’ of the previous line…  If you use the hymn, you can choose whether to use Price or Prince   And thank you to the lovely Uptonpc for suggesting that Price could stay as an option!

 

ADVENT WREATH SONG
to the tune ‘Father we place into your hands’

Mothers and fathers of the faith, who lived in times of old,
Leaders and judges, kings and queens were faithful, true and bold,
Travelers, heroes, shepherds, all with stories to be told:
Still they show us how to follow you.

Prophets and seers who spoke the truth in answer to your call,
finding new ways to bring your word to people great and small,
living their lives to show your love was meant for one and all,
still they show us how to follow you.

John, in the desert calling out, ‘The Kingdom has come near.’
‘Come and repent, and be baptised, there’s nothing then to fear.’
‘Jesus is coming now, the One you’re waiting for is here.’
Still he shows us how to follow you.

Mother of Jesus, angels called her favoured, full of grace,
Holding the Son of God, the Prince of Peace, in her embrace,
She is the one whose ‘yes’ helped God to save the human race,
still she shows us how to follow you.

And this last verse, for Christmas day, is by my friend and colleague Gill Robertson:

Jesus our Saviour, born a king, we welcome you today,
Lord of all time, Immanuel, with joyful hearts we say:
You are the Christ who came to earth for us; and now we pray,
Help us all to daily follow you.

 

ADVENT WREATH SONG – connecting the Jesse Tree / Salvation History pathways through Advent and the Advent Sunday theme of being alert and ready. (tune: Sing Hosanna)

There’s a story to tell of creation,
And the patriarchs’ faith of old,
There are stories of prophets and sages,
We’ll repeat them ‘til the world’s been told:

Sing together! sing together!
Sing to welcome in the King of Kings.
Sing together! Sing together!
Sing to welcome in the King.

There are stories of sin and forgiveness,
Of a Kingdom of truth and love.
Of a girl who gave birth to a baby,
To fulfil God’s promise from above:

As God’s people prepare for his coming,
And remember those days long gone,
Our own stories are yet to be written,
As we live to make God’s kingdom come:

We will patiently wait for the morning,
Through the night we will watch and pray,
As we look for the light that is dawning,
We’ll be ready at the break of day:

The Epiphany Game

children's ministry, christmas, church resources

It must be that time of night – if you need an Epiphany thing for church children’s groups here’s a game that’s quite fun to play:  Epiphany game

Print out the sheets (either two to a page, or four to a page, depending on how big you want them to be), and cut them out.

Arrange them on the floor in order (or give them to people to hold if that makes more sense, as long as they’re sitting roughly in a line or circle – this is the way we did it in a school collective worship).

Use a large dice if you have one (or make one by wrapping a cube shaped teabag box or tissue box in Christmas paper and drawing the spots on with a sharpie).

Use three real people as ‘counters’ (the three magi, each with a different coloured crown on, from Christmas crackers).

Talk about the elements of the Epiphany story as you play the game.

I added ‘collect a heart’ at the Bethlehem square – you can cut these out of paper, or use heart shaped chocolates or biscuits. You have to roll a one to start, and you have to exactly land on Bethlehem, you can’t just go past it and carry on.

Enjoy.

Epiphany – ideas for children’s groups

children's ministry, christmas, church resources

This one works well with older children – maybe primary age.  Not so good with toddlers. But can be done well by family groups. It uses a simple origami star craft activity – a video demonstration of this part of it is linked below.

1. Talk about what everyone’s favourite Christmas presents were – what made them just right? What would be the best presents for a baby?

2. Talk about the gifts that the magi brought, and why there were just right, even though they look a little unusual at first.
Gold is precious – it’s expensive, and it lasts, so we use it for things that mean a lot to us, such as wedding rings.  The gold was given as a symbol of our offering of the most important things that we have.  The gold is a sign of something important about Jesus, like a wedding ring is a sign of love.
Frankincense makes the most wonderful-smelling smoke – it’s as if we can see our prayers and songs rising up for God to breathe in and enjoy. All our hearts’ longings, our joys and sorrows, our hopes and dreams, breathed in by God in our prayer and worship.
Myrrh is harsh, but healing  – like the antiseptic that stings as it we put it on, but helps a wound to heal.  It reminds us of hard times – illness, grief – but also of God’s ability to bring healing and life.

3. Give out long strips of paper – maybe 2 feet long, by 3cm wide  (I cut mine from a roll of paper) and pens.  Ask the children or family groups to use just one end of their paper strip for this activity.
Remind them that God gave the magi something they needed – a star to follow. On one side of the paper, ask them to write down something that they still need as a gift, for the coming year.  This isn’t a ‘thing’ like a new toy, but a more personal gift, such as more patience when school work is a struggle, or when younger siblings are frustrating! Or more time to relax (particularly for parents!).  Or help with making new friends, if that’s been a challenge before. Or help making a big decision, or facing a big change.
Remind them that the magi also gave something to Jesus – their gifts of gold, incense and myrrh.  On the other side of the same end of the paper strip, ask them to write down a gift that they already have that they would like to offer to God – this might be just a lot of smiles that they can use to brighten up God’s world, it might be a certain amount of time each day just to be with God, or it might be a particular talent that can be offered.

4. Take one of the strips as an example, and follow the instructions in this video (https://youtu.be/FDDvYwb-D44) to make it into a 3D star. (These aren’t hard to make, but you will need to practice in advance – I don’t recommend trying to teach how to do it in your children’s session, as it can be frustrating when it doesn’t work first time!  If you have teenage or adult helpers, you might like to teach them how to do it in advance, so that they can help you make all the strips into stars on the day).
As you start to make the star:
– tie the knot in the end with the writing on, so that it will be hidden in the heart of the star by the time you have finished.
– as you tie the knot, explain that when something was important to remember, people used to tie a knot in a hanky to remind them.
– as you wrap the strip around the pentagon shape, say that when something really matters we want to protect it and keep it carefully, so we might wrap it up.  You might also like to compare it to wrapping a present, or even (going back to the myrrh and the healing) bandaging a sore finger etc.
It’s a good idea to get the children to decorate their stars to make them personalised – they’ll need to be a bit careful so they don’t squash them accidentally!

5. When everyone’s paper strips have been made into stars, encourage the children to hold their star in the palm of their hand, and remember what they wrote in the heart of it.  Ask them to think about what they need and what they have to offer this coming year, and ask God to bless those thoughts.