Mandy Thompson encourages us to thrive during the season.

As a worship leader, I strongly disliked (aka. resented) the Advent/Christmas season. I would get so stressed out by the need to novelize Christmas songs that everyone knows, added to the pressure of making it good for visitors… (I know. Let’s not get distracted by that very real and almost universal unspoken expectation.)

• This is about the pressure of the Holiday season, which I won’t soon forget:
• Will the Advent candle lighters be there for the service?
• Who is in charge of taking down the decor when we are all exhausted?
• How are going to get around to singing everyone’s favorite Christmas carols?
• Are we ruining the harmonies on Angels We Have Heard on High?
• When are we going to have an extra hour of practice to get the band caught up on the Christmas songs?
• Can somebody please bring food for band and staff to eat between Christmas Eve services?

The point is this: Christmas is HARD.

And it can be especially overwhelming for those introverted artistic types, who don’t like things coming at us too quickly, who need to feel secure in our ability to excel expectations, and who need just a minute to breathe. Just breathe.

So I asked a few of my favorite long-time worship leaders just how do they survive the holiday pressure.

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