Mary, Did You Know?

It’s an old standby, but maybe these images of a modern taken at Mary would freshen that song up. There are so many versions of this song. Take your pick.
lyrics/chords
listen to an mp3 (scroll down until you see the player)

Breath of Heaven (Mary’s Song)

I remember this being sung by Amy Grant. It’s a beautiful song lyrically that tells the story of Mary’s anxieties and her faith. It’s interesting musically because of its melodic nature and meter changes.
lyrics/chords
listen to Breath of Heaven

Labor of Love

This a relatively new Christmas song about Jesus’ birth. It paints the scene of that night in vivid detail. It’s from Andrew Petersen’s Behoold the Lamb of God Album (which I talk about here) album that tells the story of Christmas by starting with Passover. I couldn’t find the chords online, but you can purchase the music book and a performance track directly from artist.
listen to an mp3

Mary’s Boy Child

This is sometimes done in a calypso style. Doing so can be really fun or really disastrous. For the former result, I suggest doing this with children.
lyrics/chords
listen to an mp3 (scroll down a little. It’s on Disc 1)

Ave Maria

This is an obvious one if you’re not squeamish about doing something considered “Catholic.” By all accounts it’s a beautiful song, but isn’t it unbiblical? Isn’t it heretical because it’s that Roman Catholic prayer, Hail Mary, which is heretical? You’ll want to do your own research, but here’s reading a translation of it is a good place to start. Maybe I’ll write a little more on this later.
listen to an mp3 of Chris Cornell with Eleven

If you’re a worship leader looking for a complete Christmas program, but are want something besides the standard Word Publishing choir show, consider this Christmas concert. Andrew Petersen’s Christmas CD, Behold the Lamb of God: The True Tall Tale of the Coming of Christ, tells the Christmas story beginning with Moses and the Passover and carrying through with echoes of Jesus’ ministry as an adult. It only enriches Christmas to recount the birth of Jesus this way because it connects it to everything that happened before and what will come after. This is important to remember in evangelism because more and more people grow up with no knowledge of the Bible.

The Songs

The songs have a folk feel to them (Petersen is chummy with Caedmon’s Call if that gives you any indication to the sound) with a couple of instrumentals included that can get a bit intricate, but generally the songs are doable by a competent band with maybe a bit of adaption.

The folk music vibe works well with spinning a story of such mythic proportions. The first song is an invitation to “gather round, ye children” to “listen to the old, old story.” This version of the Christmas story begins with Passover and moves to the Israelite slavery in Egypt. Then the story picks up with “Matthew’s Begats” which is a fun novelty song that includes all the people in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus.

So far the songs are solid and will be powerful in the context of Christmas. They set up the thousands of years of waiting expectantly for the Messiah so when Jill Phillips finally sings of the “Labor of Love,” one of the stronger songs on the album, you know it’s not just Mary in labor. The entire nation of Israel has been going through birthing pains for their Savior.

The title track featuring Fernando Ortega looks ahead to tell of “the pow’r of Death undone.” This drifts seamlessly into tribal sounding reprise of all the melodic themes from the previous songs. Again, it shows the anticipation of generations yearning for His advent has come to fruition.

Purchase Behold the Lamb Tracks and Other Resources

Some of the music will be challenging for your worship band; one song jumps from 4/4 to a 7/8 meter. If it’s beyond your instrumentalists, you can buy backing tracks as well as other resources directly from the Andrew Petersen, including songbooks, strings score, and bulk pricing on the CD. The PowerPoint graphics are so detailed, unless you have very large screen or a screen that’s real close to the audience, you may just want to skip it (or print the graphics into the program). You can also find a DVD of a performance that includes Phil Keaggy, Derek Webb, and Sandra McCracken. (Speaking of McCracken, I wish there were more songs written for female voices).

Narration?

There aren’t any dramatic readings or scenes written in, but it wouldn’t be hard to find appropriate Scripture passages if you wanted to break up the concert feel, especially when Petersen does the work for you in the liner notes. Behold the Lamb of God would work well on its own and it also provides a solid foundation for a more elaborate production.

Of course, you to have the software to play and (this is key) edit the files for your particular use. But if you’ve already been tinkering with loops and sequencing and need some inspiration, the tracks act as a great tutorial as you reverse engineer them.