For many, advent is defined, in part, by the sounds and songs of the season. Many of us have a favorite song we look forward to singing in worship during the holiday season. The Ozark UMC praise team have provided a few of their favorite songs, compiled in a Spotify playlist you can listen to here on the Ozark UMC website or in the Spotify app on your computer or mobile device.
Love Came Down
It’s one of my favorite new Christmas songs! The song says to me that God didn’t expect us to rise up to His level because obviously we will never be there until we are with Him one day. But He loved us so much that He sent His beautiful son down into the much and mire of our lives to lift us up closer to Him.
Bonnie Vawter
Breath of Heaven
It’s clearly a song from Mary’s point of view, yet speaks to my life. Carrying Christ in my, giving all of me to God’s plan, praying for His strength. I encourage people to listen as though it is coming from your own heart.
Melissa Vigneaux
Joy to the World
These (Joy to the World and Silent Night) simply because these are the songs we ended Christmas Eve services with candles lit for many years.
Debbie Bell
Silent Night
I love the history behind the song, I love the message of peace that surrounded the birth of Christ in the middle of the most humble of circumstances.
Bonnie Vawter
It always concludes our 11 o’clock service and the candlelight and the singing always takes me to that night in Bethlehem and gives me that peace in Christ. My aunt sang that song every year at our family gathering in her native Hawaiian dialect which was both beautiful and a reminder that Christ is for all peoples and all nations.
Brad Vigneaux
Lo, How a Rose E’re Blooming
It is an allegory that is so rich in meaning. It was written in the 15th century and has enriched the lives of Christians throughout the centuries.
David Bell
O Come, O Come Emmanuel
It is a call out from our “mess”. Come to us Emmanuel. It seems a list of all the things wrong with the world. We cry out to him for protection, freedom, and salvation. O come, o come Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel. We know that he will make us free.
Melissa Vigneaux
In the Bleak Midwinter
It was written more than a century ago and paints such a vivid word picture. Jesus is the greatest gift of Christmas and the only gift he wants from us is the gift of our heart.
David Bell
I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day
The song is based on a 1863 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow about his despair over the Civil War and the hatred of man but that the bells reminded him (and us) of the hope we have in Christ of peace on earth. It seems very relevant right now.
Brad Vigneaux
May your advent be blessed by these songs.
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