I love Christmas music but there are only so many great, class Christmas hymns. So how do you help your congregation lean into the season of Advent while keeping in tune with the theological implications of the season. Below are four songs that I think are simply great songs but they also have deep resonances with the message of Advent. They are great songs for congregational singing and reflection and will certainly help your church behold the wonder and longing of the Advent season.

1. All The Poor and Powerless

This song, originally written by Leslie Jordan and David Leonard (All Sons and Daughters), embodies the season of Advent. Mary, upon receiving and responding to the call of God, that she would bear the Messiah, sings out:

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty^[1]Luke 1vv52-53

The song is at both times worshipful proclamation and invitation inviting “all the poor and powerless, all the lost and lonely” to “know the Lord is holy.”  The chorus drawing from Philippians 2vv6-11 declares in hope for the present and certainty for the future that “all will cry out hallelujah.” The bridge is resounding and triumphant, “Shout it, go on and scream it from the mountains, go on and tell it to the masses that he is God.” When I first heard the song it reminded me of the old Christmas standby, “Go Tell It On The Mountain,” and it carries the message of that song in a form, less classic yet more lyrically and musically impactful.

This has been a source of contention amongst my colleagues but I prefer The Digital Age’s version to the original by All Sons and Daughters.  Bwack (Digital Age’s Drummer) is one of my all-time favorites and the bridge was meant to be belted out at the top of your lungs.

2. You’ll Come

Here’s a worship leader trick. Search through the songwriting credentials for any Hillsong song and when you find the name Brooke Ligertwood, go ahead and put that song in your church’s rotation.^[2]Brooke Ligertwood performs her solo tunes under the name Brooke Fraser. Her writing is saturated with what Eugene Peterson calls “scriptural imagination.” Rather than stringing random bible concepts together, her lyrics are steeped in scripture while still evoking the broader context from which they come.  Not to mention, if she is singing the song she has a voice that both demands attention and retains its delicacy. Ok, enough about Brooke, needless to say I am a fan. This song places certainty on the hope of Advent.  He will come. The promise is certain, it is all grace. During Advent, we live into that grace in patient expectation, the kind of hope that isn’t frantically seeking to secure our own future but entrusts ourselves wholly to God’s care. The bridge of this song announces the realities of the kingdom come that Jesus proclaims in his first public words in Luke4vv16-19 as he reads from the scroll of Isaiah. Brooke sings out “Chains be broken, lives be healed, eyes be opened Christ is revealed.”

3. The Glory Of It All

“At the start, he was there, he was there…” David Crowder sings echoing the prologue to John’s gospel, “In the beginning was the word and the word was with God, and the word was God.” This song is not a melodically catchy as some of the others on this list but it conveys the yearning of Advent. The second verse begins, “All is lost, find him there.”  In the season of Advent we are transported back to the story of ancient Israel, a people who had received the promises of God and yet, through a long history of events, seemed doomed to never receive them. The people are waiting for a fresh word from God, a fresh hope that God has not forgotten them. And into that longing, the Messiah is born. The catch of it all is that the answer to the centuries of aching for home is missed.  The people wanted God to move and they missed the reality that God himself came to them.  Crowder captures this well, “The glory of it all is he came here.” Crowder captures the glory of God with us in the bridge, “After night comes a light, dawn is here, it’s a new day, everything will change, things will never be the same.”

4. King Of Heaven

The first time I heard this song performed I was completely in awe, immersed in the beauty of God. I had taken a group of students to see Hillsong United lead worship supporting their album, Zion,^[3]Great album by the way. I don’t understand people that still turn their noses up at Hillsong. Joel Houston and co. are writing songs for the church that are imaginative and daring. at the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ. We were literally on the back row of the arena and this was the last song of the evening. The night was a rousing celebration of God’s presence and yet it ended with Matt Crocker signing accompanied by only a piano (and the omnipresent Hillsong pad). Crocker’s tone is pure tenor, beautiful and clear. The chorus sings simply “Immanuel, God with us.” The song builds at the bridge and Crocker belted out, “King of Heaven on the Earth be found.” It was a stunning conclusion to a powerful evening and I have loved the song ever since. The words are Advent through and through: