On Good Friday, April 19, 2019, our church choir presented an Easter cantata.
Following the performance, as I was congratulating our worship pastor, Nathan Parker, I mentioned it would be cool if we could find a musical that would allow us to utilize both the choir and the worship team in the future. Without missing a beat, Nathan looked at me and said, “We should write a Christmas cantata.” I audibly laughed in his face and said, “Uh, no.”
When I got home that day, however, I couldn’t shake the idea. While the thought of a full musical was too much, perhaps I could write one song. With that in mind, I opened my Bible to the gospel accounts of Christmas, picked up my guitar and started messing around with some ideas.
Within two weeks, I had composed four original Christmas songs to go with one I had written earlier and had two others in process. By October, all but one song was completed along with our first attempts at choral arrangements.
On Dec. 22, 2019, the worship band and choir debuted the first edition of our own original Christmas musical, “Let There Be Light: A Contemporary Christmas Carol.” Then just a few short months later, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, life as we knew it changed and the project we had worked so hard to create went dormant.
Last Christmas, we decided we would refine the music and make a record. From August through November, we made several trips to Sweetwater Studios in Fort Wayne. We were joined by a jazz chorus from Winona Lake and Ardis Faber, a former professor and musical mentor of ours who graciously arranged new choral parts for the album. We recorded eight original Christmas songs and a bonus worship track.
The album released on Dec. 1 and is now available for download and streaming. The worship band and choir will be offering a live performance at 10:30 a.m. Dec. 17 at First Baptist Church, 505 Community Drive, Seymour.
I’ve reflected on the journey that brought us to this point quite a bit over the last several months. What started as a stress-inducing suggestion led to a spiritual act of worship. It resulted in no small amount of reflection on the most wonderful story ever told, the birth of the sweet baby Jesus, God with us the savior of the world.
In truth, the songs that have been written are not original material. They are simply retellings of the stories presented in the gospels.
“Let There Be Light,” the title track, tells the story of creation and laments the tragedy of the fall while pointing to the promise of a savior to come. “The Announcement” recounts the messages from the angel Gabriel to Mary and Joseph. “Not What I Had Planned” imagines the ways accepting God’s invitation disrupted and redirected the lives of Mary and Joseph but also recognizes the wonderful privilege God had offered them.
“Born to Us” highlights “the good news of great joy for all people” that God’s son had come for them. “Chasin’ Down the Light” is a pepped-up reimagination of the journey of the magi. “Sweet Baby Jesus” is a lullaby celebrating the coming of Christ. “The Sacrifice” and “Song of Simeon” are unusual Christmas songs, but they serve as the heart of the musical and lie at the core of why Christ came. They reveal the jarring truth that the baby in the manger would one day trade his bed for a cross and would give his life to save ours.
Thus, we come full circle and we end reflecting on the truth of John 1:4-5, which is the message of the musical and the heart of Christmas. John 1:4-5 reads, “In him was life, and that life was the light of mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
I hope you’ll take the time to listen to “Let There Be Light: A Contemporary Christmas Carol” this Christmas. Whether through the recordings or the live performance here at FBC, I invite you to journey with me through the scenes of the advent of Jesus Christ. As you do, I trust God will use the songs to reveal the truth of the Christmas message to you.
Things don’t always go as we plan in this life. We don’t always get what we want. But God, in his grace and love, has provided exactly what we need through Jesus. And though the world may get incredibly dark around us, the light of life has come and will never leave or fail us. May we see and experience the great gift of God’s presence with us through Jesus this Christmas.
The Rev. Jeremy Myers is the lead pastor of First Baptist Church in Seymour. Read his blog at jeremysmyers.com.