This is a bit late for Christmas 2023.  But, hey, I write for posterity (if not prosperity), so I’ll borrow (and slightly adapt) some thoughts from Chris Green and pass them on.

How can we give our Carol Service talk a cutting edge?  What will help us to slice through the layers of predictability and (let’s face it) banality that besets such discourses?

Chris Green offers:

1. Choose one obvious passage.  Speak from one of the old faithfuls, one that requires a minimum of background and explanation, and let it loose.

2. Work on one obvious surprise.  What is in the text that people haven’t paid attention to before?  Or, what familiar truth can be  communicated in a fresh way; given a new lease of life?

3. Develop one simple metaphor that will work all the way through your talk.  There is power in having one picture, or story, or object, or person, and returning to it repeatedly.

4. Have one apologetic focus.  You have unbelievers in the congregation.  But don’t try to deal with all their possible questions and objections.  Choose one that is relevant to your passage and stick to it.

5. Have one ‘this week’ story.  Illustrations can quickly become stale.  What is on the front page of today’s newspaper or magazine?

6. Plan the response.  What do you want your hearers to do?  Read a booklet?  Come back to church?  Attend a course?  Make it clear how they can respond.

‘What should I talk about?’ asks the preacher.  Answer (in the case of a Carol Service talk): ‘About twelve minutes’.

And above all, pray.