I’ve been wondering about some ideas for how to have the congregation read lyrics to the Christmas Carols in the typically dimly lit atmosphere of a Christmas Eve Service. Of course, you could use a projector, but say if you wanted to do something more subtle or intimate, that’s not always ideal.
In one situation, we were considering moving the chairs into a circle layout, around a central manger, but this of course was going to make it a challenge with where to place the projector screens.
Then I thought – why not use people’s cell phones for the lyrics.
You can easily have a PDF of the carols that will be sung that night, and make this available on your website. Or, even easier, you could simply send an email to your church community with the PDF attached.
A Few Considerations
- Please make sure to follow CCLI rules for publishing and printing these PDFs…
- The cell phones will give off a sort of candle like effect and you could even go full ‘concert-mode’ and have everyone turn on their flashlights for a song. (too much? maybe…)
- You might want to try ‘dark-mode’ for your PDFs where you have white text on a black background, this is easier to read in a dark room
Final Warning
You might want to acknowledge or be aware of people staring at their phones the whole service, or being distracted by notifications, so there’s a chance this idea could backfire. But I still think it’s at least something that could be used in a creative and unique way.
