The Reality of the Nativity<\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\nWe like the Christmas story, because we like the baby Jesus. Babies cause us to be sentimental. Babies are cute. Babies are loveable. And babies are safe. The most pious among us may scorn the idea of baby Jesus being represented as furry woodland creature or a child\u2019s play toy. But our notion of the Incarnate Deity isn\u2019t too far away from that.<\/p>\n
We talk about the stable and the manger, with the fresh bed of hay and the company of quiet animals. But we forget that a stable is a barn. And a manger is a feeding trough. And we forget to mention in our stories of the nativity that farm animals stink.<\/p>\n
Jesus was born in a mess.<\/em><\/p>\nWe also talk about Mary and Joseph and the good people that they were. And they were good people. But would we have thought so had we been their neighbors?<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s pregnant.\u201d
\n\u201cShe\u2019s what?!\u201d<\/em>
\n\u201cThat\u2019s right, and I heard it isn\u2019t even Joseph\u2019s.\u201d
\n\u201cWell, I never\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\nWe forget that the stable is a barn, the manger is a feeding trough, and the young Virgin Mary carrying the Son of God in her womb looks suspiciously like a pregnant teenager. Frowned upon in our day, punishable by death in her\u2019s. Not only was Jesus born in a mess; he was born into a messy situation.<\/p>\n
Read:<\/em><\/strong> Matthew 1:18-24<\/p>\nDiscuss:<\/em><\/strong>
\nWhat are some ways churches hide, or at least overlook, the \u201creality of the Nativity\u201d during the Christmas season? Are we guilty of this? Why or why not?<\/em><\/p>\nIs the \u201creality of the Nativity\u201d important to our worship of Jesus? Why, or why not?<\/em><\/p>\nAs a worship team, what can we do to appropriately communicate the \u201creality of the Nativity\u201d?<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Jon Nicol is a worship pastor in Ohio and has developed a site for worship leaders, teams and musicians called WorshipTeamCoach.com.<\/a> Jon\u2019s ebook, The Taming of Christmas, is available as a single-copy or as church-licensed copy, which allows you to distribute copies to your local church.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This worship team devotional is part of a four-week series that takes excerpts from The Taming of Christmas written by Jon Nicol. Each devotional contains a brief scripture reading and discussion questions and is designed for use during the Advent season. The Messiness of Christmas, Part 1: The Reality of the Nativity We like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5303,"featured_media":12133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[309],"tags":[890,1480],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Advent worship team devotional. Part 1 - The reality of the nativity<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This worship team devotional series takes excerpts from The Taming of Christmas by Jon Nicol. Each devotional contains a brief scripture reading and discussion questions and is designed for use during Advent.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/advent-worship-team-devotional-part-1-the-reality-of-the-nativity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Advent worship team devotional. Part 1 - The reality of the nativity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This worship team devotional series takes excerpts from The Taming of Christmas by Jon Nicol. Each devotional contains a brief scripture reading and discussion questions and is designed for use during Advent.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/advent-worship-team-devotional-part-1-the-reality-of-the-nativity\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Musicademy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Musicademy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-11-28T18:19:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-07-24T10:18:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/drc0fhsrp02et.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/ebook-cover-square-1200.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1102\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Guest Blogger\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@musicademy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@musicademy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Guest Blogger\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/advent-worship-team-devotional-part-1-the-reality-of-the-nativity\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/advent-worship-team-devotional-part-1-the-reality-of-the-nativity\/\",\"name\":\"Advent worship team devotional. Part 1 - The reality of the nativity\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-11-28T18:19:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-07-24T10:18:48+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2e11130a6d8cefd1340009119102a557\"},\"description\":\"This worship team devotional series takes excerpts from The Taming of Christmas by Jon Nicol. Each devotional contains a brief scripture reading and discussion questions and is designed for use during Advent.\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/advent-worship-team-devotional-part-1-the-reality-of-the-nativity\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Musicademy\",\"description\":\"Award-winning training resources for church based musicians\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2e11130a6d8cefd1340009119102a557\",\"name\":\"Guest Blogger\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.musicademy.com\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Advent worship team devotional. Part 1 - The reality of the nativity","description":"This worship team devotional series takes excerpts from The Taming of Christmas by Jon Nicol. Each devotional contains a brief scripture reading and discussion questions and is designed for use during Advent.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/advent-worship-team-devotional-part-1-the-reality-of-the-nativity\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Advent worship team devotional. Part 1 - The reality of the nativity","og_description":"This worship team devotional series takes excerpts from The Taming of Christmas by Jon Nicol. Each devotional contains a brief scripture reading and discussion questions and is designed for use during Advent.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/advent-worship-team-devotional-part-1-the-reality-of-the-nativity\/","og_site_name":"Musicademy","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Musicademy","article_published_time":"2013-11-28T18:19:40+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-07-24T10:18:48+00:00","og_image":[{"width":"1200","height":"1102","url":"https:\/\/drc0fhsrp02et.cloudfront.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/ebook-cover-square-1200.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Guest Blogger","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@musicademy","twitter_site":"@musicademy","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Guest Blogger","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/advent-worship-team-devotional-part-1-the-reality-of-the-nativity\/","url":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/advent-worship-team-devotional-part-1-the-reality-of-the-nativity\/","name":"Advent worship team devotional. Part 1 - The reality of the nativity","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-11-28T18:19:40+00:00","dateModified":"2019-07-24T10:18:48+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2e11130a6d8cefd1340009119102a557"},"description":"This worship team devotional series takes excerpts from The Taming of Christmas by Jon Nicol. Each devotional contains a brief scripture reading and discussion questions and is designed for use during Advent.","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/advent-worship-team-devotional-part-1-the-reality-of-the-nativity\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/","name":"Musicademy","description":"Award-winning training resources for church based musicians","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/2e11130a6d8cefd1340009119102a557","name":"Guest Blogger","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.musicademy.com"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12132"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12132"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21563,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12132\/revisions\/21563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}