It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas
I sort of feel like I should be a grinch, fussing over any Christmas music and lights evident before Thanksgiving. In fact, I am a grinch about so many other things: I really dislike Halloween, and I can’t stand parades.
But I got an early jump on Christmas music this year as I reviewed Red Mountain Music’s Silent Night, a collection of Christmas hymns that is our featured CD for the month of December. Soon I’ll bring you more on the creation of that album, created by the musicians and friends of Birmingham’s Red Mountain Church. And if you’re into ancient hymns, talented musicians or Christmas music, you should probably click over to WorkPlay and pick up tickets for RMM’s Dec. 22 Christmas show with Drew Holcomb.
I’m excited that my family is traveling to Birmingham this year instead of waiting on me to fly to Florida. Hopefully we’ll all make it to the WorkPlay show. But they’re very disappointed to miss what has become both my parents’ and my favorite Christmas traditions: Behold the Lamb of God, a unique Christmas concert created by Andrew Peterson.
My introduction to Behold the Lamb of God came in 2003. I traveled to Nashville with a group of friends who are long-time fans of Peterson’s music. (He’s best known in the Christian Contemporary Music world, but whether you like that style of music or not—I typically don’t—I can assure you that he is a fantastic lyricist.) Peterson’s concert of original Christmas music became a Nashville tradition years ago and is now reprised there and on tour each year. The music is so moving that I returned to Nashville two more times, caught the show here once and convinced my parents that they had to attend when Peterson came through their city.
This year, the concert will be take place at Oak Mountain Presbyterian Church at 7 p.m. on Dec. 15. Find more information at Andrew Peterson’s website or order tickets online. Below, I’ve copied our December 2007 article about the show.
A different kind of musical
There aren’t any costumes. You won’t see baby Jesus on stage. There’s no dialogue between songs, and you don’t need it to complete the story. Behold the Lamb of God is straightforward in that way. It’s simply a cohesive concert of 12 original songs, written by Nashville songwriter Andrew Peterson and performed by Peterson and a slew of guests.
But the show, which comes to Oak Mountain Presbyterian Church on Dec. 11 at 7 p.m., is much more than a simple concert. Some of the best professional musicians you’ve probably never heard of contribute their voices and instruments to a show so carefully orchestrated it almost resembles a dance. As artists including Sara Groves, Bebo Norman, Jill Phillips enter and exit the stage, they relate in song the story of Christmas from the Old Testament to Jesus’ birth.
“I can only assume that a lot of people are like me and they’ve forgotten over the years that the Christmas story is a great story,” explains Peterson, who began playing the show in Nashville and on the road eight years ago. “It’s not just a thing we remember casually on Christmas day. God has been working toward Christmas morning for all of history.”
The show provides not only respite from Christmas mayhem but a reminder of the biblical story behind the holiday. It’s fulfilled one of Peterson’s dreams by becoming an advent season tradition for families in cities the tour frequents. David Mackle, who coordinated this show for OMPC, hopes to add Birmingham to that list. The church intends to bring back the tour every other year, if not annually.
“I think that part of the thing that makes it so fun is it’s not just one guy you’re going to see. It’s not like you’re going to see the so-and-so Christmas show,” Peterson says. “It’s this community of people who really, truly believe in this story. They don’t just believe in the story; all of my hope is wrapped up in the story we’re telling.”
Tickets are $10 and can be purchased by calling 800-965-9324, online at itickets.com or at the Lee Branch and Hoover locations of Lifeway Christian Stores. –Carla Jean Whitley
