Published on: 16/12/2025
I love Christmas! It carries a lot of nostalgia and comfort for me, and as the lights and decorations and Christmas music start to take over, I find myself looking back at previous Christmases and the memories they hold. I remember one particular Christmas when I was a teenager – I’d asked for a CD which I couldn’t wait to listen to. But the best gift I received that year was something I didn’t ask for: a hot water bottle! I’ve always been a cold person, and I quickly found that I couldn’t live without it!
At this time of year, we prepare our hearts to receive the gift of Jesus, the long-awaited Saviour. Isaiah 9:6 gives us a beautiful description of this gift: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
The promised King wasn’t given to us full of strength and power and years of wisdom as we might expect from someone who will have the government on his shoulders. He was given to us as a tiny, weak, vulnerable baby, to a normal working-class family who became refugees very early in his life. Not the gift that God’s people perhaps thought they wanted, but exactly who they needed.
If our Mighty God and Prince of Peace came to us as a vulnerable baby, what, then, do we expect a leader to be like? Who do we see as leaders in our churches?
I used to lead the worship team at a church in Bristol, and during this time, I received an email from a small group leader in the church who mentioned that in their group they had learned to sign the song “The Blessing” in Makaton. This had been taught to them by a parent and their toddler son, who was non-verbal and was learning to worship with his body. They asked if it would be possible for this little boy to lead the song in a church service, and to teach the congregation the Makaton so we could follow him.
So we made it happen: Church members, old and young, of all abilities, joined in with the Makaton and the singing, and lead by a child, we counted ourselves in to this act of worship together. What a beautiful gift this child is! Being lead by him made me consider my own pre-conceptions about worship: I thought about how singing is not the only way to worship, and discovered that we learn important new things when we are lead by children.
In 1 Corinthians 12, we read about how the Church is “one body, with many parts.” We need the leadership of children and young people; they are precious gifts to the Church that we simply can’t survive without, just as each part of the body is a precious gift that contributes to its working: “ 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable” (1 Corinthians 12:21-22)
How will you embrace the gift of the child Jesus this Christmas and allow yourself to be lead by those who might seem to be weaker in the eyes of the world?
This week’s Blog post was written by Rachel Baker, Young Leaders’ Community Enabler