Imagine entering a church during the holiday season. You’d most likely expect wreaths adorning the walls, candles flickering in the windows and above all, a warm, inviting tune playing.
Music is a cherished and expected part of a worship service at churches all over the Lowcountry. Some feature the traditional, beloved songs found in most congregations and others focus on the more contemporary side of musical worship. Many now include a mix of both types of music and host different kinds of worship services that offer something for everyone.
Whether you attend a church in Mount Pleasant or not, ample options exist for nearly every kind of worshipper and there’s no better time to worship than the holidays. Regardless of where you choose to worship this holiday season, be sure to pay attention to a church’s music because according to our local pastors, that’s where the true spirit of the season can be seen and felt each and every day.
SEACOAST CHURCH
Seacoast Church provides multiple services for a variety of worshippers. Seacoast worship and music pastor Garrett Abel explained how music has served as a foundation for their church since its inception. “The music ministry at Seacoast Church is about creating an environment to help people connect with God.”
Having attended Seacoast for 20 years and worked there for nearly 18, Abel is a firm believer in the power of music. When a person enters the doors at Seacoast Church, Abel said it is their goal to ensure that person feels hope and a desire to know God in a deeper sense.
Although Seacoast has grown immensely since its founding in 1988, it has managed to hold tightly to its “grace-filled, easygoing” culture as welcoming stewards of the community. “I’ve learned from incredible leaders who came before me. We stick to our values of ‘this isn’t a performance.’ We are here to provide a worship environment and atmosphere to help people connect with God,” Abel said.
Abel believes that one of the things that sets Seacoast apart from other churches is their strong focus on second chances, and there’s no better time for second chances and reconciliation than Christmas. Starting in November, Seacoast’s music takes on a noticeable holiday shift, with beloved holiday songs returning year after year.
Unlike some churches that shift entirely to Christmas music every December, Seacoast maintains its usual lineup of worship songs while also seamlessly weaving holiday classics like “Silent Night” into the mix. Its Christmas Eve service is the one night that really “decks the halls,” featuring a candle lighting ceremony, Christmas songs and holiday worship.
“It’s beautiful. We have a lot of contemporary aspects to our worship, but this is one of the things that’s very traditional. A standard Seacoast worship service tweaked for Christmas,” Abel said.
Since people are often seeking a sense of nostalgia, that feeling of “home” during the holiday season, Abel said the goal of Seacoast during this time of year is to instill that sense in visitors through worship.
One of Abel’s favorite things about Seacoast is seeing the congregation at their Christmas Eve service, all enjoying the special holiday atmosphere with an experience unique to each of them.
“Seacoast was created for the ‘unchurched,’ where people who didn’t really like church or who had been hurt by ‘church’ can feel welcome,” Abel said. “We try to make it very accessible for people, and make it welcoming, but you don’t want to dumb it down so people can’t feel the Holy Spirit work, so that’s why we focus so much on the music.”
Seeing music affect an audience is nothing new to Abel, who said he sees God working in people through music to repentance, motivation and conviction more often than not. He regularly has worshippers approach him stating the effect the music had on them that day. Abel also loves seeing the impact it has on Seacoast youth, who he described as very motivated, always seeking God and paving their own path to improve the future of their church.
Abel describes his role at Seacoast Church as an “absolute honor” because of the impact he sees music make in people’s lives, especially during the holidays.
ST. ANDREW’S CHURCH
Another church putting a creative spin on holiday services is St. Andrew’s Church, which incorporates art into its various approaches to worship.
Dwight Huthwaite, worship arts director at St. Andrew’s, was hired in 1998 as an assistant to the current music director. He oversaw the Wednesday night worship services before ultimately taking over when the music director retired. “We believe that our lives should be lived as worship to the Lord, so we worship through music and of course the arts,” Huthwaite said.
While St. Andrew’s has a robust contemporary worship service, it also offers a more traditional service and numerous others, reinforcing its unique, welcoming approach to ministry. The church’s contemporary service, led by Huthwaite, features a full praise band, with instruments like electric guitars, drums, electric violins and more.
“The contemporary service is just that … very contemporary,” Huthwaite said. “And we’ve been able to do all the wonderful things we’ve done at St. Andrew’s because of the freedom that our rector gives us.”
Aside from its history, St. Andrew’s has another claim to fame in its rector Steve Wood, who in addition to being elected as the first Bishop of the Diocese of the Carolinas in 2012 was also named Archbishop of the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA) in June 2024.
St. Andrew’s is a church that honors both the Bible and the Holy Spirit, which is why it offers a fully accredited seminary called the Ridley Institute. “This offers things on both the normal, down-to-earth parishioner side and then the full-blown seminary side. We believe in the whole Word of God – everything is Christ-centered, but in all our worship we also embrace the Holy Spirit, which opens up the unique experiences one may encounter during worship,” Huthwaite said.
Since the arts are an integral part of their church, there are two gallery spaces showcasing St. Andrew’s ministry through art: the main Kairos Gallery and its secondary prayer room gallery. All artworks featured within are created by both locally and nationally/ internationally-known artists. Art media range from paintings and drawings to photography.
St. Andrew’s offers quarterly forums, which are seminars held on Saturday mornings featuring a guest speaker and a local artist sharing insight into their work and how it ties to the Kairos Gallery. It also hosts oil painting and watercolor painting classes, as well as a writers’ group and visual artists’ small group.
Music, however, is at the forefront of artistic expression at St. Andrew’s and Huthwaite said there’s a vitality any attendant can feel during a service’s musical programs. “There’s excitement, but there’s also a sense of spiritual depth as we work to bring people to an experience with God. We want to see that very vital, living thing is happening and music plays a massive role in that.”
As an Anglican Church, St. Andrew’s honors the season of Advent, which are the four Sundays leading up to Christmas. It is during this time that their songs begin to take on a unique holiday energy to them that serves as an invitation for people to join in the welcoming environment and seek a connection with God.
St. Andrew’s provides two different Christmas Eve services, with one being targeted toward families and children and the other being more adult-oriented. Huthwaite said these services typically attract between 1,200-1,400 people.
“One of my favorite events we have is called ‘Cookies and Carols,’ and one of the most powerful and common times that people feel close to God is through things like this. Through worship. When we’re worshipping together. That sense of his presence, I hear about it all the time,” added Huthwaite.
Huthwaite said he’s excited to see his congregation at St. Andrew’s engage with its pastoral leadership through worship. “The more people that open up and engage with worship, everything just gets richer, stronger, better. It creates an experience of God’s presence visiting everyone all the more.”
EAST COOPER BAPTIST CHURCH
Another Mount Pleasant place of worship, East Cooper Baptist Church (ECBC), is involved in its local community through a fun holiday tradition: the ‘Lights Up’ Tree Lighting celebration at Mount Pleasant Towne Centre. For the past 12 years, ECBC’s choir and orchestra has been invited to lead the music at the event, which worship arts pastor Dean Henderson said is a fun, citywide way to kick off the holiday season.
ECBC presents a Christmas concert to Charleston each year as well, with this year’s “Fullness of Time” slated for Dec. 12 and 13.
While annual holiday musical traditions are to be expected, 2025 marks the final year of running ECBC’s music for Henderson, who plans to retire at the end of December after a 43-year career in ministry – 37 of which he spent with ECBC.
“I remember one of my seminary professors told me I could not take a position in Charleston, because this is a city where people want to end up, and usually people in church positions move several times in their careers. Well, I proved him wrong!” Henderson exclaimed.
Henderson also stated that long-term ministry in a local church has many benefits, such as seeing one of his sons-in-law grow up in the church.
There’s never a better time for ministry, Henderson said, than during the holidays, and ECBC’s music plays a large hand in that. Due to ECBC’s initial rapid growth, the church decided to offer multiple types of services ranging from contemporary to traditional, while keeping with the church’s Reformed style, meaning all music is theologically sound and Gospel-centric.
ECBC also tries to give back to its community by supporting area charities every year such as East Cooper Community Outreach, local food banks and more. This year they are requesting visitors to bring diapers and wipes to donate to the Lowcountry Pregnancy Center during their annual concert, which they call “Concerts for a Cause.”
“Our church vision statement is ‘Helping Broken People Treasure Jesus.’ We are all broken people helping other broken people find their healing and wholeness in a genuine relationship with Christ. Our music program connects with this by sharing the hope of the Gospel through music,” Henderson said.
While ECBC’s concerts now take place in a facility that holds 1,000 people, in the past the church hosted its concerts at the old Gaillard Auditorium and North Charleston Performing Arts Center. Henderson said it was an honor to host the final concert in the old Gaillard Auditorium before it was renovated.
“Music is a powerful tool that can convey the truth of the Gospel in meaningful ways that words alone might not. When you put truth in a beautiful musical setting it becomes memorable and attaches to your soul. Music is a fair and glorious gift of God, and we do not take it for granted, but use it for God’s glory,” Henderson added.
In accordance with its vision statement, ECBC’s music program works to share the hope of the Gospel through its unique sound. Music, no matter how it’s implemented, always serves as a vital part of worship at any Lowcountry church.
Reflecting on his time at ECBC, Henderson encouraged residents of the Lowcountry to visit a church and see the effect music may have on you. “As I finish my tenure at ECBC I do so with great hope for the future. My departure will cause our church and our music ministry to re-examine, rethink and reconfigure so we can continue to reach people for Christ and make a Gospel impact through music for all generations for years to come.”
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