100 Creative Worship Service Ideas

Christmas Season

1. Every week of the Christmas season dedicate the sermon to a

different perspective from the Christmas story. (ex: The effect it
had on the Shepherds, wise men, and city of Bethlehem.)
2. Give all of your guests an ornament for their family to hang on
their Christmas tree and discuss the meaning of Christmas and
what that means for each of them together. If you have enough
budget, also give the family an additional ornament to give to a
family they know who does not attend your church as an
invitation.
3. Do Operation Christmas Child as a church. Maybe even have
ministry areas challenge each other. Can the student ministry
make more boxes than the adult ministries? Find out more about
the ministry here: http://www.samaritanspurse.org/what-wedo/operation-christmas-child/
4. Decorate your meeting space. Invest in some fake Christmas
trees and ornaments and you can reuse them every year. Then
every other year buy a few more decorations.
5. Have an area in your church with a photo booth. This can be as
complicated or minimalistic as you wish. It could be a couch in
front of a blank wall, or Christmas trees with hanging
chandeliers. The idea is have a place where attendees can come
and get a Christmas picture together. Promote the photo booth in
the welcome/hosting time of service and if you want to take it up
a notch, have a hashtag they can use if they post their picture to
social media. Then you can track the pictures and their followers
can learn about your church.
6. Start each service with a new upbeat Christmas carol.
7. Make a video that has members from different areas of the
church sharing what Christmas means to them, some of their
favorite Christmas traditions, and Christmas memories to help
the attendees get in the Christmas spirit.
8. Rewrite the 12 days of Christmas lyrics about the different
ministry areas of the church getting ready for Christmas. (ex: 3
student pastors tweeting, two babies crying, and a pastor
decorating a tree. Be creative make it what identifies your
church.)
9. Have Christmas Carol Karaoke in childrens ministry areas for
them and their parents to do on the way in and out of church.
10.
Each week in service focus one of the prayers on an aspect
of the Christmas season that can be hard and pray about it.
Christmas brings up a lot of baggage and reminders of what we
do and dont have. Ex: pray for the widows, those who lost family

members around Christmas, those struggling to pay rent and

want to get their kids a Christmas present, etc.

Christmas Eve
1. Have carolers who are singing as guests enter service.
2. At the end of the service, give each of the attendees a candle.
Have the pastor share about how Christmas is the celebration of
the light of the world being born for us. Have each attendee light
their candle and end the service with just that light singing a
carol.
3. If you want a similar concept on a budget, get a few candles and
a way to display them in the front of the auditorium and have a
time of prayer for a person you may know who you want to know
the Light of Christ that year. Invite attendees to come to the front
and light a candle to represent that person for whom they are
praying.
4. Do your version of West Jet Christmas, found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIEIvi2MuEk . This does not
have to be as elaborate or expensive as West Jet. But make it
meaningful, that is much more memorable and impactful.
5. Have the childrens ministry areas learn a Christmas song to
perform together during the service.
6. Have a slideshow on the screens of pictures gathered around the
church throughout the Christmas festivities. This is a great way
to get attendees involved before any production even begins
because they are trying to find themselves in the pictures.
7. Have fake snow on some of the decorations, or if you can find
one floating from the ceiling.
8. During hosting show the best of Elf on a shelf. Bonus if they are
photos from members of your congregation.
9. Give each family a handout to bring home with them to use on
Christmas morning to discuss why we celebrate Christmas
together.
10.
Play Christmas music as people enter the service.

Easter
1. Plan an Easter egg hunt that families can attend and invite their
neighbors/ family friends who do not attend the church to. This is
a great opportunity to allow non-attendees to experience the
church and feel comfortable enough to come back.
2. Give all the children K-5 an Easter egg with a handout to
facilitate talking about Easter as a family.
3. Have a wooden cross as a part of the dcor and main focus of
the service. At the end of the sermon, allow some time for the
attendees to write something that Jesus dies for and conquered

by rising that we need to give to him on a note card provided.

Then let them put that notecard on the cross as a symbol of
them giving it to Him.
4. Have a good Friday service that ends somber with low to no
lighting, then at the start to the Easter service, start with
celebration and a lot of light! He is risen, after all.
5. Give out a devotional to do as a Church leading up to Easter.
6. Have a special gift to give to first time guests that has a bit more
information as to why it was so special they came to service on
Easter Sunday and why that day is so important to our faith.
7. Consider adapting childrens/ student ministries for the influx of
people. Perhaps have a shorter message in the Student ministry
and more time for students to interact and have a little fun.
There will be many new attendees who just want to feel
comfortable and like they are welcome. Have more volunteers in
the Childrens ministry and just be as over prepared as possible!
8. During transitional pieces of the service or long instrumental
moments of worship have some bible verses on the screen that
emulate Easter and why there is so much celebration on this
particular Sunday.
9. Connect the tithing time to the fact that we, as Christians, model
our lives after Christ. He gave his life to us, freely and
generously, so we also give freely and generously.
10.
If possible, consider a set change for the stage to
symbolize the celebration of Easter.

Serving Sunday
1. Create a video of a volunteer from each ministry area telling a
story about how serving in that ministry area has changed them
positively. Include footage and pictures of them in their element
2. Promote the service season with a hashtag. (ex:
#WhyIVolunteer) Encourage current volunteers to post about
their experience serving. Then at the start of service have some
of the social media displayed on the screens for attendees to see
and feel inspired.
3. Have an open house of the different ministry areas for potential
volunteers to come, visit, and learn about how everything looks
and runs on Sundays in that environment.
4. Do a skit during service about the quirks and funny things about
each ministry area. (ex: the childrens director running around
with diapers and hula hoops and bumps into the youth pastor
who is tweeting/ instagramming/ snapchatting
simultaneously,etc.)
5. Have parents from each ministry area interviewed by the pastor
about the affect that area has had on their child. Then have that

child share. If it is a young child allow the pastor to ask questions

like "What is your favorite part about name of ministry area." if it
is a high schooler leave the question open ended like "Will you
share with everyone about your experience with name of
ministry area?
6. Invite the directors/staff from each ministry area to come on
stage and explain the qualifications of a great volunteer. (ex: I
work with the preschoolers and our best volunteers love to help
children learn that God loves them! They are very patient and
not afraid to change a diaper! I am the youth pastor and our best
volunteers are not afraid to talk about difficult life situations,
etc.)
7. Recognize all current volunteers in the welcome of service and
have them stand up. Then invite the members of the church to
pray for each of them.
8. Get a small gift to say thank you to all of your volunteers (ex: get
coffee cups with your church name on them and put a note with
it that says "We love our volunteers a late!")
9. Make a lip sync video to show at the start of service including
shots from each of the ministry areas and all the volunteers.
10.
Have bulletin inserts with interest cards. Have each
ministry area with check boxes, name and email. Then during
service tell the guests that if they are not serving there are
interest cards they can fill out and pick their area they would
love to serve, and have a staff person reach out THE NEXT DAY.

Start To Summer
1. Do a parody to "In Summer" from Frozen
2. Have a summer long photo booth with a summer hashtag. Bring
in a kiddie pool, some sand and make a mini beach. Add in some
props like some sunglasses and hats and let families take some
photos together.
3. Have a hosting segment in the first service to start summer
about "how to do summer well" - include things like bad sunburn
photos (remember sunscreen!), crying babies (have activities for
your kids to do), etc.
4. Have a summer series - make a summer graphic to represent
that series that you can instagram and members of the
congregation can promote it with.
5. Have a reoccurring "summer troubles with the smiths" skit or
video to start the service or sermon with common troubles
families and attendees may face and relate to during the
summer time. (ex: it is just too hot, we ran out of things to do
with the kids and its 10 AM, etc.)
6. Start each service with a classic summer song: ex: summertime,
God Bless America (around the 4th of July), etc.

7. Spotlight different areas of your town and give away passes to

attendees to go there with friends or their family.
8. Have Summer Saturdays where a few Saturdays in the summer
your Church has an outdoor, family friendly, movie night.
Attendees can invite friends who do not come to church, bring
their own dinners and build community with one another.
9. Make photo scavenger hunts that attendees can take with them
and try to complete that summer. This gives them activities to do
and connected time with community.
10.
Give away freeze pops after service during the first
summer Sunday.

Mothers Day
1. Give all the mothers at church a flower
2. Have all the mothers in service stand up. Have the host/pastor
honor them and pray for them.
3. Have each of the ministry areas make a gift for the mom. (ex:
have the children draw a picture of them and their mom and
write one thing they love most about her, but then have the
middle schoolers and high schoolers write a letter to their mom,
etc.)
4. Have a giveaway for mom's to win a gift card to get her nails
done.
5. Give away bomb pops with little tags that say Youre the Bomb,
Mom! on them.
6. Have a donut bar with a sign that reads We DONUT know what
we would do without our Moms!
7. Have the sermon be about Mary and her influence on Christian
Mothers and what it looks like to really trust God.
8. Post about Mothers Day and how thankful we all are for our
mothers on the Churchs social media outlets.
9. Have a moms night out with complementary childcare. This can
be community service hours for high schoolers and a chance to
honor the moms with some free time.
10.
Have devotionals available to all the mothers that are short
and sweet given their busy schedules. If you cannot give them to
each mother for free, have them for sale!

Fathers Day
1. Give all the children's and student ministries activities to do to
give something to dad to celebrate him. (ex: My favorite memory
with dad is, my favorite thing to do with dad is...)
2. Have the opening song be an old 80s rock song.

3. Take some time in the service to have all the Dads stand up and
pray for them to be strong leaders to their wives and children
and devoted servants to Christ and others.
4. Promote a book in the service that you feel all dads should read.
Then either give it to all the dads or have it for sale after service.
5. Do a song parody to Bad to the Bone but rewrite the lyrics to
be about how Dad is bad to the bone. It would be even cuter if
you could have an extremely outgoing elementary student sing
it.
6. Give all the dads packs of gum with a card that reads: We cant
imagine life without CHEW. (This could be from the childrens
ministry or simply given after service to all dads.)
7. Give all the dads lollipops with cards that read: Youre the best
POP! (This could be from the childrens ministry or simply given
after service to all dads.)
8. Give all the dads a roll of mints with a card that says Having you
as a Dad has MINT so much to me. (This could be from the
childrens ministry or simply given after service to all dads.)
9. Have a giveaway to win tickets to a local sports game.
10.
Center the sermon on what makes a great father. You can
reference famous fathers in the Bible (Boaz, Joseph, etc.) but
land the sermon on our perfect father God. Then you could sing
this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djrY_eFDOwE

Back To School
1. Recognize all of the seniors in service who are starting their last
year in high school then have a time of prayer for them.
2. Connect tithes in service to buying content for ministry areas.
Allow a student to share what they have been learning in their
area and then have the time of giving.
3. Include an insert in the bulletin with a list of all the schools
represented in the congregation -- challenge your congregation
to spend the year praying for the students at a different school
each week.
4. Pray for all the teachers and administration in the service. Allow
them to stand up and let the other members of the congregation
pray for them.
5. Pray for all the students in the service. Allow them to stand up as
well and let the adults pray over them, that they would be a light
to their schools.
6. Have the service be about fresh starts and starting over. New
school year, new you, and through Christ we get to start over.
7. Put a Starbucks gift card on instagram for the teachers first day
back to school to remind them the church is praying for them
and to treat them to some coffee.

8. Showcase a student volunteer during service, connect this to the

time of prayer for the students in the audience. Pray that
students would show the same leadership and passion for Christ
at school that they commit and show every week at the church.
9. Collect school supplies and backpacks the weeks leading up to
this service to pack and give to students in the community who
cannot afford to buy new school supplies.
10.
Have a school spirit competition on social media.

Thanksgiving Season
1. Have a wall of thankfulness in your church. Make it chalkboard or
have a lot of pieces of paper and pens, then allow children,
students, and attendees to write thing they are thankful for in
this season.
2. Challenge members in the congregation to serve the community
in some way as a family or small group.
3. Make a handout to give to the families to use at their
thanksgiving meal to facilitate some conversations around
thankfulness.
4. Have an instagram challenge: have families take a slefie and
hashtag it. (ex: #FBCThankfulnessSelfie) Winners get a free
turkey from the church, or even just recognized in service!
5. Have Thanksgiving mania during the hosting/welcome. Give
away good gifts, but also gag gifts to audience members. You
could tie it to the fact that Thanksgiving is overlooked for
Christmas and thanksgiving can give gifts too.
6. Coordinate a Thanksgiving meal to do as a congregation. Have
everyone bring a side and if possible, the church will provide the
turkey.
7. Do a hosting segment about the various, often funny, guests you
may have at a Thanksgiving meal and the many laughable
moments this will create. If possible you could make this the
short video to play before the sermon.
8. Offer service opportunities for families to do together in the
community.
9. Have a food drive to collect for a local charity.
10.
Serve apple cider after service to get in the spirit.
11.
The sermon can be centered around Jesus healing the 10
lepers and only 1 saying thank you connect this to the season
of thankfulness that comes with Thanksgiving.

New Sermon Series

1. If you dont have an instagram already for your church, make
one and do some promo's to reveal the new series that upcoming
Sunday.

2. Have the graphic for the series on the front of the bulletin.
3. Each week into the new series do a brief overview of the last few
weeks to catch up any attendees who may be listening to this
series for the first time.
4. Also use social media to invite your congregation to join you for
this new series and invite a friend.
5. Have a hashtag for the series that your attendees can use
throughout the series to collect everyones posts in one location.
6. Do a set change at the start of a new series. This is a natural
place to include it and subconsciously will prepare your
congregation for something new.
7. Have tweets/instagrams from the series scrolling on the screens
when attendees enter.
8. Have a handout in the bulletin that has the series bottom line on
the last Sunday. This way, attendees can bring it home, put it up
and always remember that point.
9. Try to connect the overall theme to the content in childrens
ministry and student ministry.
10.
If possible, create short intro videos to play before the
speaker. This is a natural transition and gets the attendees in the
mindset to talk about the topic because that video alludes to it or
sets it up well. These are called bumpers or title packages. Here
is an example from a series on pride:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vFhXGobfug .