Christmas Season 1. Every week of the Christmas season, dedicate the sermon to a different perspective from the Christmas story. (Shepherds, wise men, Mary, Innkeeper, Joseph, etc.) 2. Give all of your guests an ornament for their family to hang on their tree to remind them of the meaning of Christmas. If you have the budget, also give the family an additional ornament to hand out to an unchurched family as an invitation. 3. Do an Operation Christmas Child campaign 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 OCC here: http://www.samaritanspurse.org/what-we-do/operation-christmas-child/ 4. Decorate your meeting space. Invest in some fake Christmas trees and ornaments that you can reuse every year. Then, each year after that you can add a few more decorations to your collection. 5. Have an area in your church with a photo booth. This can be elaborate with a Christmas tree and hanging chandeliers. Or, keep it simple with a couch in front of a wall. Hire or a photographer, or simply have someone who will snap pictures of families with their phones. Promote the photo booth in the welcome/hosting time of service. If you want to take it up a notch, have a hashtag they can use to post their pictures on social media. Then you can track the pictures, and their followers can learn about your church.
6. Start each service with an upbeat Christmas carol. 7. To help attendees get in the Christmas spirit, make a video that has members from different areas of the church sharing what Christmas means to them, including some of their favorite Christmas traditions and memories. 8. Rewrite The 12 Days Of Christmas about the different ministry areas of the church getting ready for Christmas. (example: 3 student pastors tweeting, two babies crying, and a pastor decorating a tree. Be creative and connect it to what makes your church unique). 9. Have an area in your lobby where kids and parents can do Christmas Carol Karaoke before or after church. 10. As great as they are for most people, the holidays are extremely difficult for some. Each week in the service, pray for one area where people may be struggling during the holiday season. For example, people who have lost loved ones, people who have relatives in the military, people who are struggling financially, etc. Christmas Eve 1. Have carolers sing in the lobby as guests enter service. 2. At the end of the service, give each attendee 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 at the end of the service. 3. If you want a similar concept on a budget, get a few candles and display them in the front of the auditorium. Have a time of prayer for a person who you want to know the Light of Christ. 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. You can make it meaningful without spending a lot of money. 5. Have the children s ministry areas learn a Christmas song to perform together during the service. 6. As people enter and exit, have a slideshow on the screens of pictures gathered around the church throughout the holidays. This is a great way to get attendees involved in the worship service experience. 7. Have fake snow on some of the decorations. Or, if you can swing it, have fake snow falling from the ceiling!
8. During hosting, show the best pictures of Elf On A Shelf. Even better, show pictures from members of your congregation. 9. Give each family a handout to bring home to use on Christmas morning to discuss why we celebrate Christmas together. 10. Play Christmas music as people enter and exit the service. Easter 1. Plan an Easter egg hunt that families can attend and invite their neighbors, family, and friends who do not attend the church. 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 the main focus of the service. At the end of the sermon, allow some time for the attendees to write something that Jesus died for and that He conquered by resurrecting from the dead. After they write it down, instruct them to put that notecard on the cross as a symbol of giving that situation to God. 4. Have a Good Friday service that ends somber with low 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 three-page devotional to do as a Church leading up to Easter. 6. Have a special gift to give to first time guests. Something that clearly explains why Easter is so important to our faith. Connect it to why it s so special that they came to service on Easter Sunday. 7. Think about ways to make every environment special on Easter, not just the main worship service. Create a theme that goes throughout the entire church, including children s and student ministry. If possible, make it a theme that makes guests comfortable. 8. During transitional pieces of the service or long instrumental moments of worship, have some Bible verses on the screen point to 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 for us freely and generously, so in response to that, we also give freely and generously. 10. If possible, consider decorating the stage and creating a set that symbolizes the celebration of Easter.
Serving Sunday 1. Create a video of a volunteer from each ministry area telling a story about how serving has changed them in a positive way. 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 on social media. Then, at the start of service, have some of the social media posts displayed on the screens for attendees to see and feel inspired. 3. Have an open house of different ministry areas for potential volunteers to visit and learn what it looks like to serve in that environment. 4. Do a skit during service about the quirks and funny things about each ministry area. (ex: the children s director running around with diapers and hula hoops and bumps into the youth pastor who is tweeting/ instagramming/ snapchatting simultaneously, etc.) 5. Have a pastor interview parents from each ministry area. Ask them what affect that ministry has had on their child. Then, have that child share. If it s a young child, allow the pastor to ask questions like, "What s your favorite part about being involved in children s ministry?" If it s a high schooler, leave the question open ended like, "Will you share with everyone about your experience in student ministry? 6. Invite the directors/staff from each ministry area to come on stage and explain the qualifications of a great volunteer (example: 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. Or, 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 your service and have them stand up. Then, invite members of the church to pray for each of them. 8. Get a small gift to say thank you to all of your volunteers (example: get coffee cups with your church name on them and put a note with it that says "We love our volunteers a latte!") 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 the service tell guests that if they re not serving, there are interest cards that they can fill out. Tell them to pick the area they would love to serve in. Have a staff person reach out to them 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 sunglasses and hats and let families take photos together. 3. Have a hosting segment in the first service of the summer called, "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 that you can use to represent that series on Instagram. Ask members of the congregation to promote the series with it. 5. Have a reoccurring "Summer Troubles With The Smiths" skit or video to start the service or sermon with common troubles that families and attendees may face during the summer time (example: it s just too hot, or, we ran out of things to do with the kids and its 10 AM, etc.) 6. Start each service with a classic summer song: example: Summertime, God Bless America (around the 4th of July), etc. 7. Spotlight different areas of your town and give away free 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 relationships with one another. 9. Make photo scavenger hunts that attendees can 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. Mother s 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. (example: have the children draw a picture of them and their mom and write one thing they love most about her. Have the middle schoolers and high schoolers write a letter to their mom, etc.) 4. Have a giveaway for moms to win a gift card. 5. Give away bomb pops with little tags that say You re the Bomb, Mom!
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, her influence on Christian Mothers, and what it looks like to really trust God as a mom. 8. Post about Mother s Day on the church s social media outlets and how thankful we all are for our mothers. 9. Have a mom s night out with complementary childcare to honor moms with some free time. It s also a change for high schoolers to serve. 10. Create short devotionals to give to all mothers. Tell them this is your way of recognizing them and their busy schedules. If you cannot give them to each mother for free, have them for sale. Father s Day 1. Give all the children's and student ministries a phrase they can finish and either write, text, or video and send to their dad (example: My favorite memory with dad is, my favorite thing to do with dad is...) 2. Have the opening song be an old 80 s rock song. 3. Take some time in the service to have all the dads stand up. 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 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 better is if you could have an outgoing elementary-aged student sing it. 6. Give all the dads packs of Big League Chew bubble gum with a card that reads, We can t imagine life without CHEW (You could have kids give this to their dads, or simply hand them out to all dads after service). 7. Give all the dads lollipops with cards that say, You re the best POP! (Same thing: you could have kids give this to their dads, or simply hand them out to all dads after service) 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 (Once again: you could have kids give this to their dads, or simply hand them out to all dads after service) 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, but land the sermon on how God is our perfect father. Maybe close with 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. Have a time of prayer for them. 2. Connect tithing in service to buying content for ministry areas. Allow a students to share what they ve 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 students at a different school each week. 4. Allow all the teachers and administration to stand up in the service. Clap for them, and then ask other members of the congregation to pray for them. 5. Pray for all the students in the service. Allow them to stand up and let the adults pray over them. 6. Have the service be about starting over and starting fresh. New school year, new you, and new beginning through Christ. 7. Put a Starbucks gift card on instagram for the teachers first day back to school. Remind them that the church is praying for them and wants to treat them to some coffee. 8. Showcase a student volunteer during service. Connect this to the time of prayer for students in the audience. Pray that students would show the same leadership and passion for Christ at school that they do every week at church. 9. Collect school supplies and backpacks during the weeks leading up to this service. Pack the backpacks and give them 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 gratitude in your church. Use a chalkboard or paper and pens. Allow children, students, and adults to write things they re thankful for 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 families to use at their Thanksgiving meal to facilitate conversations around thankfulness. 4. Have an Instagram challenge. Have families take a selfie and hashtag it (example: #FBCThankfulnessSelfie). Winners get a free turkey from the church (or, just recognize them in the worship service).
5. Have Thanksgiving mania during the hosting/welcome. Give away good gifts or gag gifts to audience members. Tie it to the fact that Thanksgiving is overshadowed by Christmas, and we can give gifts for Thanksgiving, too! 6. Coordinate a Thanksgiving meal to eat together as a church body. Have everyone bring a side and, if possible, have the church provide the turkey. 7. Do a hosting segment about the funny guests families often have at a Thanksgiving meal and the laughable moments they create. If possible, make this a short video to play before the sermon. 8. Have a food drive to collect for a local charity. 9. Serve apple cider after the service to get people in the Thanksgiving spirit. 10. Center the sermon around Jesus and the 10 lepers. Only one came back to say thank you. Connect this to the importance of actually expressing gratitude this Thanksgiving. New Sermon Series 1. If you don t have a church Instagram account set up, create one and do some promo videos to reveal the upcoming series that is launching at your church. 2. Have the graphic for the series on the front of the bulletin. 3. Each week in the new series, do a brief overview of the last few weeks to catch up attendees who may be present for the first time in a while. 4. Use social media to invite your congregation to join you for this new series. Encourage them to use social media to invite a friend. 5. Have a hashtag for the series that your attendees can use throughout the series to see everyone s social media posts in one location. Something like #FBCNewSeries. 6. Do a set change at the start of a new series. This is a natural time to change the graphics, background, and feel of your stage (and any other area you can theme out ). Also, it will subconsciously prepare your congregation for something new. 7. Have tweets/instagram posts from the series scrolling on the screens when attendees enter. 8. Have a handout in the bulletin that has the series bottom line on it. Give it to attendees on the last Sunday of the series. They can take it home, put it in a highly visual place (like on their refrigerator) and remember the point of the series.
9. Try to connect the overall theme with the content in children s 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 think about the topic. These are called bumpers or title packages. They simply set the stage for the preaching content. Here s an example from a series on pride: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vfhxgobfug.