Hosting a Typical Sunday Service
Hosting a worship service is an essential role that sets the tone for the congregation’s time of worship and ensures the service flows smoothly. As the host, you will guide the congregation through key moments, offering up remarks and prayers to focus their hearts and minds on God.
While you may personalize your contribution, please put forethought into all you say as a host ensuring it is helpful, biblical, and purposeful. Here are the most common moments a host can expect to engage in a typical Sunday service.
Opening the Service: Remarks and Opening Prayer
Your first responsibility is to warmly welcome the congregation. This is actually way harder than it looks as many people will not seem to be listening to you for the first several moments of your welcome. It takes a minute for people to realize the service is beginning, wrap up their conversations, and find their seat. You just keep moving through your introduction as if everyone is in wrapt attention.
Your opening remarks should briefly help attendees focus on worship. A baseline might be something like this:
“Good morning! Welcome to Griggs Memorial Baptist Church. It is a joy to gather together in the name of the Lord. Let us prepare our hearts to worship the One who calls us into His presence.”
You can add in short stories from the week, spiritual encouragement, or a passage that is on your heart and mind that gets people to realize we’re about to engage in the most important hour of the week.
Following this, lead the congregation in an opening prayer, asking for God’s blessing and guidance over the service. After the prayer, exit the stage to allow the worship team to lead the 1st congregational song.
Greeting one another
If we’re in a season where this is part of our services, we do this in obedience to the word. Over an over again the apostles call us to greet each other in the name of the Lord (Romans 16:16, 1 Corinthians 16:20, 2 Corinthians 13:12, 1 Peter 5:14), usually with a holy kiss but we just use a handshake!
Communicating this is as simple as putting together a couple of sentences on exactly what to expect. “Right now we’re going to take a moment to shake hands and greet one another while the music continues to play. So go ahead and say hi to someone right around you and we will seat everyone in about 2 minutes.”
Sometimes it’s good to add in some creativity like, “Everyone share their birth month and date as you greet each other” and then, afterwards, see if anyone met a fellow church member that shared the same birthday. However, there’s no need to add in creativity every service.
Offering Remarks and Prayer
After the initial worship songs and handshake time (if applicable), you will return to the stage to lead the offering moment. Start by calling the ushers forward. Use this opportunity to share a brief reflection on the significance of giving. We have detailed instruction on how to do this here and ideas for themes here.
Conclude this time with a prayer of thanksgiving and dedication over the offering. Over time, we encourage you to add your own insights or stories to make this moment more personal and meaningful.
Communion (Only on First Sundays)
When we approach the Lord’s Table, we are observing a memorial and participating in our greatest ritual. But Holy Communion is not merely a moment to recall the death and resurrection of Christ—it is a profound act of communal fellowship with God.
So come to the table with pure motives, humility and joy. Come remembering His death, rejoicing in His resurrection, and anticipating His return. And know that as you lead the congregation to eat and drink, we are all bound to Christ by faith, nourished by His Spirit, and strengthened in the life He has won for us. This is a holy meal, a sacred gift. So please take utmost care in leading it.
You can read about leading it with responsive reading here.
Or leading communion without responsive reading here.
Closing the Service: Benediction or Doxology
At the conclusion of the service, you will close with either a benediction or a doxology, sending the congregation out with a blessing.
A benediction is a prayer or declaration of God’s grace and peace over the congregation, such as:
“May the Lord bless you and keep you; may His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.”
Here is a big list of Bennedictions you can use, if you don’t have one of your own.
A doxology is a brief hymn of praise to God. You can check out a list of those here.
As with other elements of hosting, you can later tailor these closings to reflect your unique voice and the needs of our church on a given day.
