Every part of a Sunday service, with ready-to-use texts you can copy into a bulletin, project on a screen, or read from the platform, plus guidance for writing your own.
Scripture here is quoted from public-domain translations (the World English Bible, KJV, and ASV), and the original texts are released for free use by churches. That means you can reprint anything on these pages without tracking down a permission or paying a licensing fee, which is the single most common reason a worship planner abandons a text they liked.
A church welcome is the first human voice of the service: 45 seconds that tell a visitor whether they are a guest or an intruder.
A call to worship is the opening words of a service: a summons, usually from the Psalms, that tells a gathered crowd it has become a worshiping congregation.
Advent wreath candles explained: three purple and one rose (or four blue) plus a white Christ candle, one more lit each Sunday, with ready-to-use liturgies.
Epiphany, January 6, celebrates the wise men finding Jesus and Christ shown to the nations. Here are calls to worship, prayers, a house blessing, and readings.
An invocation is a short opening prayer asking God to be present and at work in the gathering that is about to begin.
An opening prayer sets the tone of a service in under a minute: gathering a distracted room and turning its attention toward God.
A prayer of confession is the moment in worship when a congregation names its sin together and then hears the assurance of pardon: honesty followed immediately by grace.
A prayer of illumination is the short prayer said just before the scripture is read or preached, asking the Holy Spirit to open the text and open the hearers.
A responsive reading alternates lines between a leader and the congregation, turning scripture from something heard into something spoken.
An affirmation of faith is the moment a congregation says aloud, together, what it believes, usually a historic creed.
A baptism liturgy is the set of words spoken around the water: the institution, the questions, the formula said at the moment of baptism, and the welcome that follows.
A pastoral prayer is the long prayer of the service, in which one voice carries the whole congregation's thanksgiving, grief, and intercession to God.
An offertory prayer is the short prayer said over the offering, dedicating both the gifts and the givers to God.
An altar call is the invitation at the end of a sermon for people to respond publicly, to trust Christ, to recommit, or to be prayed for.
A doxology is a short hymn or sentence of praise to God. The best-known, "Praise God, from whom all blessings flow," is sung in many churches after the offering.
A communion meditation is the brief reflection given before the bread and cup, focusing a congregation on what it is about to do.
Announcements are the most complained-about ninety seconds in worship, and the fix is almost always subtraction.
A closing prayer gathers up what happened in a service and sends the congregation into the week with it.
A commissioning prayer sends someone out with the church behind them: missionaries, teachers, officers, a mission team, or an entire congregation on an ordinary Sunday.
A benediction is the spoken blessing that sends a congregation out at the end of worship, not a closing prayer, but a pronouncement of God's favor over his people.
A benediction is a spoken blessing pronounced over people, usually at the end of a worship service, declaring God's favor rather than requesting it.
The Aaronic benediction is the blessing of Numbers 6:24-26, given by God to Aaron and his sons as the words by which they would put his name on his people.
Lenten liturgies carry a congregation through the forty days from Ash Wednesday to Easter: the imposition of ashes, the Sunday confessions, and the services of Holy Week.
A Thanksgiving liturgy gathers a congregation to name specific gratitude out loud, in a season when the culture around it is doing something much thinner.
A wedding liturgy is the spoken order of a marriage ceremony: the gathering words, the declaration of intent, the vows, the rings, the pronouncement, and the blessing.
A funeral liturgy is the order of words for a service of death and resurrection: the opening sentences, the scripture, the prayers, the committal, and the blessing that sends a family home.
Traditions differ, and the order below is a composite rather than a rule. But most Protestant services move through roughly this sequence: the congregation is gathered, tells the truth about itself, hears the Word, responds, and is sent.
Most churches keep careful records of the order of worship and none at all of what was actually preached. Transcribe every service and build a searchable sermon archive: $19/month for as many sermons as you preach, and the first one is free.