The 4th of July is a great holiday to celebrate as a church. There are so many great opportunities to celebrate July 4th within your worship services. Many people go out of town for the 4th of July weekend, but you can honor the people who do come to church by having a great Sunday morning service. But what are some of the best 4th of July church service ideas?
Although the Fourth of July Holiday doesn’t always fall on a Sunday morning, you can host your Fourth of July service the week of the holiday. Your church can have an early Fourth of July celebration.
Independence Day weekend is a great time to celebrate American independence as a church. On this special day, you can change things up to make it more fun. There are tons of creative ways to make your July celebrations great as a church.
With all of that being said we hope to provide you with some helpful tips on how to host the best 4th of July Church service. Here are some of the best 4th of July Church Service ideas.
The List of the Best 4th of July Church Service Ideas:
1. Have the Worship Team Sing A Patriotic Worship Song
One great way of making your 4th of July church service memorable is by having a special musical element. There are some great American songs that even have Christian themes. These patriotic songs would be perfect to sing in your church service.
Songs like: America the Beautiful and How Great Thou Art are great American classics that honor God. You could even put The Star Spangled Banner in there as well.
A special musical element is a great option to celebrate the 4th of July as your church. You just want to make sure that you choose a song that can be thematically Biblical. You don’t want to distract the congregants from God.
2. Focus the message on True Freedom
For your 4th of July sermon, you should stick with a theme that relates both to the Bible and the 4th of July holiday. Freedom is an easy idea that fits with both Christianity and the holiday. We recommend teaching on the topic of freedom for your Fourth of July sermon.
In your Independence Day sermons, you can talk about the freedom that comes from the Holy Spirit, and you can talk about the freedom we get through the gift of Eternal life.
Just like America got freedom from Great Britain, God fought a battle for people’s freedom from sin. These are just a couple of Independence Day sermon ideas.
3. Serve Hotdogs
Another one of the great 4th of July Service ideas is to serve hotdogs. July 4th is the time of year when people eat the most hotdogs. Serving hotdogs is a fun way to liven up your service.
You can do this after service as people leave the main auditorium of your church. Sending the congregants out with food is never a bad idea.
4. Hang an American Flag on Stage
The week of the 4th of July is also a great time to change up your stage design. One option that you have for this is to hang an American flag on the stage. It is one of the most patriotic holidays, so having a flag to symbolize the national holiday is a fun way to change things up.
5. Host an Evening Fireworks show
If you have a Saturday evening service or are willing to come back to the church on Sunday evening, we recommend hosting a fireworks show. Giving a firework-free show is a great way to celebrate with your church family and do outreach to people in the community.
6. Give out ice cream
Another idea is to give out ice cream after your church service. The summer is hot, so giving out ice cream is a great way of cooling your congregants down. It is a sweet treat that is sure to go over well after your service.
7. Play a game on Stage
Playing a game on stage is a great way to make your service more fun. You still want to be reverent towards God, but there is nothing wrong with having a fun game on stage.
One great game for the 4th of July is American History Trivia. Your team can come up with trivia for American history, and they can create slides for the screens. People can compete to see who knows the most about American history. After the game, you can give a gift card to the person who got the most questions correct.
8. Honor People Who Served in the Military
Independence Day is about celebrating the freedom of Americans, and the freedom of America would not be possible without the people who served in the United States military. For this reason, Independence Day is a great time to honor congregants who gave time to military service.
The 4th of July, along with Veteran’s Day, is a great day to honor everyone who gave part of their lives toward protecting the freedoms of the nation.
9. Host a Food Drive
For many people, the 4th of July is a day of gluttony, but for some, it is another day of starvation. Your church can make a huge impact on people living in hunger by hosting a food drive on Independence Day so that people who can’t afford food will be able to eat on the holiday.
10. Pray For the Nation
America is a great nation, but that does not mean that we should stop praying for it. For American churches, praying over the nation is very important. It might seem like the nation is moving further and further from God, and that is the exact reason that your church should pray over the nation on Independence Day.
Praying over America on Independence Day will remind your congregation about the importance of prayer, and it will inspire your congregants to pray for the nation more often. You will be modeling the behavior you want your congregants to have.
11. Create a New Playlist
Independence Day should be a fun day at your church, and a great way to do this is by creating a new lobby playlist specifically for this day. Your church members will enjoy hearing patriotic music as the arrive at church on Sunday morning.
Songs like God Bless America and America the Beautiful are both great choices for patriotic songs that you can put on your church’s 4th of July playlist.
12. Make the Sermon an Interactive Object Lesson
For many people, the 4th of July is not going to be a day they pay much attention to the sermon. They might be thinking about their plans afterward or for the week ahead. A way to combat this is to make the message an interactive object lesson.
You can bring a cage on stage and talk about how once we were in slavery, but now we are free. It should be something interesting and thought-provoking, so your congregants will want to pay attention.
13. Give out free cake or cupcakes
Independence Day is considered the birthday of the United States, so you can give out cake or cupcakes to celebrate the birthday. People love birthday parties, especially when they don’t have to buy any gifts. By celebrating the United State’s birthday you’re making the day fun. It is not taking the holiday too seriously, instead, it is having fun with the day, which is an effective way to make your congregants enjoy the service.
14. Focus Sunday School on the story of Moses
The kid’s ministry on the 4th of July should also reflect the topic of freedom that your church is promoting. Doing a Sunday school lesson on Moses is a great way to do that. Specifically, we recommend doing it on Moses freeing the Israelites, because it is most similar to the American story.
This lesson can challenge kids to trust in God and can show them the importance of Scripture reading. It will reveal God’s love to them as you talk about the freedom that God wants to give them.
15. Have the kids create a craft in Sunday School
Another way to keep the kids engaged is to have a simple craft for them to do. Having a simple craft for little kids is a sure way to keep them engaged while celebrating the 4th of July.
There are tons of ideas on Pinterest for Independence Day activities that you should check out.
16. Have Coloring pages for the kids
Another one of the easy Independence Day activities is to have coloring pages for the kids. These coloring pages should reflect the story that you taught in class.
Doing this makes the service even more fun for the kids. It even gives the kids something to take to their parents and show them what they learned.
17. Host an Independence Day Parade
Many communities host parades on the 4th of July. Your church might want to consider hosting your own community parade because it will bring in many people who don’t go to your church.
Furthermore, you could get volunteers to help design and build your church a parade float. The parade float that your church builds can be in your own or someone else’s Fourth of July Parade. This is a great idea for community outreach and getting involved in your church’s surrounding area.
18. Have a Photobooth
The 4th of July is the perfect time to have a photo booth. People love taking pictures, and Independence Day is the perfect holiday for just that.
Having a photo booth brings something different to your church’s 4th of July service. People will notice the photo booth immediately as they walk in, and they will notice the effort that your church put in to add something new to this Sunday morning.
Beyond that, people will tag your church in posts using the photo booth, which will cause your church to gain a social media following and reach more people.
19. Have your small group leaders host 4th of July Parties
For your church’s 4th of July, another great option is to have your small group leaders organize 4th of July parties. Many parties outside of the church might get pretty wild, but you can create parties that are family-friendly and celebrate your church community.
Your small groups can get together at someone’s house and have their own 4th of July celebration.
20. Create a Church-Wide Serving Opportunity
The 4th of July is a great opportunity to give back. There might be a need in your city that your church can help meet on the 4th of July weekend. You can get your church’s participation as you take to your city to make a positive impact.
Doing a Fourth of July serving opportunity will bring your congregants closer together, and it will form a great sense of fellowship with the people around them.
21. Give out free Soda
Everyone loves a free gift, and soda is a great thing to give away at your church’s Independence Day celebration. Soda is a pretty common thing to drink on the Fourth of July, so it goes along with the theme well.
22. Have a Water Day for Sunday School
The Fourth of July is the middle of summer, which means that it is going to be hot outside. Your kid’s ministry can have some fun with this by hosting a water day after the Sunday school lessons.
Tell the parents for their kids to wear swimsuits, so they can celebrate the 4th of July with everyone else. You can have inflatable slides and above-ground pools, or you can have the fire department come and spray water over the kids.
The Fourth of July is the perfect day to have a water-based party.
23. Get New Signs for the 4th of July
The final 4th of July church service idea is to get new signs for the day. People will notice when something is visually different, and it will add interest to your church service.
New signs can be set on the church marquee, in the lobby, and hung up across your church campus. New church signs are an awesome way to bring something different to your church’s 4th of July service.
I hope you will be able to use some of these ideas for your church’s 4th of July service, and that you have an incredible 4th of July week.
