Tips for Celebrating Pentecost Sunday

Next to Christmas and Easter, Pentecost is the most important day of the Christian year. It is one of the oldest feasts of the Church. A meaningful celebration of Pentecost is deeply formative on a church’s life and appreciation for the work of the Spirit.

1. Prepare your church in advance.

No one should be surprised on Pentecost Sunday: “Oh, it’s Pentecost today? Wait… what does that mean, again?” Consider:

1. Include Pentecost on any local church calendar that you hand out (e.g., at the beginning of the year).
2. Mention it weeks in advance, and especially the Sunday before (after Ascension Thursday, all eyes should be towards Pentecost).
3. Prepare a prayer guide for your church from Ascension to Pentecost (join the disciples in waiting for Pentecost).

2. Red—red, everywhere!

When people walk into the sanctuary on Pentecost Sunday, it should be a dramatic change from the Sunday before. There will still be white because it’s still Easter (Pentecost is the 50th and final day of the easter season). Our church still had large white lily bushes, the white paschal candle, the white tablecloth, and so on. However, the white should provide a wonderful contrast to the primary color of Pentecost, which is fiery red. Consider:

1. Red banners on the wall with an embroidered dove design.
2. Red overlay on the communion table.
3. Red pulpit scarf (cloth draping down from the pulpit).
4. Red cloth bookmark hanging from the large Bible on the lectern.
5. Red candles (this year, I found some very tall, beautiful, hand-rolled red candles in a honeycomb design on Facebook marketplace for a few dollars).
6. Red stole or vestments (or, if you’re like me and pastor a church that is unaccustomed to vestments, a white shirt with a red tie looks great).

In many churches, everyone is encouraged to wear red and white, and the church gets a picture in their red and white clothing afterwards.

3. Joyful, Triumphant Music!

Pentecost is a day of rejoicing and celebrating the coming of the Spirit. It has the same tone as Easter Sunday morning. Songs like “Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart” or choruses like “Spirit of the Living God” have a soft, gentle, prayerful tone, and are more fitting for the Sunday before Pentecost. If sung on Pentecost, save them until later in the service at the “application” stage (e.g., we sang, “Holy Spirit, Living Breath of God” before the Lord’s Supper). For most of the service, consider songs like:

1. Hail, This Joyful Day’s Return (to the tune Easter Hymn, also used for Christ the Lord is Risen Today)
2. Spirit of Faith, Come Down (to the tune Diademata, also used for Crown Him with Many Crowns)
3. Hail Thee Festival Day (note that this hymn has numerous verses, some intended for other feast days, so be sure to use the verses for Pentecost)
4. The Comforter Has Come

I especially love singing Pentecost hymns to the same tune as hymns that are commonly associated with the rejoicing of Easter and Ascension Day. This highlights the theological interconnectedness between Pentecost and Christ’s resurrection and exaltation. It’s especially meaningful to start and end the 50-day season of Easter with the triumphant tune of “Easter Hymn” with its joyful “Alleluias!”

4. Water, Fire, Oil, Wind, Dove

God has given us symbols of the Holy Spirit. Why not use them on Pentecost Sunday? Consider:

1. Fill your baptismal font with water, even if there aren’t any baptisms that day.
2. Invite all who are sick to come forward and be anointed with oil and prayed for by name.
3. Light lots of candles (on the communion table and the large Paschal candle).
4. Light an indoor, glass-cylinder fire pillar (with necessary safety precautions).
5. Play a song that features woodwind instruments or a recording of actual wind (as in Francesca LaRosa’s gorgeous rendition of Augustine’s Prayer to the Holy Spirit, which we played during the distribution of communion).
6. Hang a sculpture of a dove in the church.
7. Release doves after the service (often done at weddings and funerals).

Larry Smith was kind enough to give me his beautiful baptismal font and this year our church people passed it, filled with water, on their way to the Lord’s Supper on Pentecost Sunday as a reminder of their baptism. A family visited this year and their little girl asked about the large candle. The family gathered around as I explained the ancient symbolism of the Paschal candle, the kids thought it was cool, and the mother had tears in her eyes. Symbols matter!

5. Historic Artwork

Some Protestant churches (especially in the Reformed tradition) are wary of too much artwork in the sanctuary, but there are very tasteful, meaningful, and beautiful ways to incorporate artwork into your Pentecost Sunday celebration. Consider:

1. Draw attention to anywhere in your church that the Spirit is already depicted (e.g., in a stained glass window with a dove)
2. In your church bulletin, include a historic painting of Pentecost (e.g., the 1546 oil on canvas painting by Titian).
3. On your church’s screens, include historic artwork (e.g., a picture of Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s amazing Dove of the Holy Spirit stained glass window).
4. In any lyric videos or slides that you use for congregational singing, use historic artwork instead of generic stock images in the background.

I almost always have a historic painting visible on our church’s projector screen during prelude and during my sermon, and I sometimes reference it. People (especially children) seem to find this very meaningful.

6. Guided Testimonies

Highlight how the Holy Spirit has worked in your life and in the life of your church. Consider:

1. Share how the Holy Spirit has worked in your life.
2. Have someone read a carefully pre-written testimony about the Spirit’s work in their life.
3. Share a prompt and have people finish it in real time. For example, “I praise the Holy Spirit because he has…” (e.g., someone might shout out, “faithfully guided me all my life”).

7. Celebrate Spiritual Gifts

In addition to Acts 2 and John 20 (John’s “Pentecost”), the Revised Common Lectionary suggests 1 Corinthians 12 on spiritual gifts (cf. Eph. 4:7–8). On Pentecost, highlight the gifts of the Spirit that are vital to the Church’s life. Consider:

1. In your bulletin, feature several church members or workers (especially ones that might usually get overlooked) and thank them for using their spiritual gifts for the good of the body.
2. In the service, pick someone to have come forward and be honored for their faithful use of their spiritual gifts (just be sure to keep it short and focus on the Spirit’s work through them so that it adds, not detracts, from the Spirit’s glory on Pentecost).
3. Send people home with a spiritual gifts test.
4. Teach on spiritual gifts in Sunday School.

8. Prayers, Passages, and Stories from Church History

The church has been reflecting on the work of the Spirit—and actually experiencing the Spirit!—for 2,000 years. I’ve read passages in the church fathers that have made me want to cry and pray, and others that have made me want to stand up and shout. Learn the tradition and incorporate the best in your preaching and worship. Consider:

1. Read a passage from the church fathers in your call to worship (e.g., Gregory of Nazianzus’s festal oration on Pentecost as “the venerable day of the Spirit” is amazing).
2. Include quotes in your sermon.
3. Read great ancient hymns like Veni Creator Spiritus or Veni Sancte Spiritus (see our Pre-Pentecost Prayer Guide for examples).
4. Use the Collect and Proper Preface from the BCP.
5. Share stories of how the Holy Spirit has worked throughout church history.

This year, Pentecost Sunday fell on the same day as Aldersgate Day (“Wesley Day”), which commemorates John Wesley’s “warm heart” experience. On the Sunday before Pentecost, I also talked about the Welsh Revival and our need for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit today.

9. Baptize

If you have someone that needs to be baptized and Pentecost is coming up, it’s worth waiting a few extra days or weeks. In church history, Easter and Pentecost were the favorite days to baptize. Those baptized at Easter were given white robes to wear (as in Rev. 7:9) for the entire Easter season. More were baptized and given white robes on Pentecost. Because more white robes were worn on Pentecost than any other day, it also became known as “White Sunday” or “Whitsunday.” Consider:

1. Baptize by pouring water over the head to signify the outpoured Holy Spirit.
2. Give the newly baptized a white robe as a symbol of the Spirit’s purifying work.
3. Give the newly baptized a small candle (like you would use for a Christmas Eve candlelight service), and then light it from the Paschal candle as a symbol of the light of the risen Christ passing to the newly baptized by the Spirit.

10. Share the Lord’s Supper

Pentecost is also a wonderful time to share the Lord’s Supper. For centuries, the church has included an epiclesis or “calling down” of the Holy Spirit in its Prayer of Consecration at the Lord’s Supper. The Protestant Reformers emphasized that it is the Spirit who makes the risen Christ present to us in the Lord’s Supper. The Wesleys were keenly aware of this and mention the Holy Spirit nearly 30 times in their hymns on the Lord’s Supper. Consider:

1. Preface communion with one of the Wesleys’ communion hymns that explicitly mentions the Spirit (see below).
2. Use a traditional Prayer of Consecration with an epiclesis.
3. Emphasize not just remembrance but present encounter with the risen Christ at his Table by the Spirit.

Echoing the language of Acts 2, the Wesleys write that “the Spirit and power of Jesus our God” is “found in this life-giving food” (Hymn 92). In Hymn 53, they pray,

Come in thy Spirit down,
Thine institution crown,
Lamb of God as slain appear,
Life of all believers thou,
Let us now perceive thee near,
Come thou hope of glory now.

Again, in Hymn 75, they pray,

Spirit of faith, come down,
Thy seal with power set to,
The banquet by thy presence crown,
And prove the record true.

And in Hymn 77:

Let us with solemn awe
Nigh to thine altar draw,
Taste thee in the broken bread,
Drink thee in the mystic wine;
Now the gracious Spirit shed,
Fill us now with love divine.

In Hymn 166, the Wesleys celebrate that the Church after Pentecost devoted itself to the breaking of the eucharistic bread as a means of continually participating in the Holy Spirit poured out by the risen Christ:

From house to house they broke the bread
Impregnated with life divine,
And drank the Spirit of their head
Transmitted in the sacred wine

The same Spirit who descended at Pentecost now meets us when we gather in Christ’s name and share in his sacraments!