The Two Keys to Effective Church Announcements

Far and away, the most popular post on my blog is “Better Church Announcements.” Some weeks, it even has more views than the newest post or episode of the podcast! I created a video version, and it has racked up thousands of views on YouTube.

I don’t share this to pat myself on the back, but rather to say, I think it is clear:

Church announcements can be the worst!

It is important to share what is going on in your church. It is even more important when what is going on in your church gives people the opportunity to live out their faith as a disciple of Christ.

But it’s a struggle to figure out how to do them well. Do you give announcements from the front in worship? Do you do them by video? Are they at the beginning of the service, the end of the service, or somewhere in the middle? Do you have a bulletin or not? Do you put them on your website or social media channels?

And no matter what you do, someone will always come up to you after an event and say, “I didn’t know that was going on!”

After watching that original post run strong for a year and a half, I have done lots of thinking about church announcements. I have talked to lots of people about church announcements. I have done lots of reading about church announcements. And I have distilled everything I have learned down to two principles:

1. Knowing the details doesn’t matter if people don’t care.
2. If people really care, they will seek out the details.

You could know every date, every time, and every location for every event on your church calendar, but if you don’t care about the event, you’re not going.

On the flip side, if you hear an announcement about an event or ministry opportunity that you just cannot miss, you will make an effort to find out how to be involved.

This is, of course, how the rest of life works. Fans of sports teams, bands, or movie franchises look up schedules, tour dates, and movie times because they want to be there.

These principles can be translated into action steps:

1. Make people care.
2. Let them know where to find the details.

Since time is limited in worship, focus on making people care. An emotional response or connection to the purpose behind an event is what people will remember. Then have a consistent place people can turn to for more information—whether that’s your bulletin, newsletter, website, or central hub.

What will work best varies from context to context. However, if you’re looking for practical tips and ideas to inspire you, check out the work of Brady Shearer at Pro Church Tools.