4 Questions to Ask for More Engaging Church Announcements

Alright. I’ll just say it. Church announcements are terrible.

Ok, maybe terrible is too strong. Well, they aren’t engaging. I’ll just say that.

Obviously, I’m not talking about YOUR church’s announcements. I’m obviously talking about that other church in your town.

Well, maybe I’m talking about your announcements.

I’m just saying, that 10-minute block of a church service is probably the least engaging part of your service and maybe there are some things we can do about it.

Here’s the challenge.

We have information that needs to be communicated.

People need to plug in. People need to serve. People need to give.

It’s important for the church, and it’s valuable for the people.

So, what do we do with announcements???

Here are a few questions to consider…

1. Who is the Target?

One of the mistakes we often make with church announcements is broadcasting an event or a ministry that really only applies to a small percentage of our congregation.

For example, the biggest event in our student ministry is something we call Snow Camp.

It’s huge for us.

But, honestly, it’s not huge for everyone in the church.

Because of this, even though it is our marque event, we don’t announce it in our main services.

Instead, we target our communications to students and parents—through Instagram and emails.

One of the main reasons that announcements are often a huge miss is that people check out mentally when the information isn’t for them.

Now, we do talk about Snow Camp from the stage during offering time as a way to remind people that their giving matters. Something like:

“Hey, as the baskets pass, just wanted to let you know that a bunch of our students and their leaders are on a retreat having a blast, hearing solid biblical teaching and engaging in conversations about faith. This event wouldn’t be possible without your giving. Thanks so much!”

If you want to improve your church announcements, ask “who is the target?” and whenever possible, communicate directly with the target audience outside of the worship service.

2. Who Cares?

Something I try to do every time I preach a sermon is to answer the question “who cares?”

In fact, I’ll often use that exact phrase while preaching.

So, the writer of Ecclesiastes tells us that it is better to attend a funeral than a party.

Who cares?

How does this relate to us…

Good preachers do this because if they don’t, they are just sharing information rather than preaching for life change.

Here’s the thing: every time we give announcements we should ask “who cares” because we are not just sharing information.

Every ministry and event that we announce matters.

They are onramps to discipleship.

People will make decisions to follow Jesus at that event.

People will connect with other Jesus followers who will help them walk in obedience in that ministry.

People should care because it matters.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that whoever is crafting the wording of announcements and delivering the announcements needs to answer the question “who cares?”

If they do, the communication will improve dramatically.

3. Who is Connected?

Another great question to ask when considering whether something should be an announcement or not is, “Who is connected?”

Here’s an example of what I mean.

Often, when a certain ministry needs volunteers, the solution is to put a blurb in the bulletin and announce the need from the stage.

Can we be honest for a second?

This really doesn’t work.

Very rarely do we get the volunteers we need from a stage announcement.

A much more effective strategy is to recruit through relationships.

We’ve gotten into the habit of regularly asking our volunteers, “Who do you know who would be great at this?”

And, secondly, “Would you invite them?”

This strategy of recruiting through relationships—through connections is far more effective, not only in producing recruits but also in providing leads to the right people.

Church announcements to recruit volunteers typically aren’t that effective.

What is effective is recruiting through relationships, by asking “who is connected to the people we already have?”

4. Is There a Better Way?

One last question to ask.

Is there a better way to communicate this information?

Again, stage announcements tend to be ineffective.

But, there are three ways to communicate during your church service more effectively.

The first is through a creative video.

If you want to highlight a serving opportunity your church has with a local school, shoot a video on location.

If you want to recruit volunteers for your children’s ministry, show a highlight video of the children’s ministry.

There are tons of creative options here.

If you are a smaller church that doesn’t have a staff member designated to create videos, I might suggest asking your youth pastor to recommend a student.

A creatively gifted student with an iPhone might be all you need!

A second better way to make church announcements is through interviews.

If you are recruiting volunteers for your student ministry, invite the youth pastor on stage, ask him or her a few questions so that the congregation can get to know them and then let them invite people to serve.

We have had a lot of success with short interviews instead of standard announcements.

A third better way to do church announcements is through the sermon.

No really. Hear me out.

Likely, your teaching pastor has the most influential voice in your church.

And, many of the opportunities we share during announcements are important next steps in faith—serving, giving, baptism, small groups, etc.

We typically get our best responses when our senior pastor makes an upcoming opportunity one of his application points in his sermon.

Here’s a great strategy: If you are launching small groups in a couple of weeks, ask your teaching pastor to make joining a small group an application point in an upcoming sermon.

Wrap Up

Standard church announcements are typically pretty ineffective but videos, interviews, and the sermon can be great ways to share important information in your worship service.

Hopefully, some of these ideas have been helpful.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this or your ideas on how to make announcements more engaging. Thanks for reading!