Three Ways to Make Your Church Announcements More Effective

We understand that you’ve been there. You may be the leader of a house of worship’s congregation, or perhaps you are charged with running its monthly or yearly activities. In any case, to a large majority of church audiences, the announcements of such activities are often viewed as somewhat boring, too time-consuming and even irrelevant in the context of absorbing religious and spiritual guidance from the services that preceded them. Announcements are normally the break in services where a designated orator lazily stumbles through notes about a car wash or fundraising effort, while church members check their texts and wait for services to resume.

But this isn’t how it should be…church announcements should ideally elevate the excitement of the service and propel it into the sermon. If you find yourself – and notice your congregation – dreading the announcements each week or month, consider these three suggestions for shaking things up a bit under the roof of the house of the Lord.

 

1. Limit what you announce to what is the most pressing –

If you announce everything right away, audiences stop listening. In this same vain, make announcements as short as possible, around four minutes max; if your congregation knows that your weekly or monthly (however you do them) announcements aren’t worth listening to, they won’t listen even when there IS one worth listening to. The bottom line: Make the announcement worth the audience’s time and they won’t waste your time asking “When are we having that car wash again?”

 

2. Make sure every announcement has an obvious “call-to-action” aimed at your congregation –

For example: Where can folks go to get more information? How do they sign up for that class or to be part of that raffle? You can’t make this too obvious or straightforward…just “reduce the friction” in getting them involved.

 

3. Use church video announcements.

As experts in all things video, Green Screen Talent Now cannot stress this recommendation enough for houses of worship looking to polish their announcements. In addition to your printed, email and online methods, video extends the reach of your church’s message in a way difficult to imagine. If your church announcements struggle in the areas of length, delivery or content, using video announcement addresses all three of these areas’ concerns.

 

Our culture is conditioned in this day and age to engage and interact with what’s on a screen, and your congregation is most likely no different (remember when we mentioned your members “checking their texts” above?). The hardest part of sitting in church, we have heard from many of our clients, is listening for extended periods of time to leaders talking without visual aids. You could be sharing the greatest religious message in the world, but for most people that’s still not enough. But fear not, because this isn’t your fault…

Are we saying church should somehow become a pre-packaged performance akin to a television soap opera? Of course not. But using elements that people are comfortable with and are conditioned to engage with just MAKES SENSE. We’re telling you that not only do people pay better attention when announcements are delivered in video form, they process information and remember it better, as well. Instead of people tuning out during announcements – which contain important information from the church – using video announcements for churches helps people consume, process and remember information better…all this simply because your message is prompted on a screen. Weird, isn’t it?

Learn how Green Screen Talent Now can transform your church announcements through expert video!