Church Announcement Obesity
At our churches we want people to know what we have to offer when they show up to a weekend worship service. However, as our churches grow (and we have more to offer) traditional verbal announcements just don’t cut it anymore. Unless you seriously want people to sit there and listen to a talking head for 10 minutes. We all know that after thirty seconds or so most people mentally check out. That means we have to get creative and smart with what we communicate and how we communicate it. Kem Meyer recently posted these five communication rules and I think they can help churches with addressing obesity in our announcements whether they are in print, verbal, or via email:
1 – Stick to the facts. Don’t over-sell, over-fluff, over-explain or over control. Just provide the information someone needs to self-sort and self-decide. People don’t need a page on the philosophy for every business, product, or event. They do need to know who it’s for, what it is, when it happens and how to get it.
2 – Stick to the point. Start with the end in mind before you take action. If you know the purpose behind your letter, brochure, or meeting, it makes it easier for you to stay on track and focused. Otherwise, it’s hard to recognize your own excess. Do you want people to show up, respond, or buy? What are you asking them to do? If you can’t answer that question easily, neither can they.
3 – Consider the crowd. Does your announcement (printed or verbal) apply to everyone or just a handful of people? If it doesn’t affect the masses, it’s going to land like dead weight. Don’t punish the crowd to keep a few people happy (even if they are the most vocal). Find a way to talk about the 20% that affects 80% of your audience.
4 – Don’t intrude. Unless they’ve asked for it, people welcome your mass emails as much as a salesman ringing the doorbell during family dinner. Respect personal space and put information in a place easy for people to find when they want or need it.
5 – Deflate your self-importance. Are you more attached to what you have to say than to who you are talking to? People are more inclined to read and respond when something is delivered from their point of view—not yours. Work hard to think like your audience to find ways to connect.
One thing we’ve done on Sunday mornings to try to make our announcements more interesting is to do them via video. First we choose a select few that impact the largest groups or current ministry priorities and then we try to come up with a creative or visually interesting way to shoot them.
Here a funny one we did spoofing a TV commercial:
