Chances are you spend hours planning, researching, and crafting an effective sermon each week, but do you take the time to plan your Sunday church announcements as well?
Sunday announcements are a necessary part of most worship services, as they help the congregation stay up-to-date on all the important events happening in the life of the church. Yet, they aren’t always as effective or efficient as they could be.
The good news is: Church announcements don’t have to be long, boring, or dry!
Today, we’re sharing the 10 commandments of church announcements so you can make your announcements as informative, fun, and memorable as possible.
1. Be Prepared
If you want your Sunday announcements to be informative and memorable, it’s important not to simply wing it. Rather than walking up on stage and reading a list of announcements you’ve never seen before, take some time to prepare in advance.
If you’re giving the Sunday announcements: Decide in advance what you want to say and how you want to say it. It can also help to talk to someone who is a part of the event to get their stories.
If someone else will be giving the church announcements: Make sure you give them the announcements with enough time to prepare and practice in advance. Be sure to give them a time frame so they don’t talk too long.
2. Be Selective
If your church has multiple events occurring at any given time, you don’t have to announce every single event on stage. If there are too many announcements, people won’t remember them. Instead, you want to be selective.
A good rule of thumb is: If an event impacts 75 to 80 percent of the church, it’s probably a great selection for Sunday announcements. If it only impacts a small segment of the church, you may want to get the word out another way, such as through various groups or emails.
Creating a system or set of guidelines around your church announcements can help prevent hurting the feelings of those whose announcements aren’t shared publicly. This way, it isn’t a judgment call you have to make. You can simply rely on the guidelines.
3. Greet the Guests
During the Sunday announcements is also a great time to greet any guests you may have in attendance, as they likely won’t know much, if anything, about the ministries or events your church offers.
Be sure to introduce yourself briefly, and explain any details a new church visitor may need to know about the announcements. For example, don’t simply say, “See Joe Smith in classroom 104.” They likely won’t know who Joe Smith is or how to find classroom 104.
Instead, be extra clear on what action you want new guests to take, if any, and keep your directives short and simple. Rather than asking guests to fill out a long form with all their personal information, you may simply direct them to the welcome center to receive a small gift.
4. Make Your Sunday Church Announcements Visual
Rather than simply standing up in front of the church and reading from a paper, look for ways to make your Sunday announcements more visually interesting.
You can do this very easily with MinistryPass.com. We have all types of church announcement graphics, event graphics, and service slides. Plus, we have an integration with Canva, so you can quickly and easily edit the slides and export them in any format you need (4:3 or 16:9, for example).
You can find a great selection of Sunday Church announcement slides here on MinistryPass.com.
5. Tell Stories
Stories are another great way to make your Sunday announcements more interesting, meaningful, and memorable.
Rather than simply telling the details of an event, tell a story about a person whose life has been impacted by the event in the past. (Or better yet, have that individual share their story if they’re willing!)
There’s a reason Jesus spent a third of the New Testament sharing stories. As humans, our minds tend to drift, but stories inspire us. They connect with our hearts and our souls.
It’s another reason you can only include so many announcements in your church service. There’s only room for so many stories!
6. Tie Everything Back to the Vision
Does your church exist to fulfill a specific vision or purpose? Does your congregation know what that purpose is?
If not, Sunday announcements are a great time to remind people of and connect people to your church’s vision. Not only does this give your events more purpose, but it also keeps that vision front and center in the minds of your congregation.
For example, if you have a Serve Day, you can say, “One of our church values is to bring Heaven to Earth in our community, and we’re going to do this by serving these individuals this next week.” It helps people remember why they’re doing what they’re doing.
7. Be Creative
Don’t be afraid to get creative and have a little fun with your Sunday church announcements.
You could tell funny jokes, use a hip-hop beat in the background, use entertaining slides, or tell interesting stories. You could even film the announcements at a separate location to be live-streamed or played later during church announcements.
Make sure you give yourself time to plan in advance and then ask yourself: How can I share this update in an interesting, entertaining, or memorable way? The sky’s the limit!
8. Use Different People to Present
Rather than always having the pastor or one specific ministry leader do the church announcements, why not mix it up? Have various people from different ministries give the announcements.
Not only does this keep the Sunday church announcements fun and interesting, but it also allows your congregation to learn more about the church and the various volunteers and staff members that are a part of it.
Plus, having the person most connected to the ministry or event share the announcement is likely to be far more effective and interesting than having someone share who isn’t involved in the ministry at all.
9. Echo the Stage on Your Social Media Channels
While the Sunday morning announcements may be one of your primary ways of communicating the upcoming events at your church, it shouldn’t be the only way.
You’ll also want to be sure you promote the same church announcements on your social media channels, whether on a Facebook page or group, Instagram, Twitter, or wherever your church has a social media presence.
10. Utilize Email
Similarly, email is a fantastic way to share your church announcements.
A good rule of thumb is: People might remember the event but not the details.
For example, they may remember that youth camp is coming up but not when or where it is. Email is a great way to communicate the specific details of each event in a way that people can easily refer back to long after Sunday announcements are over.
Additionally, an email offers the ability to segment your communication by audience. Most email platforms will allow you to tag or filter your email subscribers based on factors including age, life stage, or various ministries they are involved in.
This way, you can send out emails specifically to those individuals or families interested in particular events or ministries without filling your Sunday announcements with updates that may only be relevant to a smaller portion of your congregation.
Grab Your Sunday Church Announcement Slides
Finally, don’t forget to visit MinistryPass.com for thousands of graphics and media (including Sunday church announcement slides) and sermon series resources for every book in the Bible.
Learn more about using free Canva-Ready, editable announcement packs by clicking here.
