Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 One of the questions I hear pastors wondering all the time is when is the right time to do church announcements? Well, you really have a few options beginning, middle and the end, but we have one more that we wanna share with you state to the end. You can check it out in this episode. We'll talk about when your church should be doing announcements. We hope this conversation helps your church reach more people and grow. This is the reach right podcast. You're listening to the reach, right podcast, the show dedicated to helping pastors and church leaders reach people the right way, hosted by me, Thomas Costello. And with me as always as my co-host Ian Hyat, we're here to help your church see more visitors and grow. Hey guys, welcome to the reach, right. Podcast episode number 98. I am your host Thomas Costello. And with me as always is my co-host
Speaker 4 00:01:08 Ian Hyat. What's up Thomas Thomas.
Speaker 0 00:01:10 Hey, Ian, how much man? Excited to chat today. We're gonna be talking about, yeah. When churches should be doing announcements, uh, in their services. This is one of those, a old questions. And I'm sure that if you've been in ministry for any length of time, you've probably wondered, Hey, are we doing announcements in the right spot? Like right in, in your order of service, do they belong? Yeah. So we're gonna be talking about that. We'll talk about the pros and cons of each of the places to put them. And here's kind of the spoiler it's beginning, middle or end. Those are kind of the, the three options. And then we have one, I guess, hybrid approach. We'll talk about it towards the end there, but we'll get into the pros and cons of each one of those there. Yeah. But I think it's important. I think it's a really important one.
Speaker 0 00:01:50 I think it's gonna be a different answer for every church, but I think that, um, announcements are one of those things. They're kind of like the, the, one of the hardest parts of a church service to get, right? Yeah. Uh, I know that something that at churches that I've pastored, it's always been a struggle that we've had. Yeah. Uh, because, um, we, we want to deliver them the right way. We wanna make sure everybody hears them, but we want to not disturb the flow of the service and all those kinds of things there. So it is a really important question, I think. Um, when does your church do, uh, do announcements in?
Speaker 4 00:02:22 Yeah. And you know, every church is different. My church, as I've mentioned before, in other episodes, you know, larger church, very large church. Yeah. So lot of production, a lot of stuff that goes into the whole service, but, uh, uh, we would be, I guess, considered the middle, uh, because it's after worship, um, before the message, now we have video announcements and then we also have, you know, someone that comes out even, uh, not just the pastor, but someone before introducing our pastor that will also, uh, make announcements verbally. So we have it on the screen and verbally,
Speaker 0 00:02:52 But we double announcement's nice.
Speaker 4 00:02:54 Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:02:55 Video and in person.
Speaker 4 00:02:57 Yeah. We don't double it every time. I just mean sometimes it'll, it'll, it'll always most certainly be on the video, things come right. Coming up and all of that. And then if there's, you know, one or two that need to be stressed or something like that, but, um, yeah. So I guess we'd be the middle, be the middle.
Speaker 0 00:03:12 Yeah. Good. Yeah. We are two, uh, at our church. We, um, not as large as your church, but a medium sized church and we, we are a middle mostly, uh, kind of a church, sometimes videos sometimes in person. Yeah. Uh, but yeah, I just think it, I, I would say that probably it, you know, the majority of our audience probably is a middle announcement. Yeah. Uh, because I think that's probably just in our experience, the most common thing, I think yeah. With more mainline churches, you'll often hear it at the end. That's kind of a sure, a common way to go, but, you know, I think that there's not a right. It's not that evangelicals should do it here and Presbyterian should do it here and, uh, Baptist should do it at this time. It's just not, that's not how it works. Exactly. So, um, it's gonna be different from church to church. And I think that there's, again, this is why we're doing this is there's pros and cons of each. Uh, so that's it. Why don't you kick us off and tell us about, uh, the beginning.
Speaker 4 00:03:59 Yeah. So I guess it's the, you know, pros and cons of, of doing it at the beginning of the service. Um, so, um, I mean, I think, you know, you know, maybe, maybe one of the pros would be, you know, it's, it's, you know, they're hearing it first. We know that, um, there's been a lot of studies on when people remember something it's either, it's something that's mentioned at the beginning, or it's like the beginning of a story if you're reading a book or at the end. Um, so that's what, like most studies will say. I learned that in public speaking in college that, you know, you always want to have a good intro, right. Because in, and that's, what's gonna yep. You know, be remembered. And that first thing that you talk about that should be one of the more important things. So while that's true, true, the cons could be, you know, a lot of people show up late, uh, at churches. And I think in today's day and age in culture, that that's even more common than it used to be. Of course it is, uh, you know, people are, you know, they're, they're busy, blah, blah, blah. They got other stuff going on and they kind of come in at a certain time. So I think that's, that's one of the, the comments, um, one of the cons is, is that, you know, people could miss it if you do it at the beginning.
Speaker 0 00:05:07 Yeah. Yeah. It's true. And it's like, I, I don't know, like if that's really as a con or not like, cuz if people are showing up late for church, I think most churches probably do worship first. Yeah. You know, it's like, so it's like kind of saying, do we, is the announcements more important than the worship? I mean, I, I don't know. It's like, they're, they're both really important parts of the, of the service there. So it's like, I don't know if I want someone to miss something. Is it announcements? Is it worship? Is it the sermon? Yeah, I'm a pastor. So it's definitely not the sermon, but it's, uh, it's the other stuff is fine to miss, but yeah, I think it's, it's one of those challenging questions there. I've always, um, I think you're right. That people always are. Um, they'll always remember that thing that they heard first.
Speaker 0 00:05:49 That's the same reason. Like when your kids want to tell on somebody else, uh, one of the other, their brothers or sisters, they'll try to be the first one to tell mom or dad. Right. Because that's always the one that kind of sticks with the parent Uhhuh. <affirmative> uh, it's something we have to try to resist that way. But yeah, I think it's, it's just a natural thing. The thing that you hear first in service, it's something that you remember there. So I do like it there. Um, I do like that. Um, you know, I do think that another challenge is for a guest, uh, is announcements putting our best foot forward. Right. Right. Like if someone's there for the very first time, you know, they're a lot of studies say that people have already made up their mind by the time they sit down in a chair, whether they're coming back or not.
Speaker 0 00:06:27 Yeah. Yeah. Just based on the experience they had with meeting people and walking from the parking lot and right. Doing all those kinds of things. But uh, if that still is up in the air, our announcements are best foot forward or like put it this way. Like it, would you rather have a visitor experience, a service, uh, and experience some parts of your, your worship or maybe your message before you invite them to get involved or go to an event or something. Yeah. I think there's a case to be made that maybe for visitors. Right. I'd rather have the announcements later in the service. So yeah. Those are some of the cons that I see with that one there. Agreed. Agreed. Yeah. All right. Let me talk a little bit about the middle, which again is where I think most of our audience will probably land is that they're in the middle and having it, uh, they start out with some kind of worship.
Speaker 0 00:07:13 Maybe there's a little greeting that goes in with there and then they'll have the bulk of the announcements right there in the middle of the service. Um, I think this is a great way for a few reasons. Um, is that one is that it makes for somewhat of a natural transition. Yeah. I know it's often hard for a pastor who maybe they, um, they're gonna be speaking and they're starting off their message with like a, with some kind of a funny anecdote or a joke or something to kind of get people as a spurge says, right. Ice, get 'em rolling in the aisles and then kick 'em in the teeth. Right. So get, get 'em laughing and get people kind of engage that way. If you're coming out of like, um, you know, you just did like an intimate worship song and everybody's maybe their hands were raised.
Speaker 0 00:07:56 They're all very contemplative. Yeah. If you roll out there with a joke, right. Then <laugh>, you know, that, that isn't, isn't really good for the mood in a lot of ways. Sometimes that announcement, uh, section it can help someone kind of prey out of worship, right. Transition into something a little bit more lighthearted. Right. And then hand it over to the pastor. So, um, it's a good spot for video announcements and those things to happen. Uh, and so I think it, it, it does make sense for a lot of people now on the downside, there is also for some churches it's not good to kind of break that flow of worship. Right. For some speakers, maybe you're a, um, if, if you had planned this yeah. Uh, coming right out of worship and people in a very introspective right. Where like ready to do business with the Lord, as we would say, yeah. It might be nice to have them in that place when you're about to go and deliver your sermon there. Right. So I think that there are some definite downsides to that at the same time, but I don't know. What do you have to add to that?
Speaker 4 00:08:50 Yeah, no, it just, it's making me think of my church, you know, and I'm a part of a spirit filled church, not, uh, you know, no one's, uh, barking or running laps or swinging from chandeliers, but the worship emphasis is a big deal. People's hands yeah. Will be raised. People are standing up. And I guess what I kind of like is that, you know, even though I might be in that reflective state or coming outta worship, uh, you know, it's, it's, we're a series oriented church too. Right. So we're, mm-hmm, <affirmative>, we're expecting the speaker to come up and, you know, when the worship is kind of transitioning into the message, you know, people can take a seat for a second and their attention can be on, you know, the announcements before the speaker comes up. So I've always liked it that way because it's, uh, you know, I'm kind of transitioning and it's kind of that one little thing. Um, you know, before, uh, before we, we get into the, it's kind of like coming, just made me, uh, think of this, uh, average or eating an appetizer. And then, you know, then you're about to go into the, the meal right. To the course that's right. So, um, yeah, so I, I, I think that that's what comes to mind with it, but, uh, again, every church is different. Uh, but yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm
Speaker 0 00:09:59 Looking, I think part of this too, I'll say this, and I want to be cautious. A lot of this is just our own tradition and just what we have become used to, I don't know that I've ever been a part of a church, uh, for any length of time that did announcements other than in the middle, uh, from an evangelical background. And that's what I've grown up and I'm sure I've heard it at different times on occasion, but yeah. You know, that's just part of what we're used to in things. And so yeah, if you are used to something totally different and, and, you know, you think that, that we're wrong about some of this, let us know in the comments yeah. That we'd love to kind of hear some other thoughts and why you like it in a different spot there. But again, I, we think there's pros and cons. Um, yeah. So I don't know. Maybe you have a, you wanna tackle the third one? Um,
Speaker 4 00:10:37 Yeah. Third one at the end. I'm actually glad I have this one because, uh, um, well, I'll talk about the pros first, but, um, the, uh, so pros and cons of announcements at the end of the service. So, uh, we all kind of know the, the saying end on a high note. Right. Um, you and I talk, uh, a lot about, uh, calls to action <laugh> mm-hmm <affirmative> so just like at the end of every sermon, you know, it's good to have a good call to action to, to allow someone to respond to the message, to make a decision for Christ, you know, to, to have that same can be said with your announcements to kind of end on a high note in a call to action. And, and the thought with the call to action is that they may be more likely to go sign up for an event that you just announced because right.
Speaker 4 00:11:19 It was, it was right at the end of the message they're ex they they've been encouraged. You know, they were inspired by the worship. They've been encouraged by the message. Then you, you announce your events or whatever it is, and, and they can respond, right. So I think that's a pro to it. Um, and, and giving them a call to action. Now, the cons make, make me think of my church <laugh> if, if we were to do them at the end. So our pastor is a bit long winded, uh, and goes, uh, and, and so, uh, though, a great most
Speaker 0 00:11:49 Of us
Speaker 4 00:11:50 Are yeah, of course. And, and, uh, but though a great speak speaker and preacher, and, and enjoy the messages, it gets to that point where people are kind of ready to go. And they know when he is gone overtime and, and they know how he's going overtime, there's signs of, of when he is gonna go overtime. And then on top of that, being a part of a large church, getting out of the parking lot is, is, I mean, people lose their salvation in our parking lot, so to speak really, uh, I'm kidding that they just, you
Speaker 0 00:12:19 I'm like it wasn't like that when I visited, how, how long does it take to,
Speaker 4 00:12:22 So we have a new building that as you know now, and, and it's a very circular parking lot. You have to go in a circle, you come in one way and you leave one way. Uh, and they, our, our parking lot team who does a great job. Yeah. You know, they let out a certain amount of cars at one driveway. Uh, if you park, if you have kids, like we do, you're actually worse off in the parking lot because when you get out yeah. Uh, you are behind everyone that is getting out of the front of the church. So you, you get out. So there are some people that are trying to beat the traffic. Right. Uh, and again, when I say people lose, I mean, I'm wondering, so how some of these people's reaction I'm like, did you just listen to the message and all this sudden you're acting that way? Uh, so it's pretty funny, but I, for our church, again, based on that, and the length of service, people are ready to go when, when that, when it, when it's over, that's just, that's
Speaker 0 00:13:18 Awesome. I imagine a very small, a very small part of our audience has traffic problems. Yeah. Exiting church. I mean, I'm not saying it's unheard of, but
Speaker 4 00:13:26 It's again. Yeah. That's,
Speaker 0 00:13:28 I, I still think that it's the same thing that it, when, when the sermon's over, I think you have to remember, especially if you're there for the first time, you're not used to the order of service, people are kind of like, okay, like, they're, they start to check out right. Then, like, I've thought about it. Or maybe they're thinking about the call to action in the sermon. And they're not really, maybe you want that. Yeah. You want them to leave on that note of still thinking about that? Yeah. I've always been a part of churches where we do one final song at the end to like, take some time to reflect more on that. Yeah. And I think to, yeah, we do that move over to announcements instead would be momentum killing after the call to action in the, the sermon there. So to me I'm a little bit uh, I'm, I'm a, I, I think there's some challenge to that, but I do like some of the ideas of it too. Yeah. Kind of, it's great for the flow and at least people with a call to action too.
Speaker 4 00:14:11 So, yeah. And I like that you mentioned the majority of people listening are, they don't have the parking lot issue like we do, but I guess my main point is my main point with all that is attention span at the end of the, and, and no matter if you have a 20 member church, there's some people that are just ready to go eat, uh, and get outta there. So that's my thought on it. So,
Speaker 0 00:14:29 Yeah, that's good. Well, let me share this with our audience. If I was, uh, pastoring, if I, if I was planting a church, now let's say I was planting a church. And, uh, we had, uh, what we were, um, a few years in and we had 150 people. So just maybe our average size of our audience. And yeah. And when we talk at our, to our audience, that's kind of what we see as our average size church there. Um, I would probably do what I would call a hybrid approach of all of these. And so what that means is when the se I think there's an advantage to doing something in the beginning. Yeah. And so I think that means I would start every service with some kind of a greeting. Yeah. Uh, so have someone get up there or, you know, I, I think it's best in person, someone, like, I don't think this really works well for video, but maybe like a host for your service to get up there.
Speaker 0 00:15:16 We've talked in other episodes about how, uh, it's good to tell people how long they're gonna be in service. So we would say, Hey, you know, you're gonna be with us for about 75 minutes or so today we're gonna do some worship, we'll have a few announcements to make, and we're gonna have a sermon that you, we hope is relevant to your life. Kind of talking about what's gonna be happening. Yeah. So start off the service with, I guess, in a sense that's an announcement or it's like at least a greeting of some sorts. Yep. And then after worship going into the, the sermon portion, I think that's where you have the lion share of your announcements. Yeah. So this is where you would talk about opportunities to get involved. Places that people can go for events, things that are happening men's and women's events, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 0 00:15:55 So all of your typical church announcements, I, I will say, and, and we should do a whole episode on this, on what's, what is announcement material, and what isn't you, you need to do fewer announcements. Like the audience, you guys, you almost certainly do more announcements than you should. I would say, if you, like, it's nothing wrong with doing one announcement, like one main key thing. I would even think there's an advantage to doing one announcement. If you're doing more than two, if you're doing six different events, because you announce your, um, you announce everything seven weeks in a row leading up to it. Cuz you get more response that way. Yeah. You've kind of trained your people to not really listen to your announcements because they know they're just gonna hear it again for the next seven weeks and every single time going forward.
Speaker 0 00:16:39 So yeah. Yeah. I, I think you do the lion share of your announcements and you really try to limit it to the things yeah. That have to be said. And another I'll say this to another litmus test is we always run the test of, is this relevant to the majority? Yeah. Or at least half of our church. That's good. So you shouldn't do announcements to the whole church if it only affects five people or if it's only, yeah. Now sometimes you can tell testimonies about that if you're starting a ministry, uh, that is for parents of kids who have learning disabilities for instance. Right, right. It's a testimony. You can tell those kinds of stories, but you don't wanna announce seven times in a row that we have something for a new ministry. We're starting for parents of kids with learning disabilities. Right. Cuz it's not that it's not important.
Speaker 0 00:17:23 Right. It's just that it's not saying that affects every single person in your church there, so correct. So number one, make sure that you're limiting the number, number two, make sure that they're on that affect everybody, but you hit it right in the middle of the service there. Yeah. You talk about those then. And then afterwards after the sermon kind of in closing, I think a quick reminder, Hey, last chance again, real quick reminder, last chance to get signed up for vacation Bible school, we'll see you on the way out. You know, something really brief. Yeah. As people are leaving and departing, I think that makes sense. So if I were to say kind of what I would encourage for our, most of our audience, the, the right way to do it, I think this hybrid approach, it makes a lot of sense. I would do it if I was planting or pastoring a church right now, that's kind of the route I would go.
Speaker 4 00:18:07 Yeah. I like that. That's a good point. And I, and I think the, the main takeaway from that to me and hopefully to our listeners is just that, you know, uh, every church is different, right? So, um, and, and segueing to kind of how we wrap all this up is when to decide to do them. You, you gotta know your church, right? Know your audience, know the order of your service, your worship flow, all of that. And know your know, your know, I think every church kind of knows about how many new visitors they get. On average, you, you think about all of those factors and um, you know, even though you and I, we kind of at our church and we, we probably probably prefer the middle. That doesn't mean that's gonna be right for every church. Right. Yeah. So, uh, it really just depends on the church. So
Speaker 0 00:18:51 Yeah. Yeah. I think that that's exactly right. I think I'd say a couple things as we close, is that, um, think about your visitors, right? Yeah. So I think that, that, um, and we preach this all the time. Uh, is that, that healthy churches growing churches? Uh, I'm not saying that I'm not like doing a pro seeker sensitive or yeah. Seeker movement kind of statement. Right. But I think it, it does make sense to think about the people that have never been in your church before. Yeah. And what will be the best approach for them. So I would say definitely keep them in mind. The second thing, and this is, I give you this as a word of caution, uh, is that it's important to, well, if you make a change here, there will be people that talk about it. It'll throw people off. If you do, if you move from announcements in the middle to announcements before service, you're gonna have people come to you and say, I didn't know that was happening this week because they missed it. Or they weren't really paying attention. Or they're used to kind of just getting settled when they first walk in. Yeah. So there will be people and they'll come and tell you, we pastor churches after all, like they'll come and tell you and they'll let you know what they think about it. And that's just the way that it is, but be bold, you know, take those things. You don't wanna be changing it every week. You don't want to have it at the end. Sometimes, beginning other times you probably want some kind of a
Speaker 4 00:20:03 GY consistency follow.
Speaker 0 00:20:05 Yeah. But yeah. Um, you know, try it out and be bold. And yeah, I think that there's a lot of advantages, pray about it and let's see what God does there. That's awesome. Anything else? Does we finish?
Speaker 4 00:20:13 No. No, I think that's good. I hope this has been helpful to our listeners and maybe it, uh, yeah, maybe there was that church out there and that pastor that was like, man, we're really struggling with this. So we hope it helped.
Speaker 0 00:20:24 Uh, I've all I've been there. I've really wondered. I've I've pastored several churches and yeah, every single one we kind of wonder are we doing it in the right spot? So hopefully this was helpful. Uh, if it was, uh, take a second to leave us a comment. If you have any feedback as to where you do yours and why it works for you or why you think that we're dead wrong about doing it in one of these areas here. Yeah. Let us know when the comments below, we love all kinds of feedback that there, we love to start a conversation. So also if it has been helpful to comment about my church parking lot that's yeah. Comment about your church parking lot. Yeah. That's a good idea. Ideas for better parking flow at a church there. I went to, um, better Saddleback church, like 20 years ago.
Speaker 0 00:21:02 I visited Saddleback. They have a, I think you went there once too. Maybe. Yeah. Did they have like a five lane road going in and out of the church when you pull into there? So yeah, it's insane. Sounds like maybe you guys ought to talk about that at, uh, your church there. So anyway, uh, if it has been helpful to you in this episode rate, review, subscribe, uh, let us know, uh, in the comments down there below, we want to thank you guys so much for being a part of our reach, right family. And we'll catch you next week. Thanks for listening to the reach right podcast. We hope this episode will help you reach people the right way, looking for more resources for your church. Check us out online at reach, right studios.com. If this episode has been helpful to you, it would mean the world to us. If you would rate, review and subscribe on iTunes or wherever you get your podcast. Thanks again for listening. And we'll see you next week.
