RULES For Church Announcements You Should Follow

As a church communicator, you work hard to ensure people know what's going on. So there's nothing more deflating than when someone comments to you that they "didn't even know that event was happening." It shouldn't be this way, and in my experience it's not you - it's the announcements. So today I've got three church announcements rules that will help to make your announcements more effective.

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Table of Contents:
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0:00 - Intro
0:23 - Rule #1: The 50% Rule
3:56 - Rule #2: Inspiration Over Information
8:05 - Rule #3: Sprint & Smuggle

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Show Notes:
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Connect With Brady:
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[prochurchtools]

Rule #3 is a new one and I think it really makes all the difference. In the past some of you have asked, "what about the announcements that don't fit into the rules?" That's what Rule #3 is for.

[SeanShineYouth]

“Storytelling forces our brain to
Pay attention. I’ll never forget when…” *starts telling story*. Love it.

[klomax]

This is AWESOME and is gonna help our church much! 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾

[devisinggood]

Dang, hello production quality! I've seen all the videos you've done on these rules to date, but this one was so pleasant to watch. Nice work! I'm going to use this video to facilitate some discussion with our campus pastors. 👏🏽

[ThomasReece]

Going down an unnecessary rabbit hole here but to anyone else who is tired of stuffing eggs, last year I decided to do the eggs like you would have a ticket at an arcade. Then you could take your eggs to your age specific prize counters. There you could exchange one egg for a small piece of candy, or a few eggs for full size candy, or small toy/Pokémon cards/fidget etc... It was a huge hit! Parents loved it, it was easier on myself and staff, and the kids got more than just candy so they were having a blast!

[blakefilmco]

I work at a church and am in charge of creating video announcements. I love the 50% rule and have communicated it to my supervisors. They respond by saying it is out of our authority to decide what should or shouldn’t be in announcements, therefore everything should be announced equally.
I think this is a response out of fear of undervaluing curtain events/ministries potentially bringing hurt to ministry leaders that didn’t get as much “screen time” as other things.

I guess my question is how can we show all ministries/events value, but also applying the rule 1 strategy?

[AllThingsTheology]

That text masked to be behind you, fair play. That’s serious effort

[conradaleshire]

Killer video as always. Keep up the great work

[fionascheibel]

The first bit of announcements and does it relate to 50% of the church just reinforced my thought that people can be so self centred. "Doesnt relate to me so i wont listen or care" If the church is supposed to be a community. It wont kill the men to listen to what is happening in the womens ministry or the young adults to know what is happening in the senior members program. Maybe one of those "not involved" people could check is a senior person needs a lift to the activity or the men could remind the women about the activity or ask how it went. If the church is a community then care about what is going on in the community. But yep. Dont make the announcements drag on forever and announce things in several ways. In the service, on a bulletin, on the website or facebook, via the inchurch communication like email or messaging.

[damenmoore]

Great video, I like how the 3rd rule has evolved. Thought we might see some barna stats, or some guidance towards duration of the announcements. Any advice there Brady? Keep up the good work, and give your editor a high-five for us!

[TyroneLT]

Rule #3 is something I do all the time on our socials. I just didn’t have as cool a name for it as you lol! I find people in general don’t like ads (hence why people can’t wait to hit the skip ad button). So Rule #3 I find is a great way to avoid our content feeling like ads.

[charlescarmichael]

I think church announcements should never be more than 4-7 minutes. We've had an experiment where we incorporate them into ministry time. Once we had a bit of a traffic jam so we made an announcement about the new exits built on the back of the property (mega church). In order to get people to follow instructions when leaving, we asked all of the traffic coordinators to come to the front at the end of the service. The pastor then asked everyone to stretch their hands towards them, and we prayed for them for safety and patience. When he had everyone's full attention, he said basically do what these people tell you and when you leave go out the back exit. The problem that we were having with traffic ended right then and there.
Another time, they started the announcements video, and about 15 seconds in it had an embedded scratching noise, along with what looked like a film break. Then it showed our editor sitting in the editing bay, and then he looked over at the camera with the music off and said "oh, shoot, it broke! Sorry Pastor, I'll just read these here…". He had everyone's attention. It was hilarious.

[lucycliburn]

Helicopter egg drop. Am I truly the only one who thought WKRP in Cincinnati Thanksgiving turkey drop?😂😂😂 it was one of their all-time best episodes.

[NOV]

Thanks Brady, very helpful. Here is a rule I didn't see (or at least I didn't think I saw), if you are doing announcements EVERY week, how do you change it up to not seem redundant or using the same script/tone, etc. all the time?

[ptrsamson]

Can’t tell you how many times I just conk out on the 30 minute announcements.

[katiep.]

I discovered the 50% rule when I took over our announcements. I love it because it's my out not to announce every random thing in our church.

What do you recommend when it's s light event week without events that affect over 50% of the church. Would you skip them?

[andrewtate]

Hey Brady! Excellent content as always. What would you say about the frequency of a particular announcement? For example, as a general rule (to which there are always exceptions), we'll start announcing something three weeks in advance and we'll announce it for those three weeks in a row. Curious on your thoughts! It seems to serve us pretty well (we try to stick to the 50% rule and limit it to 3 announcements max, and try to keep it as brief as possible), but of course I know we can always get better! Thanks!

[jimmyhudson]

What is the strategy then for those ministries who do not meet the 50% mark? Are they communicating internally? How can I help the smaller ministries feel cared about and that their events matter?

[GospelMissionChurch]

What do we do for "House Announcements"? We've noticed people talk during this portion of our video announcements where we talk about giving, our kids programs and welcoming new comers. How can we make it different so people actually pay attention and don't miss anything?

[theodoretturman]

Hey Brady. Is there any value to presenting an announcement that violates the 50% rule simply for the sake of "looking good" or attractive to first-time guests, or as a way of communicating church priorities? As an example, Next Gen min announcements violate the 50% rule but we want to show we care about families.