Sorry . . . I don’t mean to be Debbie Downer . . . but your people aren’t listening when you stand up and talk at them about what’s really important to you at your church.

I wish they were. Believe me.

Over the last 800 +/- weekends of being involved in “what are we talking about in announcements” my conviction is that it’s a lousy way to try to communicate to a church.  If you are relying on some dude to stand up at the front to motivate people to get connected with your ministry event or initiative it won’t work.  If the cornerstone of your communications plan is simply have that person park on stage and bark about the details about what is coming up – I can guarantee you it won’t gain traction.

Again, I’m sorry.

Here are 5 reasons people aren’t listening to your announcements:

• What’s in it for them? We want to get them to attend our event. We need volunteers for the upcoming thing. We have a need that we are hoping they will fill.  People are intrinsically motivated to pay attention to things that will positively impact them.  We don’t frame our communication in a way that helps our people see what difference this makes to them.
• You need to sell not market.  Marketing is about making sure that people understand about the features and benefits of your product or service.  Sales is about working with people individually to overcome their objections and get them to sign on the dotted line.  Church leaders think way too much about “marketing” to people when what you need to do is think about “selling”.  Who is person that is going to talk to people directly about engaging with your church?
• Too much noise. You want your people to take away the teaching points from the message . . . to chew on what difference that will make in their lives for the coming week.  Everything can just be noise.  Every time you add another announcement you add exponentially reduces it’s effectiveness in breaking through.  Two announcements are 30% as effective as one . . . three is 90% less effective as one . . . 
• Wrong Audience. If you are announcing the up coming hiker club trip to the wilderness on Tuesday afternoon . . . which maybe 5% of the audience could possibly attend . . . you are telling 95% of the audience to ignore you.  By having announcements that only focus a small part of your community your are training your people to tune you out.
• Too Much Treadmill.  When was the last time you celebrated something fun that happened at your church?  If you are always taking time to market what’s coming up next you are missing an opportunity to engage (and reward) people who have been involved in something already at the church.  Celebrate your people and what they are doing . . . they’ll listen more.  😉

What about your church?  What have you learned about doing annoucements?  [I’d love to hear from you!]

Looking for more help with your announcements? This FREE 3-part video series is for you.

Are you looking to improve the hosting of your weekend services?

Have you already tried improving this area but aren’t sure what to do next?

Are you ready to take the next steps to increase engagement in your announcements and ultimately your church? I’m releasing a FREE three-part video series designed to help your church with better weekend hosting. The lessons in this series come from my practical experience of hosting hundreds of services in multiple contexts and coaching many other leaders in this area. The three videos are:

• Video #1: 5 Reasons People Aren’t Listening to Your Hosting. Your first video will clearly define for you why people aren’t paying attention to the announcements in your services.
• Video #2: The One Best Practice to Ensure Higher Engagement with Your Announcements. In this video, you will understand what the single most important practice thriving churches change about their announcements to improve engagement.
• Video #3: 3 Church Hosting Myths Debunked. Finally, you will dive into three misunderstood myths about hosting announcements that move people to action.

[Click here to learn more and enroll for FREE today.]