When you think about church announcements, what comes to mind right away?
Maybe you think about information, maybe you think about someone coming up on stage and talking about what’s happening around your church. After hundreds of video announcements presented, filmed and produced here are some creative ways that we’ve seen the churches that we work with effectively use their video announcements.
One of the most common ways people utilize their announcements is in a transitional portion of their Sunday worship experience. What does this practically look like?
For one of our team members, they start their service with worship and then dismiss the kids. When the kids are dismissed (brace yourself if you are an introvert 😬) they put a five minute timer up on the main screen and do a meet and greet.
When the meet and greet is done, the lights dim, cuing people that it’s time to sit down again and then that’s exactly when the announcements are played.
Another common way that churches use their announcement videos for a service transition, is between the last worship song and when the pastor starts his or her message. When that happens, it’s the perfect time for any other transitions that are needed during that point in the service.
Imagine, moving mic stands, moving the pulpit in place, setting up notes etc. So that when your video announcements are done playing, you can go right into the message with no awkward silence or pauses to distract anyone.
Another great way to utilize video announcements is probably the most obvious one. To share information.
What seems to be less obvious is the fact that video announcements can be shared not just for those in the main building watching on a Sunday morning. They can be used to share the same information that you need communicated to people in your online communities.
When we say information though, we don’t just mean sharing the same information to people watching on different platforms. For example we work with a church that for years, at the beginning and the end of their announcements point people back to their app where they are always hosting their event sign up forms and other important information.
Why is that so effective?
It takes hearing something on average 7 times before the information sticks.
By repeating the same thing in their video announcements not only are they presenting the most timely information in that video, they are also consistently reminding people where they can ultimately go for everything concerning their church week in and week out.
One of the biggest benefits of video announcements in your service is to help keep the main emphasis on what’s most important. Plainly put, they help the flow of the service keep moving towards what's most important. We’ve all sat in services where someone gets up on stage starts going through one announcement after the next, and then 20 minutes later we have no idea what’s happening, all we know is the person on stage is still awkwardly talking about an early bird discount for a women’s event happening three years from now.
The great thing about video announcements? When the countdown hits 0 the video ends and the rest of the service continues on schedule, every week, every time.
Why is that so important? Well, as much as it’s hard for us at Announcements.church to admit, announcements are not the most important part of your services 🤭. The life transformation that happens during worship, and through your carefully crafted, Holy Spirit inspired messages are.
So if we can take the announcement portion of your service, make it as concise, engaging and professional as possible so that people understand what’s being communicated and can take action on it, then seamlessly move to the message all while limiting distractions.
That’s a win not just for us, but for you and your church as well.