by Greg Curtis: Here is a photo of Michelle and I once we made it down the long road to the Church of All Nations in the Garden of Gethsemane. We are standing in front of what is the oldest Olive Tree in the garden, around a thousand years old.

I recently got back from a bucket list trip to Israel. This is the kind of trip you hope you will get to go on someday and pray it doesn’t let you down.

It did not.

People asked me what I was looking forward to seeing the most. I told them I didn’t want to even go there mentally because I suspected that what I was looking forward to might be eclipsed by things I didn’t even know we were going to see.

That is exactly what happened.

One of those surprise locations was discovered when we got off the bus in Jerusalem. We were on a bluff with a fantastic view of the old city. With a guide ahead of us, he got us access to an old stone road, framed in high walls with a steep decline down toward the valley in front of the city. It had security cameras, occasional wood doors that seemed to offer some kind of access to the kind of stone homes you would visualize a scene from the Bible to take place in. Parts were asphalted, some parts not.

Long, uneven, winding and descending, this was the road that Jesus came into Jerusalem on, riding a donkey the Sunday before his execution.

As I descended, I was awed that I was actually walking the road I had seen on flannel graphs in Sunday School growing up so many Palm Sundays. I had no idea this was what we were going to do on this particular day. But as I watched people from all over the world walk this road with me, a couple principles about connecting with people came to mind.

Two principles to keep in mind for connecting people at your church:

I took this photo on the same road that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on. Picture palms and praise happening on this road, but also note how it had no other options but down through the Kidron Valley and up to the Eastern Gate into the Old City. Our connection path for guests to enter into our church community should be as singular and clear as this.

Make your connection path clear and singular.

I was struck by the high walls and the narrow road that formed this old road into Jerusalem. As it exists now, there’s really no escaping it. Once you go through its locked entrance gate, you will walk this road until it reaches its destination, period. Walking downhill like this, it is also difficult to turn back and go uphill against the crowd.

This made me think of a warning I find myself sharing with Sherpa Leaders who want to create engagement pathways for their guests. The warning is this: Don’t offer guests multiple choice. If you do, they will always choose D) None of the above. Like this road into Jerusalem, offer one connection path they can say yes or no to.

We live in an age where we are inundated by information and options. As a result, we are often in a state of decision fatigue. The “Have it your way” Burger King approach to customer service has been replaced by the “In & Out experience”. In California where I live, In & Out Burger pretty much offers just one thing to order. The only choice is whether to make it a double.

People are paying now for information to be distilled into decisions for them due to decision fatigue. Some have their groceries delivered and chosen for them by others via an app. Some now do this with clothing and wine. Others just stay with the tried and true, foregoing a cheaper price at the Costco-type warehouses around them, opting instead for a smaller less overwhelming market where the choices may be more expensive, but fewer and known.

Please hear this: The same is true for your guests this weekend at church. Trust me: they don’t want to hear about your women’s retreat, men’s work day, every kind of small group, and multiple ways to serve and get involved. They just want to connect and in order to do so, they want one option that looks like it will deliver on that. One option that they can say yes or no to. That’s one option. One.

As a leader, this should inform you in multiple scenarios in your entire church, especially when it comes to growing a follower of Jesus: Have only one ask at the end of any event, program, or environment you create. The good news about this is that you get to decide what you want them to say yes or no to. 100 people saying yes to one thing beats 5 groups of 10 saying yes to 5 things. Yes the number of responders are cut in half because people don’t come to church to evaluate choices you lay before them. They are looking for hope, comfort, grace and God…not a menu.

Offering multiple options creates sidewise energy. Having one clear path you point all guests to that they can choose to walk or not allows you and them to put all your energies into that option and the results become exponential.

For example: At my church, we have no info material at our info counter. None. Why? Because the answer to every question (except “Where’s the bathroom?” and “Is there a doctor in the house?”) is “Next Steps” which is our connection pathway. We’ve designed it to answer every question a guest has.

Similarly, at each of the 4 weekly steps of Next Steps, there is only one ask:

Week One: Follow Jesus

Week Two: Join a small group

Week Three: Serve on a ministry team

Week Four: Try a Compassion Project

Leveraging this simplicity, this year (2020) in Next Steps campus wide we have…

Week One: 31% making a decision to follow Jesus

Week Two: 59% sign up for a small group

Week Three: 73% Choose a ministry team to serve on

Week Four: 65% Express interest in a Compassion Project

Some years we have bested that. If we promoted everything at our church with several asks, I believe those responses would be less than half of what they are. So hear me on this. We cannot afford to dilute a guest’s focus, energy and effort. We must decide what is important and build walls on either side of the pathway so that it leads to just one important step, the best step for them as new or growing Christ followers.

On the road that Jesus came into Jerusalem on, there was only one option: down to the valley that leads to the old city. Our connection path for guest should be that simple. Which leads me to the 2nd principle…

Make your connection path simple, not necessarily easy. There’s a difference.

I took this shot shortly after we began descending toward the valley on the Palm Sunday route. That’s Diane with her cain holding the railing that soon disappeared as we made the descent.

Two days before we got on the plane for Israel, I looked down and one of my knees was swollen. I don’t know why. It just puffed up like a blowfish for reasons unknown to me. So armed with a knee brace I bought at CVS, I slid it on and started the paths and narrow stone stairways that are the ancients ways of getting around in Israel.

It hurt when we went down the Palm Sunday route toward Jerusalem, especially due to the decline. But my challenge was nothing compared to a very fun older lady (let’s call her Diane) who due to her age had a walker or a cane for the entire trip. She is in the photo to the right, holding onto the railing, a railing that was only present for a few yards of the long journey down. But we waited for Diane when we needed to, and her family helped her as well. It was a lot more challenging for her than for me.

What made Diane, myself and others struggling with pain continue on this road with enthusiasm despite our issues? The destination. We were headed to the Garden of Gethsemane, an olive grove where Jesus wrestled in prayer and was arrested. So much of our story begins in this grove that wasn’t really a Garden as we would think of it. It was a working farm that produced the olive oil that was fuel for all their lamps and gave light to the city.

Here’s what I want to remind you of: Where your connection path leads allows you to ask more of those walking it. When you are leading them towards an environment they want to experience or even feel a need for, they will do what you ask, even if its not easy.

When we transitioned from a quarterly 7-week connection experience to a 4 week monthly one, there was some vital content that guests found valuable in making a connection with us that could no longer fit. Rather than throw it away, we took a risk. We added 2 additional “Go Deeper” opportunities to the 3 assignments they already get to complete each week at Next Steps. These “Go Deepers” come in the form of 9 to 30 minute long videos with blanks in their books to fill in. I incentivized the completion of them with a swag gift for everyone at the table with the highest percentage of completion, evidenced by all the blanks filled in. When we launched it, I told myself that I would have been thrilled to have 20% to 30% of guest complete them each week. I was shocked to see 80% to 100% complete them (much to the depletion of our swag budget!).

We discovered that guests love investing an extra hour each week in these Go Deepers because they contain some life giving information that helps them in their journey (not a walk through our statement of faith or our church’s position on specific issues). They come back describing their value, many times through tears.

My learning to pass on to you is this: Though your connection path needs to be simple, do not shrink away from tasks or assignments that have real and obvious value to them because if the destination is desirable, they will do it.

Just ask Diane and I. We would both say yes to a challenge that leads to something meaningful. We powered through our bad knees and got to a section of the garden that not everyone gets to see. It was a part cared for by the Franciscans and we were allowed to explore it and find a our own niche in it for a prolonged period of solitary prayer like Jesus did. It was sooooo worth it.

Make sure what you ask of guests is worth it too, even if it’s not easy. They will do it.

This photo is of a small corner of a large section of the Garden of Gethsemane walled off for private prayer. This was why we ignored our swollen knees and kept walking downhill and it was so worth it.

If you were to ask the following people how a guest can connect and get involved at your church, what would they say?

The Senior Pastor

A random staff person

The average church member

A guest

If there are different answers, why is that? Is it…

a) There is no specified way to connect and get involved

b) There are multiple ways for them to connect and get involved

c) There is a specified way but it is not promoted well

d) Other

What needs to happen next in order to have a singular well promoted and effective connection pathway for guests at your church?

a) Have someone meet with our staff this year to form a more effective connection path for our church (click here for my best resource for that)

b) Learn all the necessary ingredients of a successful assimilation strategy so I can evaluate where we are really at (click here for a resource I have for learning this quickly)

c) Get more education and training about what it takes to even have a successful assimilation strategy (click here for my best educational resource)

d) Learn some dos and don’t for effectively promoting your connection pathway. (click here for help with that)

To receive more resources and ideas on connecting people well at your church each month, let me know briefly who you are below:

Name

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First Name

Last Name

Email

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Church Name

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Church Website

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Thank you!

Source: Two principals I learned in Jerusalem that will help you connect new people at your church

The post Two principals I learned in Jerusalem that will help you connect new people at your church appeared first on Passion for Planting.

Source: Metrics That Matter in 2020

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Announcements at your church don’t have to stink.

This time in your service doesn’t need to feel like a miscellaneous catch-all for things that don’t fit elsewhere in the service flow!

When done well, announcements can be the part of the service that moves people to action. Every weekend you have five minutes to move people towards engagement with the church’s mission. What an incredible opportunity!

Often the musical worship at your church is about a transcendent connection to God. During that portion of the service, we are attempting to help people live in full awareness of the fact that they are loved by the creator God! Also, in most churches, there is an opportunity to be engaged with some practical teaching that applies to people’s lives. During that portion of the service, we hope to equip our people to live out their faith during the rest of the week. However, the announcement time needs to be seen as the purest form of leadership during the entire service. You are asking people to take steps towards community and engagement during those precious five minutes. Don’t waste that time because what your church is doing is incredibly important!

Over the years, I’ve had the chance to host innumerable services and coach a lot of pastors on how to leverage their announcement time for maximum impact. Here are some common things that pastors say during the announcements that we need to take out of our vocabulary! As always, I’d love to hear your feedback on what else you would add to this list.

“Wow! It’s a nice day out there today!”

The problem with this statement is that it’s a lazy way to drive connection with your community. Yes, people experienced the weather as they came in this morning, just like they do every other day. Unless the weather is actually of historic note, avoid this statement at all costs. This phrase is particularly dangerous because it’s a verbal crutch for many leaders and they say it every week. The human mind is a pattern recognition machine, so when you lead with this every week you are helping people tune you out.

Other filler phrases similar to this one could be things like:

“How about those [insert sports team here] that played again this weekend?”“Did you see the traffic on the way in? Wowsers! That’s life in the suburbs!”“Welcome to First Church! Our mission is to help irreligious people become fully devoted followers of Christ.”

In the first moments of your announcements, you need to grab people’s attention and let them know you are headed somewhere. Think of your announcements like an airplane ride; the take-off and landing are the most important part of the experience. Craft the first sentence or two as a way to intentionally connect with your community and communicate that you have something important to tell people. Don’t get caught in the verbal crutch of starting the same way every week but look for new ways to grab people’s attention.

Some alternative openings to your announcements could include:

“You are going to be so thankful you came to First Church today because our team has crafted an amazing experience to help you and your family”People are inherently interested in themselves. Leading with how they will personally benefit from the experience will pique their interest. “Good morning! If you’ve been around for a while, then you’ve no doubt heard us say that we’re trying to create a church that unchurched people love. I want to tell you a story I heard this week about this mission being lived out…”Two ideas in one for this one. Humans are drawn to stories and they want to hear about other people. Also, when you can tease info as “secret” or for “insiders”, people will listen. “Wait, stop. Did you listen to what we were just singing? Do you believe that? Some of us here think it’s an amazing truth, but what do you think about it? Our hope is that the music every week makes you think about what you believe.” Being slightly provocative after a shared musical worship experience and asking people to consider their own participation pulls them in. Also, the use of halting, short language can punctuate the flow and force people to slow down and consider what you are saying.

“In just a moment, our team is going to collect this morning’s offering.”

This one gets on my nerves…big time.

People are being generous and choosing to give to your ministry, and you’re talking about it like it’s a “collection”! We aren’t the Internal Revenue Service collecting taxes for God. We want to guide people towards generosity, not pass the plate and demand payment. While it might sound like a small, subtle difference, people are hyper sensitive in the area of finances so language matters here. In fact, we know that people who don’t normally attend church have their radars on high alert during this portion of your service. They are looking for reasons to push back on what they are hearing and seeing. This is a simple change to make your services more welcoming to those who might be skeptical.

Some other ways we word this one:

“Our ushers will be coming forward to get your tithes from you.”“As our team prepares to gather this weekend’s offering… ““We’re going to take up this morning’s donations from you.”

Our language should be a response to our people’s generosity. Our people are generous, so therefore we receive the donations that people are choosing to give to the church. The people who attend our churches are the first movers in helping advance our mission and we need to acknowledge that. They are choosing to be generous to God through our church and our role is to be thankful for what they are doing.

Try these alternatives when introducing this part of your service:

“In just a minute, our team is going to receive this morning’s offering from our community.”It’s subtle but the language of “receive” is so much more powerful (and reflective of what’s happening) than “collect”. “We know you have a lot of places you could choose to give, so we’re honored that so many people choose to give here!”Sometimes just being honest about generosity is the best option. People have options and they are choosing to give to you. It really is amazing. “As a church, we don’t want you to feel any obligation to give. This part of our service is for people who call our church home and want to give to back to the ministry here.”This is a fantastic phrase because in a kind way it lets guests off the hook from feeling pressured to give, while at the same time not telling them not to give. It also subtly reminds people who call your church home that they should be giving.

“We’re launching small groups this month.”

So many problems are packed into the shortest sentence in this entire list! There are a few things wrong with this sentence that we need to tackle.

What’s in it For Them? // I hate to break it to you, but no one cares that you are launching small groups at your church. (Except maybe the people in charge of said small groups.) This phrase is inherently “us-centric” and doesn’t reveal why it benefits our people. We need to phrase and focus our announcements in terms of how that particular event/group/activity is going to help those attending our church. It needs to start and end with how this will help them, not us. Some alternatives for presenting this announcement could be:

“Are you wondering how to get connected at our church? Great question! Here at First Church, we have a series of mid-week groups where people like you meet with other individuals from the church.”Phrasing the need in the form of a question people are actually asking helps spark interest. “One of the things we’ve learned is that you learn best when you are in community with other people. You are missing out unless you have a group of 6 to 8 people you can get to know better while you wrestle with what we’re learning together. Our small groups are all about you growing in your faith. How many times does “you” or “your” show up in that phrase? That’s about the ratio needed to match uses of “our” or “we”.

Insidery Language // What is a small group? When you search “definition small group” on Google, this is what you get:

Definition of Small Group Teaching. The term ‘small group teaching’, or ‘small group learning’ as it is often termed, means different things to different people. … A lecturer used to taking [on] 400 in a lecture would define 50 as a small group. As there can be sub-groups within groups, it is hard to define small group. [ref]

You and I know that we’re not talking about groups of 50 but more along the lines of 8 to 12 that meet midweek in people’s homes to discuss the Bible and support each other. You need to slow down and explain that definition to people. This kind of insidery language is like a weed growing up in your communication garden that chokes out the meaning you are attempting to get across. Look carefully for these short cuts to communication that ultimately exclude the very people you are trying to communicate with. Here are some other examples of insidery language:

“I’m going to invite a teacher from Uumbaji up in a minute. Uumbaji is our program for children in the 1st through the 5th grades that meets on Sunday morning at church. Uumbaji means ‘creation’ in Swahili and we believe every child is a wonderful creation of God!” Or you could just call it Elementary. Clarity beats cleverness every time. “Here at First Church, we’re led by a group of volunteer leaders that we call Elders. This group of leaders is responsible for the long-term leadership of our church. They give oversight and direction to our Senior Pastor as they lead the church.”Talking about church organization stuff is particularly tricky. It’s a double whammy of insider language that most people don’t care about. That being said, there is a small slice of people who really care about it.

“The men’s hiking club is heading to the state park next month.”

Narrowcasting is when you speak to a particularly small group within the church during the service. It is also a dangerous thing to do. Oftentimes this happens because a vocal sub-group is looking to boost their visibility, so they hound the church leadership to get some “stage time” to highlight their group. The problem with this is if you aren’t in the “men’s hiking club”, or whatever the narrowly focused interest group is, then you just tune out the announcement. The long-term issue with this is if you do this week in and week out, then you are just training people to never listen to what is being said during the announcements. By narrowcasting certain announcements, you are unwittingly telling people to not pay attention to anything said during the announcement time. Avoid this mistake at all costs because if it’s left unchecked it will do harm to your church long term.

You need to be able to say “no” to the leaders of sub-groups looking to get “stage time” to promote their efforts. Here are some alternatives you could suggest that don’t involve excluding the rest of your church:

Direct Emails // Each of your ministry areas should cultivate an email list of people who are interested in their area. Cause Some Lobby Chaos // Church is fun, right? How could you bring a little piece of the event you are promoting to the lobby on the weekend?Social Media // How can you encourage your people to talk and share about the ministry program through social media channels?Call People // Have you heard about this new technology called “the telephone”? It’s amazing! It’s kind of like Twitter but with audio. But seriously, simply just calling people can be effective.Snail Mail // People typically just get bills and junk mail in their mailbox at home. What if your ministry area came up with a clever piece of mail to send to people?

“Here are the top 5 ways to get connected…in under 5 minutes. Go!”

You’ve been there. I’ve been there. The person charged with “doing the announcements” gets up and unfolds a legal sized piece of paper, clears their throats and declares that there are “just a few things” that they want to bring the church in the loop on.

You can practically hear people’s brains checking out around the room.

It’s painful.

It happens every weekend at churches all across the country.

Studies have shown that the human attention span is shrinking dramatically:

People don’t recall more than 1 or 2 two television commercials after watching multiple in a row. [ref]Humans now have an attention span shorter than that of a fish. Really. [ref]

You need to ruthlessly focus your announcement time on one, maybe two, things. Take some time to watch the services of very large churches and you’ll see that practice in play. It’s not that those churches have less to talk about; rather they are excellent at communicating and focusing the attention of people on what will help them take their next step. Frankly, in order to effectively do all the strategies we’re suggesting in the above coaching, you are going to need to talk about less things in order to give yourself the time and space to make your announcement time as effective as possible.

Another rule of thumb is that if you are feeling rushed during your announcement time, then it is likely you are attempting to talk about too much. Your audience can sense when you are rushed and will just want you to finish as soon as possible when you are in that state. Rather than relaxing and taking in the information, their anxiety ramps up and they just want it to be over as well. People mirror the state of mind you are in when you are speaking to them. If you are rushing through all the announcements, then your audience will just be anticipating you finishing rather than engaging with what you are saying.

What would you add to the list?

I’d love to hear your announcement “no-no’s” or “pet peeves” that you’ve run into. This is such an incredibly important part of our services that I want to encourage us to get better at. Take some time to craft your announcement time into an engaging part of connecting your community with your mission. It’s five minutes to move people to action!

Source: 5 Things You Should Never Say During Announcements at Your Church

The post 5 Things You Should Never Say During Announcements at Your Church appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Rich Birch: Church leaders in prevailing churches think of themselves more like scientists testing theories than bakers applying a prescribed recipe. Rather than looking for the “perfect” strategy for your church, it’s better to consider your practices as a series of experiments and then watch the results. While it’s important to learn from other churches and incorporate “best practices” from organizations, your church is a unique culture, and therefore you need to employ a “uniquely you” strategy to connect with the community you are trying to reach!

3 Reasons Summer is the Perfect Time to Try Something New at Your Church

Easing Attendance // Most churches see a slight pull back in attendance during this season. This means that the logistics side isn’t as taxed as other times in the year, making it easier to try something new.
Program Reduction // Similarly, churches often cut back on their programs during the summer, which means that the leadership and staff have more energy and time to try something new.
Fall is Coming // Most churches see the time between Labor Day and Christmas Eve as a critical season in the life of the church. Leveraging the period before that season to improve your ministry is a great use of your time.

Are you looking for a few new or different practices to possibly test this summer to see the results in your church? Here are four testable items that you could experiment with over the summer and then make changes to improve your ministry in the fall.

Try Something New with Your Announcements

There are five precious minutes in your service that are solely intended to move people to action. The announcement time is a high leverage opportunity to encourage your people to move from where they are to where you want them to be. It really is the quintessential leadership moment during the service. However, it’s usually under-planned and under-utilized in most churches. You’re missing out on the opportunity to make sustained progress in your church simply because you’re not leveraging those critical moments in your service.

Rather than relegating the announcement portion of the service to just one person, a growing trend in thriving churches is to use a team of two co-hosts. This summer, what if you experimented with co-hosts during all your weekend services?

5 Benefits of Co-Hosts for Your Announcements

Requires Practice // The only guaranteed way to get better at this part of your service is to practice. When two people make the announcements, it requires them to talk through the elements and practice together, which in turn improves the announcements. This part of the service is about moving people to action and getting them connected. It deserves to be well thought-out and executed effectively!
Increases Diversity // As a church grows, it needs to appeal to a broader community. One way to do this is to have a variety of people on stage at your church. If it’s all “guys” on the stage, you may be unintentionally sending the message to ladies that they are less welcome in your church. If everyone on stage is over 65, you communicate to the next generation that there isn’t room for them. Co-hosting increases the diversity of people on stage. Take this opportunity to appeal to a broad group of people.
Builds Influence // The people who are on stage gain influence in your church. People see them and begin to trust them. Although we don’t want the stage to be a shortcut around the “hand-over-hand” work of building a church, it is a valuable tool for increasing the profile of leaders on your team. Regular hosting helps people to know, like, and trust leaders.
Trains Leaders // Constantly training others and releasing ministry to them is central to our role as church leaders. Often, roles like this require “public face time” that we’re hesitant to give away because we’re not sure how to train people. Resist this temptation! Bring another leader on stage to co-host with you and have them start by doing just one part of the announcements. Putting them in front of people will be an adjustment. As hosts get more comfortable, and as you become more confident in their abilities to move people to action, give them more elements of the announcements. As their proficiency grows, you can hand off the responsibility of raising up other co-hosts to them.
Departure Insurance // The people who are with you today won’t necessarily be with you in the future. All leaders are temporary to some extent as people move on for one reason or another. If you have the same host in front of your community all the time, it makes these inevitable transitions more difficult. Sharing the stage exposes people to a range of leaders and can help you down the road when you need to move people to a different seat on the bus. Obviously, you don’t want to put leaders who are a high “flight risk” in front of your people, but having co-hosts helps expand the group of leaders people are used to seeing on weekends.

Looking for more help trying this experiment at your church? Download this PDF on co-hosting announcements that includes tips from a team that’s done it!

Experiment with Different First-time Guest Gifts

An early step in most churches’ processes for helping new guests get connected is to offer them a free gift in exchange for their contact information. The purpose of these gifts is simply to encourage your guests to “raise their hand” and indicate that they are new. Knowing exactly what gift to offer your guests can be a bit of a mystery, and sometimes it seems much more like an art than a science.

When our church switched from one gift to another we saw a 500% increase in the number of first-time guests that submitted their contact information! Clearly, it’s important to get this gift right! However, due to the expense of these items you want to make sure you’ve experimented with a few different gifts to see which one garners the best response.

3 Factors to Consider for First-time Guest Gifts

Perceived Value // At the core of this transaction is the perceived value of the gift that guests will receive in exchange for their contact information. What you’re looking for is high perceived value but lower actual cost. Design and presentation are often factors in this equation.
Brand // There is a delicate balance in how this item relates to your brand. Real estate agents are notorious for handing out all kinds of swag to people around town. But ask yourself, when was the last time you wore that t-shirt from them? If the items you give to your guests are overly branded to your church, it won’t feel like a gift but an advertisement.
Cost // As a rule of thumb, the number of guests who attend your church in a year should be equal to your average weekend attendance. So, if your church averages about 500 people every weekend, then you should be averaging about 10 first-time guests every weekend. This is important because whatever item you end up choosing to give as a gift, you’ll need lots of them over the course of a year. For this reason, testing the response to the gift is important because you’ll most likely end up investing quite a bit in it.

What if this summer you picked two potential first-time guest gifts and then tried one of them for a month and the other one for the second month? Closely track the feedback on the gifts. Which gift received the higher number of total guests picking it up? Also, listen carefully to the guests’ feedback on the gift at the guest kiosk or wherever the gifts are handed out. Record all the comments that are made throughout the month. After just two months of testing, you should have a better idea of what to give to your guests going forward!

3 Common Items Prevailing Churches Use for First-time Guest Gifts

T-Shirts // People love free t-shirts. It almost seems like it’s embedded in our culture! These relatively low-cost items do carry a high perceived value. The design can be done in such a way that it communicates about your church but doesn’t overwhelm the guest.
Coffee Mugs (& Travel Cups) // Coffee continues to be a culturally acceptable addiction. Many churches make up mugs or travel cups featuring their logo and find that these functional gifts are a hit with their guests.
Water Bottles // Staying hydrated is important! Many churches find that elegantly branded water bottles are a practical gift that their guests love!

Looking for more help with gifts for first-time guests? Check out: First Time Guest Gifts: 26 Lessons from 33 Churches

Test Changes to Your Offering Talks

Most churches take an offering at some point during their services. Churches looking to make an impact in their communities invite people to join their mission by giving back to God. How you deliver this part of your service is one of the pieces of the generosity puzzle. Do it poorly and the finances at your church will suffer. Do it well and you will see a rise in the giving at your church.

What if this summer you tested an assumption or two about how you do the offering talk? There might be a better way to do this element of your service. Maybe there is a way to do the offering talk that would encourage more generosity from your people. There could also be a way to do it that feels more in line with the mission and vision of your church. Here are a few different offering talk tweaks you could test this summer:

3 Offering Talk Tweaks to Test

Before or After the Message // Some churches have seen a change in giving depending on the placement of the offering during the service. Specifically, why not test its placement before or after the message? This data might be helpful for you down the road as you’re looking to make-up small financial shortfalls that can happen from time to time.
With or Without an Offering Talk // The best practice is to take the two minutes before the offering to slow down the service to thank people for giving and to connect their gifts to the vision of the church. But what if you could quantify the difference this is making in the life of your church? Take a month to craft pitch perfect offering talks and then do another month where you don’t emphasize the offering at all. What difference does it make both to the revenue and the feel of the service?
Digital Giving // What if you took a month to specifically show people how to give digitally? Maybe you have a new “text-to-give” service that you want to test out. Try pitching that option for a month and see what difference it makes; then don’t mention it for a month and see what happens.

Looking for more help with the offering talks at your church?

6 Common Problems with Offering Talks and How to Fix Them
8 Elements of Effective Offering Talks (Plus 8 Example Scripts!)
Offering Talk 201 // An Advanced Strategy for Encouraging Generosity at Your Church

Examine What Happens If You Change Your Meetings

Stop and think about how much of your time is spent meeting during an average week at your church. Now do some quick math to calculate that across your team. That’s a lot of time! Although it can seem like a “plumbing” issue of how the church does its work, in many ways the meeting culture of your church could be a make-or-break aspect of what is either pushing your ministry forward or holding it back.

You need to ensure that your team is being a good steward of that meeting time.

The meeting culture in your church is like a garden; sometimes you need to pull out the weeds in certain areas and sometimes you need to add a little fertilizer to others. There are meetings that you probably need to get rid of altogether or maybe there are other meetings you need to do more of. The summer season is good time to change up your routine in this area because your team is often in flux with vacations and other commitments.

Try These 3 Experiments with the Meetings at Your Church and See What Happens

Make Every Meeting Optional // Seriously, tell people they don’t have to come to any meeting and see what happens. Get your leaders on board for ensuring the work of the church still gets done but make it evident that people aren’t “required” to come to any meeting. You might be surprised what your leaders do to ensure that people show up.
Cut Every Regular Meeting in Half // What would happen if you only had 50% of the time to complete the regular meetings every week? Would the work still get done or would the wheels come flying off the church? We did this a few years ago, and I was pleasantly surprised that our productivity went up, not down!
Try Remote Meetings // What if your team wasn’t all located in the same town? Try some meetings using remote collaboration tools like Zoom or Slack. We often only envision the work of the church being done by people who are in the same building as us. However, considering the potential to take some of your functions to a remote team can open up all kinds of interesting possibilities for the future of your organization.

Download this FREE PDF to help your team think about the meeting culture at your church: 5 Healthy Meeting Habits in High Performance Church Teams

Source: 4 Experiments to Run this Summer to Help Your Church This Fall – unSeminary

The post 4 Experiments to Run this Summer to Help Your Church This Fall appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Rich Birch: This weekend new guests will arrive at your church. Some will be visiting for the very first time, and they will want to know what your church looks like on a regular weekend. Church leaders who want to make a difference always look at how to make their church’s experience more compelling and engaging for new guests. Here are 21 things you can implement to make your church more first-time guest friendly:

Don’t Be Weird

As a general principle, please don’t be weird. Seriously, people coming to your church for the first time may be worried that it’s going to be strange and unfamiliar territory. They wonder if it’s going to connect with them and the life they are living today. Guests arrive at your church looking for people like them; they aren’t looking for people who are weird and strange but rather those they can connect with comfortably.

Clear Website

We all know that your church website is a critical communication piece for people deciding to check out your church. In fact, somewhere around 50% of new visitors will first visit your website to learn more about the church before attending. [ref] While it is important that your church website follows modern design approaches, it is even more critical that you consider the website from a first-time guest perspective. Ensure your website has everything they would need to facilitate their visit, including the following:

Easy to find address and service times
Access to past messages
Information on kids ministry
A sense of “what is important” to the church

“What to Expect” Content on Social Media

Your church can do a lot of different things on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and whatever other social media platforms you’re using. However, perhaps one of the best uses of these platforms is to provide a sense of “what to expect” for your first-time guests. Post lots of images from inside your environments so guests can see them in action. Use live video features of Sunday mornings to invite people to get in the car and join your church. Make highlight videos of your weekend experiences and share them. Think about these channels as a way to document and demonstrate what the life of the church looks like. (Check out what Road to Life Church in Northwest Indiana does with their weekly highlight videos on Facebook! So fun!)

Signage at the Road

First-time guests are likely very nervous when they drive up to your church. You can remove some of that fear by making sure that you have clear and compelling signage at the road in front of your church. Learn what the local bylaw limits are on temporary signage and go right up to those limits! Flags are a popular option for many churches because they might be categorized differently by your town, but they pack the same visual punch as other types of signs. “Sandwich board” signs are great tools to point people in the right direction in your parking lots. Even something as simple as branded safety cones give an added touch to indicate to first-time guests that you are ready for them.

Signage at the Doors

Count the number of doors on the outside of your church. Most leaders will be shocked by how many different ways people can get in and out of the building as we often think people only come in through one or two sets of doors. It needs to be super obvious where you’d like people to enter. If you have a door that’s better for families to arrive at then make that clear too. Think about this signage from multiple distances from the building. Is it obvious when they get out of their cars? What should it look like in order to direct the people who are 35 feet away? Is there something you can do for the people who are right at the door?

Decluttered Lobby

Entering the lobby needs to feel peaceful and inviting. Someone should be assigned the role of decluttering the space on a regular basis. It often seems like church lobbies can be magnets for all kinds of stuff over time, and we need to intentionally remove the visual and spatial noise to ensure that our guests can focus on their experience when they arrive. Be vigilant in removing anything and everything that isn’t 100% needed to help people throughout their visit. Be ruthless and even remove those extra plants and pieces of furniture that aren’t adding anything. Airports are a good benchmark to use with your team on how our lobbies should feel. A good airport is visually appealing, has great signage, and is designed to move people somewhere. Our lobby spaces should do the same!

Clear “Wayfinding” Signage Inside the Doors

A big part of our role when responding to first-time guests is to remove all the guesswork from their experience. Our job is to make it as simple as possible for them to experience what our church has to offer. Stand at the various entrances to your church and ask yourself how you could use signage to make it even easier for visitors to understand where to go. Too many churches are designed by looking at drawings, and we subconsciously assume people will be naturally drawn to where they should go next. This problem is exacerbated by architects who think their designs are inherently intuitive and put too much trust in subtle features like carpet colors and wall angles to move people along. As soon as people step into your building they should see clear and bold signage that answers four questions:

Where do I drop off my kids?
Where can I get a cup of coffee?
Where are the bathrooms?
Where is the service happening?

First-Time Guest Check-In at Kids Ministry

First-time guests who are also parents can be nervous leaving their children with your kids ministry team. In an age of “helicopter parents” you need to ensure that you go out of your way to make this entire experience as engaging and welcoming as possible. Your church no doubt has some sort of secure check-in process for kids ministry. At that location, it’s important to dedicate a team member to help first-time families through this process. Ensure this person is well trained and free to walk these guests through the drop off and answer any questions they may have. This person might not be busy the entire morning, but the moment a first-time family arrives they should jump into action and be ready to help.

“New Here?” Kiosk in the Lobby

Are guests a big enough deal to your church that you dedicate a space to them in your lobby? Have you ever noticed that first-time guests arrive earlier to your church than your average attender? What do those guests do when they arrive? If your church had a dedicated “New Here?” kiosk in the lobby hosted by some fantastic team members, they could start the connection process right away. During your service if you offer your guests a gift, then the natural place for them to pick it up would be this location. Too many churches lose the chance to connect with guests because it’s unclear where they should go after the service to pick up this gift. A dedicated “New Here?” kiosk provides a simple landing zone for guests and helps your volunteers prepare better than if they were at a general “information desk” fielding a wide variety of questions.

More Greeters and Ushers

Your church needs more team members dedicated to ensuring guests are finding their way. This means more than just “human signage”; greeters and ushers help to humanize the experience. They should be trained to guide people through their visit but also be keeping an eye out for people with that “I’m new here” look on their faces. When they encounter these guests, they need to leave their posts and help these people in whatever way they can. In order to do this, you need more greeters and ushers to backfill when these team members jump into helping new guests. Some churches designate specific members of this team to “swim the lobby” and look for people who might need a little extra care and connection. Either way, this team can’t be staffed at a minimum level and provide the sort of service that prioritizes first-time guests.

Sparkling Bathrooms

Bathrooms are a big deal. I’m convinced that guests make a lot of assumptions about your church based on your bathrooms. They need to be clean and in good working order; additionally, having a team member wipe down the counters multiple times on a Sunday morning is a nice touch. If you are looking for a way to add an extra “pop” to your bathroom, you could add those convenience baskets full of supplies like hand lotion, mouthwash, and other helpful items. Think about that time you went into a restroom at a theater or restaurant and it literally “wowed” you. Is there any way to aim your amenities towards that standard? The bathrooms need to be more than just clean; they need to sparkle!

Team Members in T-Shirts

A part of helping people who are new to your church feel welcomed is to ensure that they know where to direct their questions. We ask team members to wear t-shirts because it allows our guests to identify those individuals who can answer their questions. Prevailing churches have been employing this tactic for a long time, and it really does help guests know who to connect with. The t-shirts need to be in a color and design that stand out and get the guests’ attention. The goal of these shirts isn’t that your volunteers will wear them in other contexts but rather should stem from the intention to help your guests!

Put Away the “Backstage” Stuff

When you have guests over to your home you tidy up and put stuff away. You close the garage door because nobody wants to see the lawn mower and fertilizer when they first arrive. In our house, we put away the blender that normally sits on the kitchen counter because it doesn’t quite match the look we’re going for in that room. The same principle should be true at your church on the weekends. Look around your space and make sure you put away things that just don’t need to be out in the open. There’s no need to have that vacuum sitting out over there in the corner. That stack of chairs that gets used on Wednesday should find another home. We don’t need people to see into the utility closet where the HVAC system is humming along. All of those supplies that help prepare our spaces should be out of sight every weekend.

Calming People in Kids Ministry Area

Kids ministry can be a high energy, exciting aspect of our church. We need to have a lot of over-the-top, fun leaders that infuse these programs with lots of energy. However, this area can sometimes be overwhelming for people who are new to the church. Beyond that first moment when people are guided through the check-in process, it’s helpful to have team members roam the halls of our kids ministry areas during critical check-in and check-out times looking for parents to reassure. Lots of new parents struggle with leaving their kids and do the long, slow walk away while looking back. This is perfectly normal and understandable! Inviting churches will have leaders attuned to parents who are having a bit of trouble separating and will reach out to reassure them with a calm demeanor.

Unassuming Worship Leaders

Worship leaders who don’t assume that everyone in the room is on the same page are a gift to guests at your church. A worship leader that realizes that it’s not about the people in the first couple of rows but rather about engaging the guys who stand at the back sipping coffee is worth so much to your church. Worship leaders do this through knowing (and loving) their community, careful song selection, thoughtful verbal transitions, and a desire to constantly improve. It’s not about watering down the worship experience, but making it more broadly accessible to everyone in attendance.

Jargon Free Service

Language at our churches can be littered with confusing jargon if we’re not careful. Jargon, by definition, is a subtle social tool used in groups to define the boundaries of who is a part of the group. We need to go out of our way to explain exactly what we mean when we communicate. Our goal as leaders that want to create space for people in our churches is to break down these terms so that they are more inclusive. In fact, if you listen to those who excel at teaching churches filled with unchurched people, you’ll notice that a large portion of their time is spent on defining terms. Find the jargon in your midst and root it out! Here are a few terms to start working on removing or at least explaining to people when or if you do use them:

The Lord is working in my heart.
During my quiet time…
…a lost sheep, straying from the fold.
We will have a time of communion and fellowship…
…hedge of protection…
Let me share my testimony with you.
I’d like to share one of the burdens on my heart.
Do you know where you’re going to spend eternity?
Lord willing…

Clear Acknowledgement of Guests from the Stage

Going back to the example of guests visiting your house, can you imagine how weird it would be at Thanksgiving dinner if your large extended family had three to four guests with you and you never stopped to acknowledge them? In fact, imagine if everyone just spoke to them like they were always with your family for dinner all the time. By the end of the meal your guests would be totally creeped out by the fact that no one acknowledged that they were indeed visiting and were new to the family. When your church doesn’t go out of the way to acknowledge from the stage that there are guests attending it puts people in a strange spot. They are left wondering if the church never gets guests or, even worse, that maybe the church doesn’t want guests! A simple message of welcome paired with a clear “next step” is an important piece of the puzzle. Regular attendees might feel weird that you are calling out to guests every week, but you need to push through this resistance and keep acknowledging them!

Invitation to a Clear “Next Step”

How do people get connected at your church? If people want to go beyond just “checking out” the church and get plugged into community, what steps do they need to take? Having a simple, obvious, and clear next step for your guests reassures them that not only do they have the opportunity to get connected further, but it also lets them know what steps to take in order to do so. If it’s unclear to our guests what they should do when they want to get plugged into community, then only a small fraction of them will take those steps. It’s up to us to make it clear for them!

Parking Lot Team

I was recently visiting a growing church on a Sunday morning. After one service, myself and a senior leader left one of their campuses and were en route to another location. We got stuck in the inevitable long line of cars leaving the parking lot that happens at so many churches. This leader commented to me that they’ve never seen this line up because they are always inside the church at that time of the morning. As we chatted while waiting, you could see the wheels turning in the leader’s head about launching a parking lot team. Most churches would benefit from a team of people in the parking lot to help facilitate guests as they arrive and leave. This added level of care reassures guests that we are expecting them and helps ease this process as much as possible. We know how important first and last impressions are on people who attend our churches, so let’s invest in launching teams that will help us craft those experiences well!

Faster and Friendlier Follow Up

Many churches ask for guest contact information in some form or another. Lots of churches ask for this information in exchange for a gift that costs the church money to acquire. Most of our churches have invested significantly into database infrastructures to store and access guest contact information. All of those investments are wasted if we don’t follow up with our guests when they visit with us. How quickly? You should be following up faster than you are now. If you wait until Tuesday to email people who came last weekend, I would recommend moving that follow up back to Sunday evening. We should also be pushing towards our follow up being friendly and engaging rather than mechanical and digital. Phone calls or hand-written notes always beat out emails. We live in a world where people don’t just throw around their contact information. When someone gives you their contact information they are making it clear that they expect you to be in contact. Exceed that expectation and help people get connected!

A Compelling Reason to Come Back Next Weekend

Guests journey through visiting your church with one question filtering everything they experience: Why should I return to this church? From the moment their car enters your parking lot until they leave for home, they are wondering if they would ever come back. A part of our job is to give people a reason to come back the following week. Whether it’s a plug about a juicy question the speaker is going to talk about next week or something fun happening in kids ministry the following Sunday, you need to lace the experience with reasons for people to come back. Ask your guests to return the next weekend and give them a reason to do so! Ensure that you weave hints throughout the morning as to what’s coming up to encourage them to visit your church again!

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Source: 21 Easy Ways for Your Church to Be More First-Time Guest Friendly – unSeminary

The post 21 Easy Ways for Your Church to Be More First-Time Guest Friendly appeared first on Passion for Planting.

by Rich Birch: There are five precious minutes in your service that are solely intended to move people to action. The announcement time in your church service is a high leverage opportunity to encourage your people to move from where they are to where you want them to be. It really is the quintessential leadership moment during the service. However, it’s usually under-planned and under-leveraged in most churches. You’re missing out on the opportunity to make sustained progress in your church simply because you’re not leveraging those critical five minutes in your service.

Over time, bad habits creep in and loom large on this aspect of your services that neutralize the efficacy of announcements. These habits reduce this part of the service – from potentially maximizing an incredible opportunity of getting people plugged into your church’s mission to an incredible waste of time. If your church can eliminate these 5 unhealthy habits from its system, the impact of your announcements will soar exponentially!

You’re Talking About the Weather … way too much!

All communicators know what you need in order to build rapport with your audience. You’re looking for quick ways to make a strong connection with the crowd that’s in front of you. Chances are that everyone has experienced the same weather that you did on the way in, so you quickly make some random comment about the sunshine or the rain – or whatever else you’ve just experienced.

Stop it … it’s lazy. Unless there’s something truly remarkable about the weather, like a history creating storm, talking about the weather is just verbal diarrhea and besmirches the effectiveness of your announcements. It’s loose, excessive and doesn’t help anyone. People know what the weather is like, and what you are experiencing most days is pretty much what they’ve experienced the day before. It’s really not something your audience connects with you over. It’s like saying:

Wow! Isn’t there a lot of oxygen in this air today?
How many people are thankful that the sun came up today?
Hey friends, hasn’t all this gravity been weighing us down lately!

While the urge to talk about the weather comes from a good place, you instinctively go there because you somehow feel the need to break the ice with your audience. By all means, do attempt to build a bridge with your audience, but resist the temptation of stating the obvious. Here are a few more effective ways to make an emotional connection with your audience:

Eye Contact // Studies have proven time and again that the best way to effectively engage with an audience is when the speaker actually looks people in the eye. Slow down and actually notice people!
Stories // Our minds are hardwired to lean in and listen to a good story, so you might as well use that to your advantage. Draw your audience in by weaving your announcements through a narrative arc to come across as someone they can relate to. As you do that, your people can’t help but listen!
Humor // I know being funny is hard. It takes insight and perfect timing to deliver a joke well and not come off as a hack. Hone this skill over time and it will surely draw your people in.
Availability // Finally, this might seem obvious, but people tend to listen to people they know. This is why at weddings, you can listen to people you love break every known rule of communication and still enjoy the speeches. On the other hand, if you don’t know the best man you can’t wait for them to sit down! Whoever is delivering the content during your services needs to be “known, liked and trusted” by your people; this means they need to available to build a relationship with them. At the bare minimum, your hosts can’t be sitting in a green room somewhere before and after the service but be out there to mingle with your community!

You’re Talking About Too Many Things!

If the announcement time looks like a never-ending shopping list, you’re doing it wrong. The human mind is simply incapable of retaining more than one or two “next steps” that it should take so you are wasting your time going beyond that in your announcements. As you start making multiple demands on the memory of your audience, they start unplugging from the information. Attention is a precious commodity that you are managing as a communicator. Don’t push your people to focus their attention on too many items, or they won’t focus it on anything!

At the core of reducing the number of items that are a force-fit in the announcements is a robust approach to telling ministry departments that they can’t get stage time. In my experience, an effective way to do this is by ensuring that department leaders know the variety of other channels they can use to reach out to their people. This includes (but isn’t limited to) channels like:

Direct Mail // It’s old fashioned, but still works. People like stuff that isn’t bills!
Social Media // Facebook, Twitter & Instagram are great places to start!
Email Marketing // Yes, it still is the most effective way to drive “calls to action”.
Foyer Chaos // Doing something cool in the church foyer to attract people’s attention!
Phone or Text // Be it automated or done by people – it’s still a great way to grab people.

Most churches should be moving towards just one “announcement” every week that isn’t the offering talk or “new here” welcome. You’re already trying to get people to take some sort of takeaway from the main message during the service, so you don’t want to inundate people with too many other distractions. The act of narrowing down the focus of the announcements to just one item will drive more intentionality and purpose into your entire church communication process. Be bold and strive for that level of clarity!

Your People Don’t Care About Your Plans or Goals … REALLY!

So, the youth group is planning a trip to the local theme park next month. Yawn! New small groups are starting next week and there are sign up forms in the foyer. Boring. We’re starting a new series on the book of Jonah next Sunday. Snooze.

Humans are inherently self interested beings. We only really pay attention to things that we perceive are going to impact us. Every announcement needs to start from the perspective of “What’s In It For Me?” (WIIFM?) for your community. Each announcement needs to be framed as a potential benefit to the listeners. You need to move beyond the mundane details and cut to the chase by clearly demonstrating why your people should care. Here are some examples that might help you do just that:

The youth group is heading to the local theme park next month because we all know our best friendships are formed with people who we’ve shared life with. Parents, we want to help your kids make new meaningful friendships with other students and leaders from the church. Will you help encourage your students to join in?

New small groups are starting next week because we believe that the best place to grow in our relationship with God is in engaging proactively with other people. Small groups are an ideal environment to get your questions answered and build new friendships. Drop by the foyer after the service to talk with a member about what you’d be looking for in a group!

Next week, we kick off a brand new series of Sunday messages about escapism. We all have, at one point of another, run away from one thing or another. Maybe we’ve over drank, overeaten or worked a little longer than we needed to in order to escape from life. The story of Jonah from the Bible is so much more than the story of guy who got swallowed by a big fish … it’s the story of a guy who tried to escape and the God who kept pursuing him. Join us next week as we marvel at how this ancient story is even more relevant in our lives today.

Start constructing your announcements around the benefit to your listeners and you’ll find your people leaning in and taking action at completely new levels altogether! Focus on how your people will benefit from whatever you’re talking about and they’ll show more interest than they did in the past.

You’re Rushing the Offering Talk.

At some point in your service, you talk about how people can give back to the church’s mission. If you’re like most churches, this happens right before you pass an offering plate or maybe a bucket. Even if your church has a box at the back of the room where people can make their offerings after the service you still (most likely) draw people’s attention to it. Chances are that you’re rushing the offering talk. You aren’t slowing down and drawing attention to this aspect of your church and it’s hurting your people’s ability to give. As a result, it’s having a detrimental impact on your church’s budget.

This offering talk is often rushed because people tend to become self conscious about the negative stereotypes associated with churches asking for money. The way to overcome those stereotypes isn’t by doing the offering talk poorly, but by doing it well. Slowing down will help your leaders make sure they are delivering it effectively and not sending the wrong message to your people.

Here are some key ingredients of the offering talks that can make a vital difference in the life of churches like yours. Work towards ensuring that these pieces are making regular appearances in this strategically important part of service:

Express thanks! // Take some time out to thank people for supporting the mission of your church. There are a lot of worthy Kingdom causes that people could give to and it’s an honor when they contribute to your ministry.
Get personal // People will give to an important cause … but they love to give to a personal story they believe in and want to be a part of. Connect how that offering makes a difference to the lives of individuals within your community.
Reduce pressure but don’t ask them not to give! // We want to be clear that we’re not after the money of first-time guests since this is a common criticism of churches. However, we never want to ask people not to give to the church. They’re giving to God’s mission after all, and we don’t want to stand in the way if they sense God is asking them to give.
Receive … don’t collect // The phrase “we’re going to collect today’s offering” is a pet peeve of mine. We’re not a collection agency! People are choosing to give to the church … receive that offering; plain and simple!
Report on projects // Some things in the life of your church take a while to come to fruition. Use the offering set-up to report on the progress of a special project and connect people’s giving to it.
Don’t make people guess how to give! // You cannot make this too simple. Show people exactly how they can give to the mission. Remind them that they have choices, that they can give through the offering plate, on the internet, in the mail and myriad other ways. Reduce friction and don’t make them guess.
Make the Ask. // I know a church leader who never actually asked people to give during his services. Just taking the time to ask people to give to his vision literally changed the financial picture of his church. They went from barely surviving to thriving in a matter of months. Make sure that you make the ask.

You’re Lacking Visual Support to Your Announcements.

65% of your church members are visual learners. [ref] However, most people who are doing the announcements at churches seem to ignore this reality. They simply stand on the stage and present a few facts about upcoming events at their church without doing anything tangible to visually engage their audience with the information they are presenting.

Here are a few ways to “simply” add more visuals to the announcements this coming weekend at your church:

Look at the Handout // Print out a 4×6 postcard of whatever you’re talking about and get it into the hands of people before the service. During the announcements, take time to draw your people’s attention to the piece.
Slides … Slides! // Support your announcement with 2 or 3 slides that succinctly illustrate the points you are making
Flipcharts // You’d be amazed how engaged visual learners are by just having someone draw a simple diagram on a flipchart. It worked for your high school football team for a reason … there’s no reason why it won’t work for your audience!
Objects // Bring an object or two that illustrates the action you’re asking people to take on stage and it’s more than likely to hook in the visual learners. (Pro Tip: Put the object under a tablecloth to tease your audience for added pop!)

Get creative with how to integrate visual elements with every announcement you make. You’ll notice that your messages will stick more over time!

It’s just announcements … I don’t want to do all that!

The announcements represent a huge opportunity in the life of your church. At their core, they signify the all-important “call to action” in services. They are that part of the service where you ask people to get out of their seats and take a leap of faith to engage with your church. It’s critically important that you spend time, effort and energy to help your people engage with your church.

Taking some time to narrow down the focus to just a single announcement is paramount to help you do this part of your service effectively. Moving your people to action is important enough to get your people to focus attention on taking the step that matters!

Want more help? Check out my FREE ebook all about announcements. [Click here to download Effective Announcements // Leverage 5 Minutes Every Sunday to Move People to Action!]

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Source: 5 Bad Habits Killing the Effectiveness of Your Church’s Announcements – unSeminary

The post 5 Bad Habits Killing the Effectiveness of Your Church’s Announcements – unSeminary appeared first on Passion for Planting.