“Can you announce that the mission team is having a barbeque fundraiser this Saturday? The ladies quilting group won’t be able to meet next week either. Make sure to get that in the bulletin. Oh and by the way, last Sunday you forgot to mention that the Richardsons had their new baby here for the first time. Now they’re upset and will probably never come back.” This is the communication nightmare that happens in far too many churches.
Today, I want to give you permission to say no.
For years, the church I serve heard these types of comments and suggestions.
Each time we would scramble to get every little detail in the bulletin and make every announcement that someone thought necessary. And you know what? We still didn’t please everyone.
Not only that, the more announcements we made, the less people attended the events we were announcing.
So, we made a decision. No longer would everything get promoted equally. The staff would decide what was worth promoting from the stage, in the bulletin, on social media, and through any other avenue we might use.
This did two things.
- It made people upset.
- It helped us focus on accomplishing our vision.
You see, it’s impossible to please everyone and accomplish the vision God has given you at the same time.
If you don’t prioritize what you’re communicating, you’re failing to lead.
I know that’s harsh, but you know it’s true. You can’t treat everything the same.
When you try, you’re actually hurting the chances of getting people to engage in the ministry.
I can’t place the same priority on announcing sign up to be baptized as I do on announcing sign up to join the church softball team.
Does that make the coach mad? Maybe, if they’re more concerned about winning games than they are about seeing people go public with their faith.
If that’s the case, you probably need to get a new coach.
But what you’ll find more often than not is, if you are willing to have the conversation to explain why something isn’t getting announced, most people will understand.
If they don’t, it just shows that they’re more concerned with their event than the mission of the church.
Today, we have a generic bulletin that welcomes people to our church and doubles as our connection card.
The majority of Sundays we have one announcement, except during very busy seasons when we’ll have two.
These announcements always center around the vision of the church and apply to either new guests or at least 50% of the congregation.
If it doesn’t fit those criteria, it may get put on the screen that scrolls before service starts, or on social media, or on nothing at all.
The easy thing to do would be to avoid tough conversations and let anyone promote anything.
If you care about being a leader and reaching a vision, you have to prioritize the important.