Announcements are dead. There, I said it.

OK, maybe not totally dead, but on their last legs because we’ve been killing them for years in our churches and youth groups. Simply put, if you bore people they’ll tune out. If you treat the announcements as an afterthought, your students will as well. If you have too many anouncements, they’ll hear the first one, then die a slow death as you drone on for the next 12 simultaneously forgetting the only one they remembered for a few fleeting moments. Is there another way?

Split up the announcements
If you HAVE to have more than 1-2 announcements, split them up to give people a breather from the information barrage.

Work the announcements into the message
Sometimes there is a way to ‘hide” an announcement in the message – like talking about the Spring Break mission trip during a talk about selflessness, serving, etc.

Use the screen and/or bulletin
These are the tools for announcements, but too often the effort and planning required stop us from doing it. Change your systems to utilize them.

Make a creative video
A video grabs attention like no other. Study your students faces next time you give announcements vs. a creative video.

Use your small group network
Instead of using a shotgun approach with announcements what if you considered communicating with your leaders and having them encourage students to attend an event. Think of it as a personalized push rather than a mass announcement.

Facebook for the win
Social media … when used right, is unstoppable. Never tell people they should Tweet or Like something – create something so incredible and life-changing they have to Tweet.

Snd a txt msg
We hve a txt list tht goes out 2 a tn of stdnts. Gr8 wy to kp ppl n the knw.

What are other ways to help fix announcements or another great way to get the word out?

JG