Our youth pastor and myself are the designated "announcement pastors" which means that about halfway through the worship service, either he or I will lead the church in a brief prayer and then announce events of particular interest while people give their offerings. Sometimes, it's a harmless thing, a couple minutes letting Hillcresters know about the monthly mission partner or a unique serving opportunity. But the busier the church calendar gets, the longer announcement time can become, as ministries and programs vie for that ever so precious announcement time. And I get it, because if we do announce something, it communicates that the something is important. The other stuff, left for people to read in the bulletin or in a weekly email or on a web site, is subliminally communicated as less important as what just got announced (though I'd argue it's not the case).
I'm sure like most churches we've done some changing in how we approach announcements. We used to have no filter and announce everything- that was too long, both for the announcer and the church. Tunrs out when you announce everything, it has the same effect as not announcing something- people deem it unimportant. We also used to announce things way in advance, and have come to find out that with most events, an announcement a couple of weeks away is just as good. We've also tried to limit things that impact the entire church- men, women, and children. While we'll occasionally announce a men's or women's event, most of our announcements are limited to events open for everyone. One more thing: we keep our announcements at 3 (again, for the most part). This insures that the announcement interruption isn't too long.
For a second look at how one church chooses to do announcements (or in their case, not announcements), click here.
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