What it takes to build a popular church today.

In my church the announcements used to be right in the middle of the service. I found it a distraction and prefer them at beginning or end.

Could you clarify the above post? On a different post, different thread on "PDC" in this same forum, you stated that you had a great deal of knowledge of "PDC" because you were the promotional writer and changed some of the materials.

Karen

 

Okay. I was the promotion guy for The Purpose Driven LIFE, not the Purpose Driven CHURCH.

I wrote a memo to our two pastors on how very important announcements are: they inform the church on what they can do to SERVE God and His people and the lost souls out there, and opportunities for fun and fellowship.

Ignored. That church cares more about party time Praise & Worship stuff than motivating the pew potatoes to actually get up and DO something for God and souls headed for a devil's hell.

Announcements should never be "distracting" unless all a person wants to do is go to church on Sunday morning and nothing else, and does not care about Praise Reports or Healing Needs or other people's childbirths, etc.

Demoting announcements is shooting yourself in the foot. Every church that rushes through them like they are a nuisance will suffer declining membership and severe apathy. Watch.

 

Who said anything about demoting announcements???? Can you give us some sort of biblical precedent for where announcements should be in the service??

I have found that our worship was greatly enhanced when we made this simple move. Out attendance at "announced functions" has decreased. It has in fact increased. Our services are not longer broken up by things. Can you imagine singing about the love of God interspersed with comments about church dinners and work days??? How in the world does that contribute to worship? Announcing the next youth activity or church get together should never take our minds off of the object of our worship. We should plan better than that.

Announcements are a-biblical. It doesn't matter when you have them or even if you have them. Nobody should have ever promoted them to a position that they would need to be demoted from.

 

Vaspers,

As a pastor I can say ... with members like you, who needs enemies?

Can you remind me what the timing of announcements in the order of service has to do with eternity or fulfilling our purpose?

 

Announcements are needed based on your church's preference of receiving information. Do they like to read about it in the bulletin or do they like announcements.

In my church, we have plenty of college grads that don't take the time to read the announcements or bulletins. Don't ask me why. Also, in my church, events that are announced are perceived to have greater importance than those that are simply written in the bulletin. That's the way it is at my church. How about yours?

IMO, announcements should be at the end of the worship service and should be short and to the point - What? Where? Time? They should simply serve as reminders and not a saleman's pitch.

The details of church life are fun aren't they?

[ March 10, 2004, 02:43 PM: Message edited by: Jeffrey H ]

 

Announce things that affect the majority of people listening. Don't waste people's time with things that don't matter to them. Depend on other forms of communication as necessasry. The bigger you get, the fewer announcements you should make, IMO.

 

Ah, good Christian brothers and sisters, how you react to my posts! I am unworthy of such attention and undue commentary. I am ashamed of myself for being so controversial and such a pain to churchianity..........NOT!


Oh boy...let's see now...Announcements in the Bible, well, again, I cannot spoon feed you the Word, and I'm not being sarcastic or patronizing, but really, now, you don't know the high value God puts on Announcements??????????

God uses ANGELS from HEAVEN to announce things to individuals and groups, and let me tell you, God doesn't give a fig about what He has to interrupt to make His Announcements...

...He uses a disembodied hand writing on the wall...

...He uses a donkey speaking with a human voice...

God uses a prophet marrying a prostitute to get His point across (OT book, guess which one?)...

Announcements in the Bible...John the Baptist...how about the Gospel itself as the Great Announcement of the Universe!!

Worship is not a bunch of songs in a church service. Worship is reverence toward God, the events God has planned for the congregation, etc.

I know the flow of a service is important, sort of, but the content is important also.

Bulletins and posters and other printed material to disseminate info: IGNORED, thrown on floor.

Get this: one church, the pastor began the service by announcing there would be NO "worship service" nor any sermon. He felt led to spend the whole time in congregational prayer, since so rarely could there be so many gathered to do the vital work of prayer and intercession.

That was a Baptist preacher, God love him. That is very spiritual and cool, IMHO.

Don't see me as condemning worship service or an orderly service. But announcemnents, important ones, are worth giving some priority to, not shoving them off as a nuisance.

Irrelevant announcements...help me understand...is that really a problem? If it is a church concern, a problem or a praise by a member, it's not "irrelevant" but I can see how there could be "irrelevant" announcements.

But be careful not to be self-centered by what you consider "irrelevant." As a male, I'm impatient hearing of new child births, but that's patriarchal and selfish of me to be that way. Praise reports and healing needs are appropriate. It depends on how they are done.

Peace. Love to all of you.

 

I havent read any of Mr. Warrens material, but your post got my attention. I "respectfully" disagree with you in that I believe we can grow and still be Biblical. Did Jesus not say "if I am lifted up from the earth I will draw all men to Me"? And yes I am familiar with the "Narrow is the path and few there are that find it" argument, which as far as I can tell has nothing to do with church growth. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that we shouldnt use the "we're small because we preach the truth"( I have sat through many of those sermons in our association) argument as an excuse for being unproductive. That being said ,I dont belive we need compromise essential truths in order to grow either. As one Pastor in our association frustratingly said "we're small because we choose to be small".

 

Oh no, it finally happened: I AGEE WITH VASPERS ON SOMETHING! (ok there I admitted it) Is this a sign of the coming appocalypse?

 

Oh no, I'm returning the compliment and wholeheartedly agreeing with ELIJAH on his post about small churches aren't necessarily more pure, and big churches aren't necessarily more seeker-coddling!

Is this the end of heated debates? Will the Baptist Board be boring and too agreeably safe? Will hoards of former bloggers defect to other, more controversial and stimulating sites? Will the Unity of the Spirit finally start being fulfilled?

Hope that this dangerous trend of seeing the good points of a worthy debate opponent does not spiral out of control until we are all singing Koombiiyah around a campfire and staring dreamily into each other's eyes, fixated on common ground! That would be revolutionary...and could cause major problems for Mr. Pitchfork Furnace Accuser!