The 5-Minute Church Announcement Audit: What to Keep, Cut, and Change
If you’ve ever watched your congregation zone out during announcements—or scroll past them on Instagram—you’re not alone.
Church announcements are meant to inform and invite, but too often they end up overwhelming or, worse, ignored altogether.
So what gives?
It’s not always a content problem. It’s a clarity problem—and usually, a too-much-at-once problem.
Let’s fix that with a simple, 5-minute audit you can run every week to transform how you approach church communications.
Why People Stop Listening (And What You Can Do About It)
We live in the golden age of attention deficit. People are bombarded by messages all day long. That means your announcements are not just competing with other ministries… they’re competing with everything.
The truth? Most people can only absorb one or two things at a time. When we overload announcements, we lose the whole room.
Common pitfalls include:
- A 6-minute segment with 7 different events
- A slide deck with too much text and no clear call to action
- Emails that read like a bulletin board instead of a personal invite
Sound familiar?
The 5-Minute Announcement Audit
This isn’t a full-blown strategy session—it’s a quick gut-check you or your team can run before anything goes live. Ask these three key questions:
✅ What actually needs to be said right now?
Not every update deserves stage time or a social post. Prioritize based on urgency, impact, and your overall church communications calendar.
Tip: If it’s for a niche group and not time-sensitive, it probably doesn’t belong in the main service announcements.
🗑 What can be cut (or moved elsewhere)?
Look for:
- Repetitive messages that people already know
- “Just in case” announcements that aren’t actionable
- Internal updates that belong in volunteer emails or team channels
Use your channels wisely—not everything belongs everywhere.
🔁 What needs to be changed to make it clearer?
Clarity beats cleverness every time. Rewrite fuzzy copy. Use plain language. Focus on what you want people to do, not just what you want them to know.
Bad: “Join us for an amazing opportunity to serve with great people!”
Better: “Sign up to serve at the food pantry this Saturday—2 hours can feed 200 families.”
What Happens When You Streamline
One church we work with trimmed their Sunday announcements from six items to just two per week. Everything else moved to a centralized church communications calendar and was scheduled by audience.
Here’s what happened:
- Event signups increased
- More people felt “in the loop”
- The team reclaimed hours of planning and rework each month
It’s not about saying less—it’s about saying the right things at the right time, to the right people.
Give It a Try This Week
Before you hit “publish” on your next round of announcements, take 5 minutes and ask:
- Does this really need to go out this week?
- Is this the right channel?
- Is the message crystal clear and action-focused?
It’s a small shift with a big ripple effect.
And if you’re tired of juggling Slack threads, Google Docs, and last-minute slide edits, tools like Communicate can make this whole process easier—and a whole lot less stressful.
Want Help Simplifying Your Weekly Workflow?
Want to put this into action? Start planning your church communications with Communicate — the only church communications calendar built just for ministry teams.
