A couple of months ago I had the privilege of visiting a large church in Phoenix, AZ. Their use of video was quite extensive, including a very large video background screen at center stage. During the service they had several video roll-ins (produced very professionally, I might add) including a video announcement segment. This prompted me to begin thinking about how churches present announcements during their worship services.
I’ve seen it all: talking heads, PowerPoint slides, talking heads with PowerPoint slides, drama sketches, and of course, video.
I’ll never forget the very first video announcement I ever produced. If anyone could get fired for producing bad video announcements, I should have been. I tried to make it funny and completely bombed.
We all know that putting announcements into a worship service usually ends up breaking the flow of the service, especially if they’re presented poorly. However, video announcements during worship services seem to be a necessary evil, and occasionally using video works…but not often.
Being a video producer, you’d think I’d be all for using video announcements in a service; in the past I have been. But I’m not so sure they’re effective on a regular basis, and here’s why:
1. They’re impersonal. People come to a worship service to engage with God and others. The RIGHT person sharing can be more effective and engaging.
2. We’re over-saturated with media messages. Unless video announcements are extremely engaging and pull in the audience, people tune out.
3. If you’re like me, you flip channels when commercials come on while watching TV. I suspect using video announcements on a regular basis will create the same type of behavior from worship service attendees.
So, what do YOU do with announcement time? How does it fit into your church’s worship service? Leave a comment and let’s learn from each other.
