"Pastor, we've really got to start pushing Church camp, we've spent a lot of money renting the cabin and if you don't push it, we won't have anybody come." "We need to recruit people for the Church choir." "We're starting a new class in Discipleship Training, can you promote it this week?" "Why didn't you say anything about the Mission offering this morning? People aren't going to give if you don't say something!"

Enough! People were bombarding me, sometimes right before I went into the pulpit. I want to help promote the ministries of the Church, but I can't spend 20 minutes a week. 

How many things are the MOST important thing? That is not a simple grammatical question. It is a mathematical problem with the formula O X T = MIT. You take the number of opinions (O) and multiply it by the number of things (T). This results in the potential number of MOST important things (MIT).

Can the Pastor emphasize every "Most Important Thing?" How often can the boy cry "wolf" before the people stop listening?

Do you agree that time is a valuable commodity and some things are more important than other things? If so, how do you adequately maximize the Church's ministries without minimizing worship? 

The worship hour's primary purpose is worship. The leaders use music, scripture readings, prayer, drama and public speaking to usher the participants into consciousness of the presence of God. 

Worship changes people's lives. Ordinary people who get discouraged, frustrated and hurt comprise your congregation. People attend the services who are in deep need of God's grace and forgiveness in their lives. The people you face may be on the verge of divorce, murder or suicide. Their worship experience may make a tremendous difference in their life situation.

How much is 30 seconds worth? It seems like an insignificant amount of time, but under the right circumstances it is quite valuable. How much money do advertisers pay for a half minute during the super bowl? Will you ever forget the brief exchange of vows at your wedding? Do you remember the very moment when you held your first child for the first time? 

Announcement time is not ordinary time. It is a few brief moments in the midst of a transforming worship experience. It is valuable. 

How much time does a one minute announcement take? If you say one minute you are only partially right. If there are sixty people in the audience, each minute announcement takes one hour of the congregation's time. 

Every second counts. Before you spend valuable worship time making an announcement, ask yourself these questions: 

Does this announcement apply to the entire church or just a few people? There is no need to discuss the importance of a committee meeting in front of the entire congregation. Speak privately to the three involved people, and not publicly to the entire church. 

Is the time right to make this announcement? Vacation Bible School is an important church wide event, but a January announcement for a July school is premature. An August announcement is too late. 

What else is going on in the Church? Sometimes the church calendar gets log-jammed. There may be five important events happening within a short period of time. The Pastor cannot emphasize all these events. Time is too precious and people's attention span are too short. 

Is there another way to promote this event? Consider mailing a flyer, doing a phone blitz or placing an announcement in the bulletin.

A few years ago we decided to have an all church camp-out over the Memorial Day Weekend. The year before we had less than 200 attend worship over that weekend. We had over 200 people drive to the beautiful Serria Nevada Mountains, a 120-mile trip, for the weekend. We had 90 people stay behind at the church building and worship. Our attendance increased by 100 over the previous year. There were six additions by transfer and one baptism over the weekend. The camp out was such a success that the Church made it an annual event.

How did we promote it? The coordinator began working with his ministry team two months in advance. They met weekly to iron out the logistics of setting up camp, feeding, showering, worshiping, etc. Their excitement spilled over to their friends. We began announcements in the newsletter and bulletins. 

We pitched a tent in the front lawn of the church a month before the event with a sign that said "Sign up for the Memorial-Day Camp out today." The drama group did a few minute-long skits during the welcome time. We placed sign-up sheets on the bulletin board and distributed them through the Sunday School departments. 

Momentum built, people came, and God ministered to His people. The ministry was an unqualified success. 

Our staff promoted our Father's Day pie social this year by making a colorful overhead cell and projecting the announcement on the screen before and after the worship time. We also placed the announcement in the bulletin and briefly mentioned it from the pulpit. 

Sometimes pulpit time or office assistance is necessary to promote an event. Train your people to do the following things. 

Give the staff plenty of lead time. Five minutes before the start of the service is not a good time to ask the Pastor to announce something. It takes time to design flyers and produce mailings. Newsletters have deadlines, time pressures and space constraints. 

Communicate their expectations. They may assume the staff knows what they want. Ask them to put their ideas in writing and discuss them with the responsible staff person in advance. 

Trust their leaders. They may not like what you decide to do with their announcement. They may feel it deserved a passionate plea from the Senior Pastor and all it got is a small notice in the bulletin. Help them not to lose their enthusiasm in their disappointment. 

The church camp was twice as big as the year before, the choir is slowly growing, the Discipleship training class was a success and we exceeded our Mission offering goal. 

Why? Did I announce everything that Sunday? No, we paced the promotion and prayed for God's blessings and He brought the results.