I was with my grandson … 13 years-old … yesterday and he asked grandma and I, “Do you have cable?” I admitted we did and he responded:
How can you stand cable and all those commercials? I hate commercials!
To be fair, so do I. In fact, my Kansas City apartment is completely unplugged from commercial television because, like my grandson, I have little tolerance for marketing ads.
Using the micro sampling of that conversation, “At least two out of three people are intolerant of commercial television,” I decided to do a little research into the subject. It turns out, the micro sampling wasn’t accurate. Not surprisingly, the distaste for commercials is worse that that. In 2010, which was a long time ago, about 90 percent of Americans with digital options skipped through the ads on television because, frankly, people hate them.
With that in mind, why do so many churches continue to start their worship services with four to seven minutes of commercial advertising, AKA Announcements?
If you’re still doing announcements in your church, and if you want to attract and retain guests, stop doing them. If you have upcoming events that need to be announced, work them into your various monologues like the offering meditation, communion ritual, and your sermon. (And when I say “work them in” I mean slip them in naturally as if they were really a part of the verbiage.)
Yes, some of your members may complain. However, presuming you have the upcoming events listed in your worship program, on your website, in the newsletter, on your Facebook page, included in your weekly email blasts, etc., then simply remind them the information is “out there” for them to easily access … and that virtually no one likes commercials anyway!
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