Have a question? Please email Justin Jones:
Q. Why aren’t the announcements in the bulletin?
A. We hear this question asked quite often. Many of the recent changes to the service order have been focused on our first time visitors and new members. We removed the announcements from the bulletin for two reasons. First of all, studies show that first time visitors will decide within the first ten minutes whether or not they will return a second time. In that ten minute window, we want them to focus on the broad picture of what the church has to offer. We want them to feel welcomed, know about all of our ministries, our beliefs, and our stance on communion. This information is in the current bulletin shell. First time visitors do not immediately need to know the more detailed announcements that our members need to hear, like the need for volunteers in a ministry, council meeting notifications, financial announcements, etc…
Some of our regular attenders have said that the repetitive information in the bulletin shell is a waste of paper and ink. We encourage our regular attenders to turn the shell back in to be reused. Shell designs are not dated, and are reused for the duration of a message series. The useable recycled shells are counted before new ones are printed to achieve the total quantity necessary for the weekend services.
Also, when the announcements were printed in the bulletin, many of our members were reading the announcements instead of participating in worship. In order to have the best possible worship experience, everyone in the room must participate. When our faithful members do not participate in the worship, the first time visitors notice. We simply chose to remove the possible distraction. Our PowerPoint announcements are strategically placed at the end of the service in keeping with new research on service order.
All announcements that traditionally were printed on the bulletin shell are now contained in the Aboite Weekly newsletter. The Weekly is handed out by the ushers on your way out of the sanctuary after service. Every article in the weekly is also posted on the website and is emailed out to the 470 subscribers to our email list. We feel that this practice benefits the experience of our first time visitors while still effectively communicating with our membership. Please direct any questions regarding this practice to Justin Jones, Administrative Director of the church.
