Hey, it’s Brady,

Here’s how to promote something on Sunday in church without actually giving it an announcement.

I call it a Smuggle Announcement.

Let’s say your church has a Men’s Breakfast coming up.

On its own, that might only apply to a small percentage of the room. And the more you announce things churchwide that only apply to a small group of people, the more you condition your congregation to tune out. Because most of what you say isn't relevant to them.

Your men’s breakfast probably doesn’t need its own Sunday announcement. But that doesn’t mean nobody should hear about it.

So, instead of giving men’s breakfast its own announcement...you smuggle it into something bigger. Let me show you.

We visited Summerside Church in-person for a free Church Chaos workshop. Here's how I taught them to setup their weekly service announcements:

Start with three open slots that apply to the whole church - for example:

Groups, Serving, and Giving.

And then, find something smaller to Smuggle in.

So, instead just saying: "Join a Group!" say something like, "We've got plenty of groups here - for example..." and then you can get into, in this case, Men's Breakfast.

This keeps every groups announcement fresh. And it gives churchwide visibility to an event that probably shouldn't get it otherwise.

Lifeway asked more than a thousand rural pastors about their ministries. And 88% said they expect their church to be stronger in a decade.

That’s a lot of optimism from people who know exactly how difficult the work in small, rural churches can often be. So today, we’re walking through the findings.

Dive in here.

Thanks as always for your time, attention, and trust. Talk to you next Thursday. - Brady Shearer