“We’re launching small groups this month.”
So many problems are packed into the shortest sentence in this entire list! There are a few things wrong with this sentence that we need to tackle.
What’s in It for Them? I hate to break it to you, but no one cares that you are launching small groups at your church. (Except maybe the people in charge of said small groups.) This phrase is inherently “us-centric” and doesn’t reveal why it benefits our people. We need to phrase and focus our announcements in terms of how that particular event/group/activity is going to help those attending our church. It needs to start and end with how this will help them, not us. Some alternatives for presenting this announcement could be:
- “Are you wondering how to get connected at our church? Great question! Here at First Church, we have a series of mid-week groups where people like you meet with other individuals from the church.”
- Phrasing the need in the form of a question people are actually asking helps spark interest.
- “One of the things we’ve learned is that you learn best when you are in community with other people. You are missing out unless you have a group of six to eight people you can get to know better while you wrestle with what we’re learning together. Our small groups are all about you growing in your faith.
- How many times does “you” or “your” show up in that phrase? That’s about the ratio needed to match uses of “our” or “we.”
Insidery Language. What is a small group? When you search “definition small group” on Google, this is what you get:
Definition of Small Group Teaching. The term ‘small group teaching,’ or ‘small group learning’ as it is often termed, means different things to different people. … A lecturer used to taking [on] 400 in a lecture would define 50 as a small group. As there can be sub-groups within groups, it is hard to define small group. [ref]
You and I know that we’re not talking about groups of 50 but more along the lines of eight to 12 that meet midweek in people’s homes to discuss the Bible and support each other. You need to slow down and explain that definition to people. This kind of insidery language is like a weed growing up in your communication garden that chokes out the meaning you are attempting to get across. Look carefully for these short cuts to communication that ultimately exclude the very people you are trying to communicate with. Here are some other examples of insidery language:
- “I’m going to invite a teacher from Uumbaji up in a minute. Uumbaji is our program for children in the 1st through the 5th grades that meets on Sunday morning at church. Uumbaji means ‘creation’ in Swahili and we believe every child is a wonderful creation of God!”
- Or you could just call it Elementary. Clarity beats cleverness every time.
- “Here at First Church, we’re led by a group of volunteer leaders that we call Elders. This group of leaders is responsible for the long-term leadership of our church. They give oversight and direction to our Senior Pastor as they lead the church.”
- Talking about church organization stuff is particularly tricky. It’s a double whammy of insider language that most people don’t care about. That being said, there is a small slice of people who really care about it.
“The men’s hiking club is heading to the state park next month.”
Narrowcasting is when you speak to a particularly small group within the church during the service. It is also a dangerous thing to do. Oftentimes this happens because a vocal sub-group is looking to boost their visibility, so they hound the church leadership to get some “stage time” to highlight their group. The problem with this is if you aren’t in the “men’s hiking club,” or whatever the narrowly focused interest group is, then you just tune out the announcement. The long-term issue with this is if you do this week in and week out, then you are just training people to never listen to what is being said during the announcements. By narrowcasting certain announcements, you are unwittingly telling people to not pay attention to anything said during the announcement time. Avoid this mistake at all costs because if it’s left unchecked it will do harm to your church long-term.
You need to be able to say “no” to the leaders of sub-groups looking to get “stage time” to promote their efforts. Here are some alternatives you could suggest that don’t involve excluding the rest of your church:
- Direct Emails – Each of your ministry areas should cultivate an email list of people who are interested in their area.
- Cause Some Lobby Chaos – Church is fun, right? How could you bring a little piece of the event you are promoting to the lobby on the weekend?
- Social Media – How can you encourage your people to talk and share about the ministry program through social media channels?
- Call People – Have you heard about this new technology called “the telephone”? It’s amazing! It’s kind of like Twitter but with audio. But seriously, simply just calling people can be effective.
- Snail Mail – People typically just get bills and junk mail in their mailbox at home. What if your ministry area came up with a clever piece of mail to send to people?
