Get Church Announcement Slide Tips & Free PowerPoint Templates

Written by: Jordan Meyers Date: October 6, 2021

Church announcements are rarely a highlight of the service because:

There are way too many.
The announcer is not engaging.
The announcer is hard to hear
They're unclear, "If you have questions go see Pat." (Who's Pat?)
They're boring.

So how can you communicate with your congregation in a pleasant and enjoyable way? Try some of these ideas for church announcement slides.

1. Simplify with Free Church Announcement Slides & Templates

Don't start from scratch. Use premade templates to build beautiful church announcement slides quickly.

Finding free church announcement PowerPoint templates that fit your needs can be a little work. Thankfully, Vanco did the work for you and found a few free sources.

Creative Pastor - Provides all sorts of graphic design tools for churches. You can access their free church announcement slide templates through this Dropbox they set up.

SALT Community - Offers church announcement slide templates for all sorts of occasions. These 19 templates are free, but they will require you to enter an email to access the zip file.

Church Motion Graphics - Get dozens of premade announcement slides for almost every occasion, from welcomes to thank yous and even Spanish language slides!

2. Make Them Look Nice

If your slides aren't visually appealing, churchgoers won't pay much attention to them. Here are a few ideas to get your church announcement slides noticed.

Cohesive Color Scheme

Make sure all the announcement slides have similar colors. At the very least, colors that look like they belong together.

Pick a color theme and use it continually throughout your church announcements images. Your color scheme should be calm and tasteful. Muted and earthy tones are easy to look at and give a calm, inviting feel.

Avoid loud, harsh shapes and very bright colors. If your parishioners have to shield their eyes from the screen, they're not going to read those announcements.

Lay Off the Transition Slides

Announcement slide #1 squeezes into an hourglass shape and explodes into the next slide. Then, the screen swipes right and another announcement slide shows up.

They're the cheesy slide transitions everyone loved in the 90s. Read that again. The 1990s. Try to stay relevant with your church announcement delivery. Too many transitions can be annoying.

3. Create Interest

Church announcements that look the same every week won't catch the congregational eye. Try to change up your technique every few weeks with these church announcement slide ideas.

Get Creative

Think outside the church announcement box. Church video announcements are a great way to personalize a message. They're also an excellent attention-grabber.

Try some comic relief by having one or two staff members dress up in character and deliver weekly announcements. If these characters become well-loved, people will look forward to seeing what they do from week to week.

Engage Your Youngsters

Many parents of young children may miss announcements because they're getting kids settled or keeping them entertained. Try to create games or activities for the kids within your church announcement slides.

In conjunction with your church bulletin announcements, create some kind of hunt for the kiddos. Ask them how many letter j's they can find on the announcement slides. Tell them to find and match colors on the slides with the bulletin or paper you provide.

4. Be clear

You want people to be able to read those announcements. Try to keep things clear and concise. Here are a few church announcement slide tips to get you started.

Easy-to-Read Fonts

Sure the swirly cursive fonts are fun, but they're difficult to read. It's best to stick with fonts that look interesting and are easily read. Nobody wants to work hard just to read those announcements.

Limit each slide to a maximum of four lines per slide. Keep each line length to eight words or less. This makes the information easier to process and read quickly.

Infographics are Great

Infographics are easier to read and retain than words. In fact, content with visuals is viewed 94% more than material without.

If you have a graphic design enthusiast, ask them to create some infographics for you. Canva has a great tool to make free infographics. You can also find some great clip art here.

Combine It

Incorporate your church announcement slides with your digital church bulletin. Announcements and bulletins with the same look and location will increase visibility. This will make announcements harder to miss!

5. Ask for Action

Many announcements ask for a job or task. If you need your members to do something, be very clear about it. At the end of each announcement, give a call to action.

Call To Action

Avoid vague language like, "If you need more info, talk to Pat." If someone wants more info but doesn't know Pat, they're probably not going to ask. Put a picture or video of Pat on the slide and people will be more likely to ask Pat for info.

Provide Multiple Options

Then again, some of your introverted churchgoers may not feel comfortable approaching Pat. Why not give them a few ways to get in touch? Provide Pat's phone number or email.

"If you're able to help out, call or text Pat at (this number), or send her an email." You've given introverts a way to reach Pat. Just be sure Pat's ok with all of this first!

Give Deadlines and Reminders

Once congregants leave the church, they get busy with daily life. Using church announcements to remind members of important events is fine. You could even have a reminders slide or video.

Always tell people when they need to act. Tell them to take out their phone calendars and enter in a reminder so they don't forget.

6. Welcome Everyone

Church announcements are too often exclusive in nature. If you want visitors to return, help them feel welcomed in your announcements. Here are a few dos and don'ts.

Special Message

Extend a special message to your visitors or first-time attendees. Try something like this:

We're blessed by new and familiar faces. A warm welcome to all this morning!
New here? We're so glad! Stick around for coffee in the hall at 11:00.
Welcome friends and future friends! We're glad you're here!
Welcome new faces! Thank you for blessing us with your presence today.

Announcements are a great time to make sure newcomers feel included and informed.

Avoid Inside Jokes

Have you ever been new to a group of people when someone drops a line and everyone laughs? Now it's that awkward moment where you realize it's an inside joke. It's isolating.

Keep your announcement humor open to everyone. If it's a joke that only a select few will understand, skip it for another one.

Skip the Church Speak

Not everyone sitting in your pews is familiar with church speak. You know, lingo lifetime churchgoers know. Some people refer to this as Christianese.

For example, instead of fellowship, use "gettogether" or "social hour/event."

Language like this helps those not fluent with Christianese feel included. By including new visitors, you will be able to more easily grow your church.

7. Stay True to Your Tone

Every church has its own flavor. No two bodies of believers are exactly the same. Don't try to be someone you're not.

If your church likes some good tomfoolery, get goofy with your church video announcements. If people take a more serious tone, deliver the church announcements without the silliness.

Incorporate Your Collective Interests

If your church values green initiatives or nature, use earthy-style tones and backgrounds. If you're more of a bold group, choose fonts and styles that stand out more.

Maybe your church has an international emphasis. Incorporate that in your church announcement slide images.

8. Be Interactive

Invite the parishioners to be a part of your church announcements. You could add a little piece of trivia to your announcements.

Encourage your congregation to interact with one another. Instead of trivia, tell them to tell share something they did this week with another person/family.

Give your churchgoers something to think about. Throw out a fact of the week or a verse of the week. Maybe give an announcement of the week.

You can suggest an act of kindness for the week and challenge people to complete it.

Think of the Children

Ask children within the congregation to design church announcement slides. Use their art as a background or decor. Kids and their parents will love to look for their work in the announcements.

Involving everyone creates a sense of unity. Searching for their artwork will keep kids and families interested in church announcement slides.

Include Primetimers

Don't leave your seniors behind! Ask your senior population for their input. How can they best receive announcements?

Ask your primetimers to be a part of video announcements. Too often, technology can leave older generations behind. Try to include your senior groups in the announcement process.

9. Think About Your Timing

When will your church members be most receptive to church announcements? For some congregations, it's before the service begins.

Still, others find it's better after a few songs but before the sermon. Maybe people will be paying more attention after the sermon but before the closing hymns.

Just Ask

If your church has been stuck in an announcement rut, just ask your congregation. Put out an email survey or pass out a simple "yes/no" paper. Ask when announcements are best received.

If your church is too big to ask everyone, check in with different leadership personnel. What kind of timing do they recommend? This is also a great way to see who would like to be involved in announcement delivery.

Break Them Up

If your church tends to have a lot of announcements, break up their delivery. Instead of having a lot of announcements at the beginning of the service, display some at the beginning and some later.

Prioritize

If you have too many announcements, prioritize the most important or urgent. Be sure to point people to your website or a church bulletin to read the rest of the announcements.

10. Quality Church Announcement Slides

No matter how many bright ideas you have, remember to keep quality in mind. Fuzzy fonts make church announcement slides frustrating and difficult to read. Poor picture quality can ruin a great viewing experience.

Quality Content

The same goes for your content. Are times and dates accurate? Do you have the right contact information?

Try to have two sets of eyes on each church announcement slide series before it goes out for delivery. Get in the habit of proofreading each slide two days in advance so there's time to make changes before your service.

No matter how your church announcement slides are delivered, quality matters. Accurate content and clear visuals keep your parishioners involved.

11. Celebrate Milestones

It's important for congregations to celebrate important milestones. Make sure your church announcement slides include celebratory messages for successful missions or anniversaries.

Including these details will show members and visitors the impact your church has made. This will encourage members to give online, volunteer or engage with the church more frequently.

When building church announcement slides that celebrate milestones, consider printing out a letter to insert into your church bulletin. This is a good way to express your excitement for milestones without taking up too much announcement time.

For example, if your church recently celebrated its anniversary, include a church anniversary announcement letter within your bulletin. This letter can drum up excitement and express any key details or calls to actions you want members or guests to take.

12. Give Thanks

Your members are essential to your congregation. Take the time to express your gratitude for their contributions during your announcements. Create a church announcement slide to transition into the topic.

You don't want to do this every week, or else the thank you might come across as obligatory and not genuine. But when you express your gratitude during church announcements, take the time to go all out.

Include a thank you letter within your church bulletins to accompany your church announcement slide. Check out our free church thank you letter templates to simplify your message of gratitude.