You need to make a big congregational announcement about your facilities, budget, hiring decisions, or a theological change. An email might be tacky and word of mouth feels dangerous. This message needs a stage announcement on a Sunday.
Easy, there are 52. Pick one.
Well, not any one. It would be weird to make a big announcement on Christmas, Easter, or Mother’s Day. Also avoid holiday weekends: MLK Jr., Presidents Day, Memorial Day, July 4th, and Labor Day. The Sundays before and after Thanksgiving are dicey. Don’t mess with Spring or Fall breaks. Public and private schools might break for different weeks, so that knocks out three Sundays in March and October. Now we are down to 36 Sundays. The first and last of the year can be busy and chaotic. Auld acquaintances might not be the only thing forgotten.
That leaves us with 34 reasonable days to share big news. One in January, two in February, two in March, two in April, four in May, four in June, three in July, four in August, three in September, one in October, three in November, and two in December.
“Easy, there are 52. Pick one.”
Many of these are in the summer when people are away on vacation. Most years have a tragedy that would make an announcement feel tone-deaf. Inclement weather could knock out a few. Perhaps a large group is at a retreat or camp. Maybe the church has an annual Serve Sunday or worship in the park. There is a children’s Christmas program or a Bring-a-Friend Sunday where we don’t want to handle family business. Yikes. The church calendar now has more rejected dates than I did during my senior year of high school.
This leaves 1-2 Sundays per month where big announcements can be made. Cross your fingers and hope there are ears to hear.
Or, maybe there is another way.
Change the expectations.
The biggest factor in how you make major decisions is not how you announce them. It goes deeper. Churches don’t have a communication problem. We have a trust problem.
Members routinely say that leaders communicate poorly. This is possibly true. It’s not the real reason people are upset, however. It’s just the presenting issue; the underlying issue is that people often blame poor communication when they actually are criticizing decisions. People prefer good communication, but if they get their way, anything will do. If someone rang your doorbell, put a bag of cash on your porch, and ran away at 3 a.m. you would immediately forgive their garish communication. 
“Members routinely say that leaders communicate poorly. This is possibly true. It’s not the real reason people are upset, however.”
Communication is not just about announcing news; it’s about the environment where decisions are made. This is not just a sower problem; it’s a soil problem. The sower is responsible for spreading seed; but the condition of the soil affects the reception. Some churches are hard places to find healthy soil. Some environments trust leaders and see things from multiple angles. Other environments are suspicious of leaders and ask only what is in their best interest. There is no perfect day to spread seed on rocky ground.
This cultivation of soil is the building and spending of trust. It is when leaders invest themselves in people and when people give the benefit of the doubt to the leaders. It is when we trust the Holy Spirit and bear that Spirit’s fruit in our responses. We stop announcing and start communicating.
So how do churches focus more on trust and less on making announcements?
Leaders need to communicate better but not in the form of announcement-making. Instead the communication needs to start much earlier, by bringing diverse voices into key conversations. Start with prayer around tables with people who probably feel like they get left out of loops. Set expectations. Prepare people for disappointment. Deep listening and empathy will trump even our most wordsmithed policies or attractive slide decks. Then make firm decisions with love. And don’t retract them simply because someone is hurt. Ronald Heifetz and Martin Linsky insist we must “disappoint people at a rate they can absorb.”
“Deep listening and empathy will trump even our most wordsmithed policies or attractive slide decks. Then make firm decisions with love.”
From there, members need to receive communication like good soil. Just like the leaders, they need to pray, gather around tables, and invite diverse voices into their reception of news. And like good leaders, this group should unlock their gifts of listening and empathy. The most common criticism that leaders hear when they make an unpopular decision is: did you listen to the church? Members need to ask the same question of themselves when they want special attention for their outnumbered opinions. Our preferences may not be what is best for the church’s mission. At some point we need to choose between the mission and our preferences.
This is not easy, but it’s worth it. It takes time. There is something for all of us to do.
But don’t worry, there is no hurry. We have 52 weeks a year to practice.
