The importance of announcements can usually be graded by the person who is called upon to make them. Certainly no pastor, especially if he wears a robe, would make an announcement about the plugged drain in the men's room. Such announcements are best made by one of the lay leaders in the congregation under the guise of discipleship training.
Where to put the announcements was always a problem with me. As pastor of a large church several years ago, I determined they should always occupy the place right after the opening hymn and just before the pastoral prayer. Since people were still trying to get their kids quieted down, replace their hymn books in the rack, and put their purses on the floor, I figured we'd fill the void by making announcements.
I always worked on the theory that nobody ever listened anyway. One
morning I deliberately announced that we would not have a
water baptism that night as planned since there was an alligator in the
tank. The only alert person in that congregation of almost a thousand people
was an eight year old boy who came up to me after the service and offered
to catch the 'gator for me. He said if I'd get down in the tank and thrash
around the 'gator would come out of his hiding place and then we could
catch him with a special stick with a rope loop on one end.
Nobody else had ears to hear.
One pastor used to brag that he never made announcements in the worship service. "We're not here to make announcements" he said with dignity. "We are here to worship the Lord".
It all sounded like a grand concept until I attended one of his services and heard his pastoral prayer. "O Lord, bless the women's meeting which will be held in the church social hall Tuesday at 7pm. And Lord, bless Miss Susie Short, that wonderful old retired missionary from Japan who has just returned from a trip around the world, as she speaks following the covered dish supper . . . ."
Now I am involved in a different kind of church that doesn't have a formal order of worship. This has presented a problem because we never know when to make the announcements. For a while we let everybody in the congregation stand up and make his own announcement. This was about as terrifying as trying to wade across a lake on thin ice. We never knew when somebody might announce a meeting of the Ku Klux Klan or some brother might use the time to stand up and preach a forty five minute sermon.
We decided we needed more decency and order in the service and announced that anyone with an announcement would have to come to the front and clear it with the presiding elder for his evaluation before sharing it with the congregation. That, at least, seemed scriptural. That is, if you can picture Ezekial announcing a wedding shower for one of the Israelite maidens - followed by a time of refreshments.
While in the Philippines I heard of an announcement to end all announcements. In the far north of the island of Luzon a group of native formed a church. Never exposed to civilization, they sent one of their elders into the city to find out how the "civilized" believers conducted their worship services. The elder returned saying, "We're doing everything wrong. We don't even have announcements. All we do is meet and worship and praise and study the Bible and exhort one another to walk in the Spirit."
"Very well," the church decided, "then we must have announcements. And forthwith they appointed one of the new native believers to be in charge of making the announcements the following Sunday.
Sunday rolled around and the natives all met to worship. There was much praise and singing and speaking from the Word. Then, with great solemnity, the pastor arose and said it was time for the announcements.
The new believer, who had been commissioned to make the announcements, rose to his feet and came to the pulpit. Clearing his throat, he said, "I wish to announce that Jesus Christ is Lord."
There was a great roar of applause and from that time on, so it is reported, the announcements have become the favourite part of the service. In fact, it is reported that sometimes as many as fifty persons stand to make their announcement.
Refreshing, don't you think?