It is amazing to look at the total resources of time and money expended on church bulletins. Because bulletins seem to be such a trivial issue, we often fail to consider their impact or lack of impact. In reality, the impact is greater than we might imagine. Not only do we expend significant resources on bulletins, both guests and members tend to have pretty strong feelings about them.
Our team has been observing some major trends regarding bulletins. Here is what we found thus far.
- Most churches today still use church bulletins. They are important, if not necessary, according to most church leaders today. Churches under 100 in attendance are more likely not to use bulletins.
- Church bulletins go by many different names today. Smaller churches tend to still call them bulletins. For churches 200 attendance and higher, there is great variety in the names: worship folder, worship guide, information guide, and many more.
- There is an obvious level of frustration among some leaders and members about the contents of church bulletins. The most common frustration is about what content is included and excluded. The second most common frustration is content that is old and dated.
- There are three common usages of church bulletins. The three most common usages are: order of worship; church metrics or statistics; and sermon notes.
- Most churches use greeters to hand out bulletins. These persons are also called ushers in some churches. The distribution of the bulletin is considered an act of hospitality or greeting in many churches.
- Most guests expect to be handed something when they walk in the worship center. So church leaders should realize that the bulletin is an opportunity to connect with those guests.
- The digital revolution and the green movement have not significantly impacted the use of bulletins. Most churches still provide paper bulletins.
- Another frustration among some church members is a sloppy bulletin, particularly one that has grammatical errors. An entire genre of funny things written in church bulletins has been an offshoot of these error-prone publications.
Certainly in the context of important facets of corporate worship, church bulletins likely will not rise to the top. But because they are so pervasive, and because they do impact so many people, they should not be ignored either.
What has been your experience with church bulletins? What would you like to see changed? I look forward to hearing from you.
Posted on November 19, 2014
With nearly 40 years of ministry experience, Thom Rainer has spent a lifetime committed to the growth and health of local churches across North America.
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53 Comments
It is good to see the different responses. I have always wondered about the various uses of bulletins in the various churches. I must admit that we have not used church bulletins for the past 9 years or more. We serve over 200 members and have experience very few complaints. We did it as a cost saving measure, staff, supplies and equipment. Our church continue to experience moderate growth, and the church is managing well without them. We do prepare bulletins on special events maybe three four times a year. it is good to read about the success others are experiencing.
The church in which I am involved discontinued the use of church bulletins. We average 250+ in average Sunday attendance, divided between two Sunday morning worship gatherings, and are considering the addition of a third gathering to keep pace with our growth. This attendance figure does not include the attendance at our two youth ministry large group gatherings or our children’s ministry large group gathering.
We found that church bulletins were an unnecessary expense. Guests and regular attenders were not reading them or keeping them. The only people who took the church bulletin with them were those who had jotted down their sermon notes on the church bulletin.
We continue to pass out connection cards, giving envelopes, pens, and any special material (e.g. invitation cards) to attenders at both gatherings. We are using social media, email, video clips and brief live announcements at Sunday gatherings, and our website to keep people informed about ministry opportunities, new small groups, membership orientation sessions, baptisms, and the like.
For liturgical churches church bulletins may continue to make sense. The entire service can be printed in the church bulletin, which provides a convenient guide or first time guests who may not be acquainted with the order of service.
But even in this area you are increasingly seeing liturgical churches using multimedia projectors and presentation slides, projecting both the texts of prayers and lyrics of songs on a screen. A worship leader may give cues as to the appropriate posture, “Let us kneel and say…, let us stand and sing, etc.”
In churches in which the small groups discuss how to apply in their lives individually and collectively the principles and truths expounded in the Sunday sermon, the study guide for small groups might be handed out in place of a church bulletin. This would give first time guests an opportunity to see what the small groups are doing and even to use the study guide themselves. We post the study guide with the sermon on our website. The study guide is also sent by email to small group hosts who forward it to small group participants.
One of the dangers associated with church bulletins is that churches hanging onto using a church bulletin because it is something that they have always done and they cannot think of doing things any differently. Consequently they wind up thinking of new ways of making use of the church bulletin rather than making the tough decision of doing away with the church bulletin altogether. The result is the church bulletin gets thicker, more complicated and expensive to produce, and still ends up on the pew or the floor or in the trash can after the service. A related danger is confusing the church bulletin with the church newsletter.
We also have a children’s bulletin printed with some games, a picture to be colored, and a memory verse about that week’s sermon. After the service, they turn in their completed bulletin for a piece of candy. These do get used!
I have been pastor of a small church in rural Oklahoma for four months. Because of our size one of my many duties is to create and print the bulletin. I don’t mind doing it. What I do mind–and this is a very small thing–is this. My folks get a bulletin when they walk in the door but some of them always seem surprised when I report on things they missed even though it was in the bulletin the previous 2 Sundays. I have not failed to make a bulletin yet but I can imagine what the response (fallout) will be. I have GREAT people!
We have our bulletin shell printed by someone in bulk that coordinates with our theme for the year and have a spot for the BIG items everyone, including visitors, would want to know and the remainder of our bulletin is meant to inform new people of the wonderful ministries we offer to their families. We only have a small place for announcements at the very back just before the Financial Giving info because the more space you have for announcements the more announcements you have to put in it many of which only would relate to a specific few and leave visitors only scratching their heads… We even try to let first time attendees know how to connect with us via our Connection Card and in several places navigate them toward ministry at our church. It’s impossible to please everyone so we lean towards using the bulletin as another tool in making our VIP’s (First timers) know that we planned for them to come and value them being here. Certainly, there’s no cookie cutter approach though but that’s how we utilize the bulletin…
Hello all! I want to apologize for being so grumpy the last couple of days. I just went off of some medication that I have been taking for a long-term illness. I am so sorry! As for the bulletin, the tear off cards are an excellent idea! I also just realized that we no longer give out visitor information cards. It may be due to how we gave these cards making guests uncomfortable. We used to have someone at the front announce for guests to raise their hands and we would give them a free gift of 2 tickets to Wed night dinner, a small book about Christ, and a visitor info card. We have had budget problems this year, so any suggestions for providing visitor info cards in a subtle and inexpensive way. As has been mentioned, inserting them in the bulletin might be extremely wasteful.
Dear Daughter,
We found too, that people do not want to raise their hands as visitors – and frankly, I wouldn’t either!
We remedy that by asking visitors each week to fill out our connecting card (ours is a tear out from the bulletin) and place it in the offering plate. We also announce that we have a Welcome Table that they can visit. It is manned, but the people are trained how to respond to visitors. We take the time to do limited announcements welcoming visitors, etc. each week from the pulpit for the very reason of putting visitors at ease. The best thing to do is discuss this as a staff and whatever you choose to do, do everything with intention, and tweak as necessary.
Regarding visitors
We have a visitors booth in our foyer. We have everyone fill out a welcome card (which I’m trying to get changed to a tear off portion of the bulletin) and members/regular attenders place them in the offering plate (an offering of their time) and visitors take theirs to the welcome booth after the service. We give them a welcome packet that has the month’s newsletter/calendar, a list of all small groups and classes, church and ministry leaders and their contact information, and a small gift (usually a pen or water bottle or something). This also gives them an opportunity to make contact with one person and not overwhelm them with impersonal attention. We also keep small devotional books and kid trays (clip boards filled with activities and quiet manipulatives) at our booth.
The most memorable comment I ever received from a tear-off card on a worship bulletin was the one with the box checked: “I would like a call from the pastor.” Out to the side was written: “Once in a while would be nice.” It was signed by my mother!
I am the secretary at our church. The article hit all the points we have pondered as church staff.
This is what we have chosen to include in our bulletin… upcoming events, including a youth ministry section, givings for the week, the week’s schedule of events with date, time, and location. We also have a section for “Worship Service” that indicates sermon title, verse(s), and questions that we use later in our sermon-based small groups for discussion. We even have a small section called “Pray for our Missionaries” which includes a couple sentences giving update on prayer needs of 3 supported missionaries, which are rotated each week. The best addition, in my opinion, is our detachable “Connecting at CBC” card. One side gives a listing of all ministries, events, etc. to check the box and sign up or learn more about, and the other side is for visitors to let us know they have worshiped with us or for regular attendees/members to update their info. All this is on a 8 1/2 X 17 sheet in b/w, and we pay for a local company to give us 3″ perforation along a short end so the connecting card can be easily detached.
We also have a weekly e-newsletter with all the bulletin info and more. This is where we have no space issues so we can post community events. The great thing about this newsletter is that people can click on names to email them or take them to our website for more info. It does not replace our bulletin, but it is a nice (more comprehensive) complement to it.
And to help with another’s comment about timing of printing… I just tell people to submit by noon on Wednesday for inclusion for the current week’s bulletin. I also reserve the right to edit for content and space. And we got rid of inserts – which helps with efficient use of my time and not having to pick up our colored printed scattered friends.! 🙂
What’s most important about bulletins? Readability! Use pictures but not so many that you struggle to read. I once knew a church that used a pictoral for every announcement. It took discipline to focus long enough to find what you needed to know.
Dont waste paper. If you don’t have enough info to fill your bulletin make a note page. Blank pages look lazy or the give the impression that nothing is going on.
Also just a personal preference, I’m not sure if other people feel this way but I never read the pastor’s greeting, but I will read a short verse or devotion. If the paragraph starts out with we want to welcome you… blah blah blah skim down to something I care about. No amount of boredom can make me read this section so it seems like a waste of space time effort and ink. But maybe that’s just me.
Also, it seems like this is a chance to gain the audience of even the most uninterested church attender or even a lost family member when someone brings it home so some effort should be put into making it a good read– not just your basic romans road but an actual very short article that might make some kind of impact. It seems like a missed opportunity to me. I really wish more people would strive to be effective writers.
Rant done!
I have often found that bulletins can be very useful, whether intentionally or not. I have the tendency of turning church bulletins into bookmarks, which makes them really convenient reference materials in a number of situations, whether it be the dates for events or contact information for ledership.
That being said, I’m not sure if I am really the intended target group of a bulletin. It seems like a bulletin can, in my opinion, be best used as an outreach tool, encouraging those who may attend regularly but are not particularly active to be more engaged with their fellow believers.
Further on the idea of outreach, it would seem wise to include vital gospel information within the bulletin. As it was pointed out in the initial post, people expect to receive something as they enter, so this might be the easiest way that you can come by to get this information into the hands of the unbeliever.
If there is a denominational tie (or even not), this would also probably be a good place to indicate your distinctives, so that those who are looking to plug into a community have an idea as to what kind of boat they will be hopping aboard right from the onset.
That sounds like a lot probably, but with even free software to lay out something like that, you can fit a lot of information attractively into a relatively small place.
I’m kind of up in the air on the shape that something like this should take. There is no denying that the more attractve and well put together something is, the more likely that someone is going to hold onto it, but it’s also something that could get expensive quickly, so there is definitely a line that you are walking there.
Also, as was mentioned above, it is important to know what kind of demographics you are pulling into your midst. If you have a lot of young professionals coming through the doors, something small pointing to the website might be all that you need.
It seems like ours has the same info, week after week, so there is no motive to read it. The notes section is handy but as someone else mentioned, I bring my tablet for that.
So the use…to fan when it’s hot…then I feel guilty just throwing it away. I would love a catchy something new every week, a humor section would be great!
I think the bulletin is a necessity, but some of the things we (churches) put in them are not. For years I have wanted to experiment with doing away with the “order of worship” portion of the bulletin. I know that some people come into a service, look at what will be sung, who is singing a “special”, etc and already have in their mind how they feel about the service. I think that doing away with the printed order would allow people more freedom to just experience the service without judging ahead of time what it will be like. I’d love to hear from churches that have tried this before and what was the result.
Side note story… I’m a worship leader. In a previous church I served, one church member would hand me the bulletin after services with a grade written beside each song based on his opinion of the song’s appropriateness for a worship service. (If he didn’t grow up singing it, it never got a passing grade.) I grew increasingly frustrated and prayed that God would help me communicate with this difficult church member, move me, or move him.
He died the next day.
That was many years ago and now whenever someone is giving me a hard time my wife will ask “Have you prayed for them yet?” then laugh.