When you walk in most church worship services, you are typically handed some printed material. It goes by different names, but the most common and the longest standing name is “bulletin.”
There was a time that you could expect consistency in bulletins among many churches. Such is not the case today. There are differences of opinion and a variety of ideas about what should be in the church bulletin.
Rather than speculate, we conducted an informal survey among church members. We asked one simple and open-ended question: “What do you want in a church bulletin?” The respondents could give as many answers as they liked. There was much agreement on the first four items. Beyond the top four was considerably fragmented opinions.
Here are the top five responses. I list them in order of frequency of response.
- Quality. This one issue was a near unanimous response. Church members see the bulletin as a reflection on their church. They are embarrassed when the bulletin has incorrect facts or grammatical errors. They don’t want something in their bulletin to become the next “bulletin blooper.” They want the bulletin to reflect quality, not a gathering place for a collection of ancient clip art.
- Sermon notes/outline. Church members want a place to take notes on the sermon, even if the same material is on the projection screen. They want notes they can take home and study. They especially appreciate any helps, such as an outline or references.
- Order of service. Frankly, I heard some complaining about this matter. Apparently a number of churches once put the order of their worship services in the bulletin; but they don’t now. Church members miss that in the bulletin and they want it back.
- Attendance/stewardship statistics. I thought numbers were being deemphasized in churches. Well, maybe they are, but church members want them back. They want to see the giving patterns and attendance patterns each week.
- Announcements. There is a big gap between numbers four and five. If not for its brevity, I could have made this blog about the top four things church members want in a church bulletin. While church members do want some announcements in the church bulletin, they do not want it cluttered with announcements. They prefer for announcements to be on a screen before the services or on the church’s website.
Are you surprised by these top five? What would you add to the list?
Posted on April 8, 2013
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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144 Comments
It matters IF you have your bulletin for your members. We design ours for our guests. Member can find the info they need online.
My church prints the bulletin with sermon notes insert, but also puts them online. So, each week before church, I copy and paste the sermon outline into my Olive Tree app notes. Then, I fill it in during the sermon and the notes will always be there when I look at that passage in the Bible app. I also joke with the pastor that if he ever tries to recycle sermons, I’ll know.
We have taken a slightly different approach with the bulletin and use it more as an entry piece that serves as a “holder” for the inserts we provide. The inserts contain individual sheets for 1) notes 2) announcements 3) connect card.
One of the highest values we place on The Weekly (our chosen name for the bulletin) is to provide our guests with a very simple entry into Red Door. We want them to have a snapshot of the basics. As such the content is directed to people who are new to the church. The content that changes each week is provided on the single color sheets that are inserted into the bulletin.
I would love to know everyone’s thoughts. What do you think are the results of viewing the bulletin more as a first step entry rather than an information dispenser?
Here is what it looks like…
Cover: http://www.mediafire.com/view/?99hargq7ae0dkx2
Inside: http://www.mediafire.com/view/?ebk3t8ca4llovyy
I really like this idea. I think it looks sharp. Do your inserts have the same print quality or are they done as half sheets in word, etc? If so, do people find that incongruous? We’ve entertained the idea of have a static our shell professionally printed, but wondered about stuffing it with regular old half sheets of sermon outlines, weekly schedules, etc would seem tacky.
*having a static outer shell*
I personally am saddened by what people want in a bulletin. After being a member of a church (for 20+ years) that put all of the above 5 topics in its bulletin, I am glad to now be a member of a church that puts out a monthly bulletin, that is distributed/made available each Sunday and it is only to inform the people of ministry opportunities, upcoming events and the pastor’s new preaching/teaching series. If I want to know how much is given to the “main” budget then I better get in good with the minister of finance and be willing to ask questions. If I want quality then that means, for me, less clutter. Sermon notes and outlines are summed up in the way I take notes. (Sadly, most church goers don’t bring their Bibles to church let alone writing utensils.) Attendance can be easily seen by the filled seats and the order of service is almost always the same, no need to have it outlined. When it is changed, you can be sure that the Holy Spirit has ordained it. In my opinion, the only people that need to know the order of service are the people doing the leading — who at any time can make changes as the Spirit leads. If I were to add anything to a weekly bulletin, it would definitely be scripture…more scripture and words of encouragement, insight and help.
We still print handouts that include announcements, a prayer log, financials, a section for taking notes (no fill-in the blanks), and church contact info. We stopped having an order of service years ago. My observation, after many years in the same church, is that people still don’t read it or they choose to ignore what we as pastors and leaders think is of great importance, like church meetings or special events.
I hear people say regularly, “I would have come but I didn’t know anything about it!” Really? We print it, email it, announce it (if it involves the whole church), use an announcement pre-service loop, Facebook it, Tweet it, talk about it, and still…
We try to communicate in every way possible.
…sorry for the rant, but in this age of information, if it was up to me I’d never print another bulletin.
This may have been mentioned in the above comments, but I think the reason people want the order of service is because they want to know how long the whole thing is going to last. We don’t have that worry as a church that meets in a movie theater and must limit our service to 60 minutes. We promise to have them out by 11am. And in my welcome I will often say something like, “We’re going to sing 4 songs, and then I’ve got a message for you, at the close of the message we will receive the offering…”
As a visitor to a church I like seeing:
* Announcements;
* Order of service, including hymn numbers and Bible passages read;
* Complete contact information for the church;
* If communion is being celebrated, a note about the church’s poicies about communion. Having experienced everything from fenced tables, to “even athiests should partake” within the last year, I really appreciate reading in the bulletin that as a visitor I am expected/not expected to participate in communion.
I don’t like:
* Sermon outlines, especially “fill in the blanks”;
As a church secretary, I can understand these, and I found this to be really helpful. It can be difficult sometimes though as working for a smaller church surrounded by larger churches with larger budgets. Sometimes the expectation that our media and bulletins look the same as the larger churches is quite hard to meet especially inside our budget. I want to strive for excellence, but sometimes I even have to use “ancient clip art” because that is what is available to me.
Hey Anny! I’ve been where you are… Do you guys use a pre-printed shell for your bulletins? Do you have a color copier? How many do you print weekly? I only ask because I have learned to do a lot with very little… graphic design is a hobby of mine, and I would love to help you any way I can…
We do use a pre-printed shell(8 1/2 x 14). We have a color copier, but do not print the bulletins in color because of charging for the color copies. We print 150 bulletins a week. 200 to 220 for special Sundays (Easter/ Christmas). I would always appreciate help and pointers to do things better! Thanks!
Cary is that offer open to me too? I love some pointers, for a small church bulletin, low budget. Always looking for creative ways to improve this tool. God bless!
I wonder if this is not simply a list of things that used to be in the bulletin and aren’t anymore. A more formal survey would probably give more scientific results.
I would be curious to know the demographics that participated in the survey. Can you share a general overview of the demographics of those who participated?
The survey was informal, not scientific, as the blog indicated. There was equal gender representation, variety in church size, geographical diversity, and proportionate age representation. Still, the survey did not meet the exacting standards necessary for credible margins of error.
I would put in it a slogan of what your church is like, for instance, I have this slogan in our Bulletin,
‘ THE CHURCH WHERE YOUR HEART CAN FEEL THE DIFFERENCE.”
Helpful list, thank you. I’d love to know what visitors find most useful.