Tuesday, March 15, 2005
church notices
I’m still processing whether church notices are curse or gift.
A sacred vs secular divide would see notices as secular, mundane, needing to be rushed through. An integrated view of God in everything would discern notices as just as spiritual as prayer or worship.
All groups have them – if you’re small in number it might be which pub after the church service or notice of a house warming. If you’re larger in size, they can be long and tedious. They can also be manipulative, guilt-inducing sales pitches. Yet if done well they can be creative and insightful.
Are they an impediment to worship? Should they come at the end of a service, after the benediction, as part of the movement of God’s people into the world?
Or they actually an essential part of community? A chance to “peek” into the mission life of a church? An opportunity to participate?
Still processing.
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One church we were at made a point that the notices weren’t divorced from the idea of the community worshipping. Rather they formed part of the relational aspect of the community and an opportunity to see God at work there. Having said that when you have small children sitting through yet another notice you feel like shooting the messenger at times.
How they are done though can make all the difference. Personally I’m in favour of mixed mode delivery – paper/bulletin, email, personal approach, dramatised, simply read out, displayed visually. Pick the right approach for the type of notice.
Comment by StephenG — March 15, 2005 @ 5:01 pm