Howdy all - thanks for the great comments on my recent post: Tired of announcements during Mass? Here’s what to do. I just have a few thoughts after reading many of the comments (these will make more sense if you read the comments over there first):
1) It’s a shame that such an important topic (communicating with parishioners better) ends up in arguments about how the Latin Mass is so much better or superior than the Novus Ordo. This is about how we open up more effective communication channels with parishioners instead of forcing them to listen to excessive, extra-liturgical announcements at Mass. Such excessive announcements can become annoying and disruptive, are ineffective and work to break down trust between a parish and its parishioners. Of course, some announcements at Mass at the proper place, and which are necessary and brief, are appropriate and should be embraced by us as part of the community - not selfishly complained about because they disrupt our personal prayer time. But too many parishes have taken advantage of this, even if not on purpose. And either way, there are much more effective ways to do it. Like, for example, email.
2) If people won’t give their email addresses to parish leaders, there is a reason. The following points will address possible reasons.
3) People give their email addresses to people/organizations they trust. Parishioners don’t want to give you their email address because they don’t trust you. The reason they don’t trust you is because you haven’t earned it…you’ve violated it. You’ve violated it by taking advantage of them and their time at Mass by forcing them to listen to excessive, extra-liturgical announcements they don’t want to listen to. Trust me…the solution is not to keep doing the same thing hoping they will eventually break down from exhaustion and surrender their contact info. If you want their money, prove you’ll be a good steward of it. Getting their email address is no different.
4) Additionally, when you were trying to collect their email address did you assure them that their email address will be kept safe and secure? And that you comply with CAN-SPAM act? And that they can unsubscribe at ANY TIME by clicking a link at the bottom of the email? If you use a proper emailing system (including flockNote.com I mentioned) then you can tell them all of this. That will help a lot.
5) They also may not have given their email address to you because you haven’t given them incentive. Why would they give you their email address if you are going to continue to give them the same information at Mass? Some of them don’t want the info ONCE. Why would they want it TWICE? Once you commit to using email (instead of forcing it on them at Mass), people will jump on board…at least the people who really want to hear you will. You have to say, “In an effort to respect your time at Mass and to save money and paper, we are moving to mostly electronic communication. Simply sign up for our e-mailing list. We will no longer be making as many announcements during Mass or sending you expensive mail-outs or calling you to make sure you can be somewhere. This will be more efficient for all of us, save YOU money, save YOU time, enable you to get information the way you prefer, and enable us to send you more timely, up-to-date and accurate information. For those of you who do not have email access, we will offer a special bulletin for you to pick up each week and or have mailed to your house if necessary. Let us know if you have any other special needs we need to address and we’d be happy to try.” You have to encourage people and give them motivation. Then…stop enabling them to get their information in other places by continually announcing at Mass. The transition won’t be smooth. But it will be worth it once it’s done and you’ll never go back.
6) Get creative. Offer a prize or something to get people signed up. People may not sign up by just asking them, but they will sign up for the chance to win a $200 gift card or a chance to dunk Father in a dunking booth or to give him his next hair cut.
7) Of course there must be exceptions for elderly or those without access to electronic communication. But they should be exceptions. Most people in most areas have access to the internet and email. Take advantage of that. If people don’t know how to use email or the internet, offer a class and teach them.
8) Just because you have 1000 families does not mean you’re going to get 1000+ email addresses. Let’s be realistic. I’d be wiling to bet that a majority of those families haven’t even registered at your parish either. And how many of those are showing up to Mass regularly? And how many of those are listening to announcements at Mass? How many read the bulletin? I’ll bet the number would be very similar to the number of people who will end up giving you their email address (if you do the things mentioned above). And with a little confidence in them and earning of their trust, it could be a lot more.
9) A lot of this problem is caused by the level of (or lack of) engagement of parishioners in general. No matter what language you use at Mass, if your parish is not preaching truth and standing up for something and teaching its parishioners to do so themselves, then they will not be invested in your parish. If they are not personally invested then they are not going to “let you in” to the level of intimacy that allows an email address or cell phone number to be shared. Period.
It’s really, really sad that most parishioners don’t trust their own parish with their email address. Really sad. But it’s because they aren’t invested in their parish and their Church…or they don’t trust it. They just don’t care enough. Trust me, the answer is not to keep beating them over the head with stuff or guilting it out of them while holding them hostage at Mass. It’s not working. Stop already. Inspire them to love their Church and motivate them to become personally invested at your parish. Then they will be begging you to take their email address, their phone number and to call them whenever you need anything…time, talent or money. Begging you.
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I want to add: I can’t hear the announcements at the end of Mass between my screaming children and all the people flocking through the cry area in the narthex on their way out of Church after Communion (sigh). Email communication: fantastic.
thank you for all of this information, my husband is printing it out and bringing it to his next parish council meeting. All the points you mentioned hit home when we opened up our bulletins yesterday searching for something…anything that might be relevant to us…instead, we saw announcements like: “Lectors—Please pick up your 2011 workbooks in the confessional area in the church. Each lector’s book is labeled with his or her name. For Questions contact Deacon Bill.” Really, how many lectors are there that attend our church, they should have their own email list for trivialities like this! It seemed like our bulletin was taken up with announcements for each individual ministry!
Hey Matt, you certainly make some excellent points. And especially regarding trust. One other reason people do not wish to share their E-mail with the parish is because—(and this happens frequently), if you contribute to Annual Appeal for the diocese, the Parish shares your information with the diocese. The diocese then share yours home mailing address with every known Catholic organization on the face of the planet who bombard us with solicitations for money adnaseum. Yes, it takes money to maintain and build the church (as a whole) and I am certainly willing and able to do my part as good stwardship. What I object to is the increasing bureaucray of the church which seems hell bent and focused on “business” and finance. I will no longer share my E-mail, home address and phone # with the diocese. FACT: They recently put the squeeze on me to contribute $25,000.00 to the diocese captial campaign over the next 5 years. It’s an outrage.
Amen and Amen. I’d add that if excellence, common sense and sage advice (from pros or experienced amateurs) are the rule for bulletin, website, email and snail mail, the problem will almost certainly address itself.
Many pastors\parishes nowadays are providing incentive to read bulletin\website\etc by inserting essays, quotations, spiritual advice, blog posts, etc that make the bulletin\website\etc an independent source of value. The best case scenario being that non-parishoners and non-massgoers are actually looking for the bulletin\website for their own spiritual edification.
You know, as one that the priest calls on to make announcements, if delivered well, they can be effective. I had half dozen people come up to me last week complimenting the style of delivery of the announcements. (I was asking for volunteers to take the shingles off the rectory to install a new steel roof along with 4 other announcements.) People don’t read the web site, the facebook page, or the bulletin and then complain we don’t tell them things. don’t cut back, make it worth their while.
here’s one. with hold distributing bulletins til after mass. but, but, but… those people don’t care anyway. they obviously have little interest in the parish. no email problem, no announcement problem, no reading bulletin instead of praying.
Announcements should be short, too the point, and relevant to the majority of the people there. The one thing I really dislike about the university parish where I live is they have tendency to try for cutesy skits and raps and announcements for every little event that’s happening, rather than merely saying “Hey, there’s a lot going on this week, make sure you check the bulletin” One of the few times I distinctly remember crawling over someone to leave before the final blessing was at that parish. They’d had a visiting missionary priest, who spent almost 30 minutes of his “homily” talking about the random aid work he’d done, then at the end of mass a couple students came up and started a skit about raising money for something. I left.
Oh, the worst thing lately was after the homily a few weeks ago we were “treated” to a 10 minute video about the diocesan appeal for funds. This after the diocese sent a letter to every registered Catholic, and the parish sent a letter to all members, and announcements in the bulletin.
Hmm. So am I the only one who has more than one email address? And one of those email addresses is reserved for “possible/potential spam-generating sources?”
Thanks Matt. I’m actually leading a new group to improve our parish communication. Your posts are most helpful.
Do you, or anyone reading the post, have a suggestion for a good website/content system for parishes? Or any other solutions that have helped your parish communicate better? Please let me know privately at ray1@heyobfamily.com. God bless….
When something of great importance to the parish needs to be addressed, there is no better way to obtain results than announcements at mass.
You can e-mail, put it in the bulletin,hand out flyer, etc…. but the greatest result is from a “priest” asking for your aid.
This is the best way to obtain adorers for our chapel, obtain E.C.H.C.‘s
when needed, obtain ministers of care, and once our priest asks the results are amazing.The superflous we can go without!
As someone intimately involved in this I can assure you that no one likes GIVING the announcements as much as people don’t like listening to them…trust me…but unfortunately people don’t take the bulletin and then they complain, constantly, that we don’t keep them informed…I tell you it is enough to drive you crazy. I assume that you don’t want to be involved if you won’t give us your email address, or that you don’t care.
Important announcements (further details in parish bulletin) are made just before the final blessing.
As is with the homily, for me it is better received when you like one priest better than the other. Oh, they’re both great but one HAS to be a favorite.
Matthew,
You lament that the discussion of announcements devolved into a discussion of why the extraordinary form is better. There is a simple reason for that. Intrinsically, the ordinary form and extraordinary form have the same value (they are both the Sacrifice of the Mass). However, in the past fory years, the intrinsic value of the Mass has been lost by many, and replaced by entertainment. When Father allows puppets, or dogs, or super-soakers, etc during the Holy Sacrifice, whats to stop him from allowing an all-out barrage of announcements during Mass?
You don’t need to swith to the TLM for this…simply change the attitude of Mass. If Mass is more reverent and God-centered, the announcements will become superfluous. To that end, our new pastor has greatly enhanced the reverence at Mass, and as a consequence, there are hardly any announcements (except when Father mentions a Holy Day of Obligation).
I agree with Aaron. If you are under, say 45, the mass has emerged to a more “staged” or scripted value of process and entertainment. Gimmicks on the altar, presenting “Bill Smith” with a plaque for chairing the annual parish rummaage sale, prizes such as “free donuts” for the family of _______, applause for altar servers, Eurcharist ministers (whom btw are just doing their volunteer service to the Lord) are totally out of place. Aaron is correct that the sense of reverence in worship has somehow been lost. At the same time —and adding to the mass being so scripted —last week I read where Pope Benedict has just issued instructions that a priest’s homily should be limited to maximum of eight minutes. For our priests who enjoy “mailing it in” —I am sure they are happy with the eight minutes max since they often have nothing of value to say or talk only about some personal experience which no once cares about. However, for those dedicated priests who use the homily to teach and instruct, eight minutes only further ties their hands. Aaron also raises a good perspective since (at least in my diocese) some pastors seem to have abdicated their role—in part—to Pastoral Assistants. These people are largely responsible for turning the mass into a more kumbaya experience if the pastor is not a strong leader.
I’m getting in on the conversation a little late, but I just want to say:
Thanksgiving after Communion is the most important time in the Mass for SILENCE! Jesus is present physically in our bodies for 10-15 minutes and instead of communing with OUR SAVIOR for that small space of time, loving and adoring Him, thanking and entreating Him, listening and just being with Him, we have to listen to tedious, boring, redundant announcements from the altar—all while Jesus is being ignored by every person in the church! This is sacrilege! I can’t stand it! Sometimes in my parish, I have to go out to my car right after Holy Communion and listen to sacred music on my CD player while I pray and worship God Whom I just received—I’m doing my Eucharistic thanksgiving IN MY CAR so I can be alone with Jesus! What’s wrong with this picture? Pre-Vatican II: The announcements were given BRIEFLY by the priest just after the Gospel and before he began his sermon.
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