if you polled 100 people family feud style and asked them, “what’s the hardest thing in a church service to pull off well?” i’d be willing to bed that the answer would be something like this:

preaching – 47
leading the band – 21
nursery – 16
usher – 9
parking – 5
guy who unlocks the doors in the morning – 2 (and that’s just him and his wife)

i’m here to tell you about something that’s even harder to pull off than those things: announcements.

giving announcements in church is a lot like trying the be the guy that tells the rules of splash mountain at disney: you feel like you have important things to say. someone trusted you to make the events of the church sound interesting. there’s pressure to be short because the pastor wants to preach and extra ten minutes and the worship dude wants to tag the end of hosanna four more times. on top of all of that, half of the people are still walking in because their kids wouldn’t get out of bed.

but then it happens.

there is a golden nugget of announcements that is about as rare as a unicorn fighting a wookie, but it is so good that it gives you inspiration for the next six months:

the announcements amen.

while you’re on stage giving the announcements, you know that 75% of the room isn’t listening to you. then, in the middle of that one announcement talking about that one thing, a guy sitting on the 3rd row looks at you and says, “amen.” right there in the middle of the announcement, he just lets it fly.

and in that moment, I swear we are infinite.

oh man. that’s such a good feeling. the announcement amen makes you feel like superman. it makes you want to kick the worship leader in the knee, steal his guitar, play the set, and then preach the message. that one joke that you practiced for an hour may have fallen flat, but the worship amen makes you feel like the coolest person in the world.

if you’ve ever given an announcement amen, know that it was received. know that you are appreciated. know that you are the reason we didn’t cry to our wife that no one likes us on our way home from church.

this weekend, try giving an announcement amen. worst case: you make the announcement dude smile. best case: he kicks the worship leader in the knee, steals his guitar, and leads the worship set.

either way you win.

say your prayers and take your vitamins.

have a nice day.

-jonathan