Tips for your church bulletins.

Every church has a church bulletin. It allows you to connect with everybody that comes through the doors of your church. It lists the details of the morning worship. It discloses the locations of the Sunday School classes for you visitors. It lists upcoming church functions. All these things and more can make up a bulletin, but what makes a good bulletin. Well, I will give you my top dos and don'ts to bulletins.

1. Don't stuff it full with lots of extras. - As a kid, the church I attended basically published a book for their bulletin each week. It was loaded with papers and sometimes you opened it and the papers would exploded out! I loved them as a kid as they serve to be a perfect distraction from the preaching. It seemed a lot of folks enjoyed looking at their bulletins during the offertory as you could here the hundreds of ruffling of bulletin pages. It's a good idea to keep your bulletin lean and clean from extras.

2. Do have a map or a list of Sunday School locations and nursery for your visitors. It's every important for you visitors to know where they should go for Sunday School or drop off thing children for nursery.

3. Do have all your announcements posted in your bulletin. This helps you keep the announcement time short and avoids it becoming a time waster to the service. Churches allow this time to drag on and on just like that Energizer bunny.

4. Do emphasize your Sunday evening service. Mention the title of your message or your choir's special music that night. Perk the curiosity of your congregation.

5. Don't have a boring front to your bulletin. With today's technology, it's quite easy to add a picture of your church on the front or even order pre-made bulletins from the internet. It really makes the bulletin and your church look sharp in its appearance. Take the time to produce a sharp design on the outside and the inside. Your people will notice.

6. Do have a short personal message from you the pastor. Specifically thank people, mention upcoming revivals, talk about praying for one another, etc. These things help you connect with your people and you can just about guarantee that they will be reading it.

7. Do mention your church's website, pastor's email, church phone number in your bulletin. I think in some churches it would be good to mention the pastor's home number as well. It helps show people that you are ready and willing to listen and to help them.

8. Don't use the bulletin as a weapon. You don't need to attack your congregation from it or other ministries, pastors, etc. from it. If you are planning a church protest against a product, a particular government bill, save those things for the pulpit or a separate paper available in the back and not with the bulletin.

9. Don't have a stale bulletin. Change the graphics, the fonts, the arrangement from time to time. Don't continue with the same design year after year. Keep it fresh. Some people might complain, you always get those, but at least you know that they noticed the change!

10. Don't let it consume your time. If you are the one who does the bulletin, don't spend hours creating some masterpiece. Keep in mind many people take the bulletin and throw it away when you get home anyways and you're bound to be discouraged when nobody notices all your hard work. If you are able to delegate the task of creating and printing the bulletin to someone else. As a pastor, you should only be concerned with the pastor's message not the whole bulletin. By doing this, you free yourself up and give someone else an opportunity to serve the Lord.

I hope you enjoy this tips and if you have any other tips that you'd like to share, please do so in our comments below. Click on the comments link and a new window will open for you to share with us.