A crowd gathers in a large room. Everyone quiets down waiting for something to happen. They all have a lot going on in their heads. They're all prepared to inform the group.

Then, someone figures no one's in charge, so she takes the lead. She clears her voice and starts telling what she came for. Another person then realizes if he's going to get his message out, he must say his information, too.

The first person feels shouted over, so she raises her voice louder than the second guy. Another person announces his information, too. Soon the whole room is shouting, and no one is heard.

They quiet down. And leave. Nothing is accomplished.

This is what happens regularly in our churches. No one is ultimately in charge of our ministry's many communications. So everyone voices their information so everyone can hear. But the congregation ends up hearing nothing in the chaos of messages being pushed.

Your church has dozens of ministries, and each ministry has dozens of details. How does it all get pushed effectively? This is the communication fear of almost every church.

It can't be done. Someone in charge of communications must decide who gets a public voice and when they'll get to speak. Seriously, all the events and ministries that are happening in your church aren't equal. And every detail certainly isn't equal to the others.

You must set priorities and tiers for communications or nothing ends up being heard.

Here’s an example for tiering your ministry's communications:

1. Create the loudest voice

That would be Tier One: all-church events or ones that attract a lot of people while reinforcing your brand positioning (what you're known for in the community). Almost every single person in the church would want to hear about it because they are invited (for example: a sermon series).

Then, who has the second most important voice? Tier Two is all-ministry events or probably seen as Tier One of individual ministries (for example: a student deparment all-student sports night).

Tier Three is all other events happening within ministry areas (for example: a Sunday school class mall lunch). Then, if your church outside groups conduct events on your campus, you can have Tier Four.

2. Give every voice a mechanism of communication

Create a standardized system for communications for each tier.

For example, Tier One gets website homepage banner, bulletin mention, newsletter mention, social media rotation, etc. (virtually everything you offer). Tier Two gets almost every communication tool that's easily segmented for the particular invited group.

Tier Three gets handouts for the small group or suggestions so the ministry leaders can promote it. Tier Four provides resources (logos, photos, etc.) so the outside group can do their own promotion with their tools and networks.

When someone experiences your church service, you must simplify your communications. Everything heard publicly (Tier One) has a unifying theme of what the church is about or it's an event that would interest almost everyone.

Stop the communication chaos and the fear that everyone needs to hear everything.