If you're a pastor, then you know the tension I am about to describe in a made-up scenario: "Pastor, can you announce the next meeting of the 'Faithful Followers' group? It's Tuesday night at 7 at Sister Rita's house. Everyone needs to bring their favorite dessert." Do you announce it or not?

It may depend on several things: the size of your church, the expected size of the event and, frankly, how much pressure you will face if you don't. But it's often not an easy answer.

While I hope you never cave into pressure to do what you know you shouldn't, I do realize the pressure. When we were a church running over 2,000 people a week I still had people who wanted me to wish someone "Happy Birthday" from stage. Sometimes the pressure came from one of our most faithful volunteers. I get it. But if you want to be effective, you can't promote everything from the stage.

If I promoted everything, I wouldn't have time to preach, nothing would really be "special," and pretty soon people wouldn't listen to much of what I had to say. Plus, if I promote one thing, there is automatic precedent and pressure to promote another thing.

Saying the pastor will never promote anything is the wrong answer. I realize the value in a pastor's "endorsement." So how do you decide what to personally promote? (I am assuming announcements are made by someone else or some other means Sunday mornings.)

Here are three questions I ask when I decide which announcements I will make personally:

1) What needs my personal promotion most?

What is really valuable to the largest amount of people and has a chance to be more successful if I say something about it? Just asking this question may or may not eliminate the "Faithful Followers" meeting. It depends on the number of people the meeting impacts within the context of the entire church. If it's a few, I'm less likely to mention it. If it's a significant percent—perhaps 25 percent or more of the church would be interested—I'm more likely to address it personally. (The percent is just a number. I use my best judgment here.) When I talk about a men's ministry event, for example, I know nearly half of the congregation has the opportunity to attend.

2) Where do I need to add credibility to a ministry?

When I arrived at the church I now pastor, we had a vision to grow our college ministry. We are less than a mile from the center of a university and a junior college. When the college ministry had an activity, though it might impact only a small portion of the congregation, I promoted it. As a result, I raised the value of college ministry in our church. I reminded people of the importance and showed my "support." I realize the weight the position brings to something, and if it's something the church needs to value more, I'm likely to talk about it.

3) What impacts a large portion of the church and needs more attention to be successful?

We are in a growth mode. Much of this growth is from young adults and young families. Our preschool ministry is being stretched. What a great "problem" to have! I love it. But we do need more willing servants to fill the growing needs in this area. I am frequently bringing this growth and need to the attention of our congregation. Our preschool director is thankful, and apparently the personal word of encouragement makes a difference in recruiting efforts—or so I'm told. If the need can only be met fully with my mention, then I know I need to bring it before the church.

Those are some of the ways I discern what to announce. To be candid, these guidelines don't eliminate the pressure from those who want something announced. However, the guidelines give me some comfort that I've at least thought through my answer.

This doesn't negate the importance of anything we do. Hopefully, every ministry is important to achieving our mission. When there is only so much time on a Sunday, I have to carefully discern what I personally mention.  

Ron Edmondson is pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky, and has a passion for church planting. Formerly a self-employed business owner, he is also a church and ministry consultant. This article originally appeared at ronedmondson.com.

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