Churches have more screens than ever: LED walls, lobby TVs, projectors, digital signage, confidence monitors, check-in displays, and sometimes screens in practically every hallway. Somewhere along the way, though, we developed a habit—if there’s an empty screen, we feel obligated to put information on it.
Upcoming event? Put it on the screen. Small group registration? Screen. Baptism? Screen. Volunteer signup? Definitely the screen.
Before long, the lobby TV becomes a digital church bulletin cycling through twelve announcements every few seconds while almost everyone walks right past it. Technically, we communicated everything. The better question is whether anybody actually received anything.
That question has started changing how I think about screens in church.
Every screen needs a job
One of the biggest mistakes we can make in a church environment is treating every display as though it serves the same purpose. It doesn’t.
The LED wall in the auditorium has a different job than the television hanging in the lobby. That lobby television has a different job during the week than it does once Sunday service begins. A screen near kids check-in has a completely different audience from the screen behind the worship team.
And a display somebody sees for three seconds while walking past it should not be designed the same way as a screen people will look at for an entire service.
That seems obvious, but a lot of churches still take the same 16:9 announcement slides and distribute them everywhere: auditorium, lobby, kids areas, website, social media. Same graphic. Same amount of information. Same expectation that someone will stop long enough to read it.
I think we can be much more intentional than that.
Start with the environment, not the announcement
A screen is part of the room before it ever becomes a communication tool.
If somebody walks into your church during the week and sees a television mounted in the lobby, that screen contributes to how the building feels. It can make the space feel intentional or neglected, welcoming or cluttered, current or dated.
So instead of starting with, “What announcements need to go on the lobby TVs?” I think the better question is:
What should this space feel like, and what information would actually be useful here?
Once you ask that, the answer may not be twelve rotating slides. It might simply be your church identity, your mission, service information, and one clear QR code where people can find everything else.
The screen is still useful. It just stops fighting for attention.
The auditorium LED wall has a completely different job
The auditorium is where restraint becomes even more important. A large LED wall is visually powerful, which is exactly why we shouldn’t feel obligated to fill every pixel with information.
During worship, the screen should support what is happening in the room. Sometimes that means lyrics. Sometimes it means a subtle motion background. Sometimes it means IMAG. And sometimes the best thing the screen can do is almost disappear.
The question should not be, “How much content can we display?”
It should be, “What helps the room right now?”
An LED wall can create atmosphere, reinforce visual identity, help people participate, and focus attention. It can also become the loudest thing in the room if we aren’t careful.
Creative teams need to remember that visual volume is real. Something doesn’t have to make sound to be loud.
Lobby TVs shouldn’t become digital bulletin boards
This is probably where my thinking has changed the most.
Rotating announcement slides make sense on paper. You’ve already created the graphics, you have televisions in the building, so you put the graphics on the televisions. It feels efficient.
But think about how people actually move through a church lobby. They’re walking, talking, checking in kids, getting coffee, finding friends, or trying to figure out where they’re supposed to go. You may have their attention for three seconds.
A slide containing an event name, date, time, registration deadline, two paragraphs of copy, a website, and a QR code isn’t really communication anymore. It’s homework.
And before someone finishes processing it, the slideshow has already changed.
Give people one obvious action
This is where QR codes can be extremely useful—if we’re disciplined with them.
I’m not against QR codes. I use them. What I don’t like is putting several different QR codes on the same screen and asking people to figure out which tiny square applies to them.
A better lobby screen might simply reinforce the identity and mission of the church:
WE EXIST TO REACH PEOPLE TO KNOW GOD
Then underneath:
Scan for more information
One QR code. That’s it.
Once someone scans it, the phone becomes the place where all the detailed information lives: events, Next Steps, giving, groups, baptism, serving, and everything else.
That gives each device a clear role:
The screen creates clarity. The phone handles complexity.
I think that is a much better division of labor.
The same screen can have different jobs throughout the day
Another thing I think churches underuse is the ability for a screen to have different states.
A lobby television does not have to display the same thing seven days a week. Think about it as part of an environmental system.
During the week, it might be primarily branded: church identity, mission, service information, and a QR code. Clean, evergreen, and useful to somebody walking into the building on a Tuesday afternoon.
On Sunday morning before service, that same screen can shift slightly. Maybe it becomes more welcoming. Maybe it highlights where guests should start. Maybe the QR code becomes more prominent. Maybe there is one important next step worth reinforcing.
Then once service begins, the job changes again. At that point, the lobby TVs may be far more useful showing the live program feed.
A parent steps out with a child and can still follow the message. A volunteer serving in the lobby doesn’t completely miss service. Someone arriving late immediately understands what is happening in the room.
Same television. Three different jobs.
That is the kind of thinking I want our creative systems to move toward.
Announcements still matter
None of this means churches should stop communicating events. It means we need to think harder about where each kind of communication works best.
An upcoming event may need a stage announcement for awareness, a social post for sharing, an email for details, a website page for complete information, and perhaps a text message when the date gets closer. A lobby screen may help reinforce it, but the lobby TV should not be expected to do the entire job.
Good communication is a system. Each channel should do the part it is best at.
The same principle applies during the service.
Take a Next Steps slide during a host moment. If the person on stage is already explaining the action verbally, the screen does not need to repeat the entire speech. Instead, the visual can reinforce the decision:
NEED PRAYER?
LOOKING FOR MORE?
Then give each option one obvious action.
The person on stage provides context. The screen provides clarity.
That is what good communication channels should do together.
Fewer messages can communicate more
This is probably the hardest part because churches have a lot happening, and all of it feels important.
The ministry leader cares about their event. The kids team needs volunteers. Groups are launching. Baptisms are coming. There is a conference next month. Giving matters. Prayer matters. Next Steps matters.
None of those things are unimportant.
But when everything receives the same visual priority, nothing has priority.
Sometimes creative leadership means saying, “This matters, but this isn’t the right screen for it.”
Sometimes it means saying, “We can communicate this, but we need to simplify the message.”
And sometimes it means deciding that something else needs the attention this week.
That isn’t withholding communication.
That’s designing communication.
Production and creative should design experiences
This is where I think church production and church creative overlap more than we sometimes realize.
Production shouldn’t only be concerned with whether the television receives a signal. Creative shouldn’t only be concerned with whether the slide looks good.
The larger question is:
What experience are we creating for the person in the room?
When someone walks into the lobby, what do they see? What do they immediately understand? Where should their attention go?
When they enter the auditorium, does the visual environment feel connected to the lobby? When worship begins, do the screens support participation? When the host communicates a next step, does the visual make that action obvious? When someone leaves, do they know where to go if they want more information?
Those are systems questions.
That’s why I don’t think digital signage should simply receive a folder of announcement graphics every Monday with the instruction, “Put these on rotation.”
We should be more intentional than that.
My new rule: every screen gets a purpose
Before deciding what goes on a screen, I want to answer three questions.
Who is looking at this screen?
Is it a worshipper sitting in the auditorium? A guest walking through the lobby? A parent checking in a child? A volunteer serving during service?
How long do we realistically have their attention?
Three seconds? Thirty seconds? An entire service?
What is the single most useful thing this screen can do for them?
Not five things.
One.
Once those questions are answered, the design usually gets much simpler—and much better.
Don’t fill screens. Use them.
Having a screen does not mean we need to constantly prove we are using it.
Sometimes a beautiful branded background is enough. Sometimes one sentence is enough. Sometimes the live camera feed is the right answer. Sometimes the screen should be full of lyrics. Sometimes the screen should almost disappear.
The technology exists to serve the environment and the mission, not the other way around.
So I’m trying to stop asking:
What can we put on this screen?
And start asking:
What should this screen accomplish?
I think that question leads to clearer communication, better creative decisions, and ultimately a better experience for the people we’re trying to reach.
Take a look at the screens around your church this week—lobby TVs, LED walls, hallway displays, check-in monitors, whatever you have.
Then ask yourself:
Does this screen have a clear job, or are we just putting things on it because it’s there?
If your church has found a creative way to make digital signage more useful without turning every display into another announcement board, I’d love to hear about it in the comments.
Carlos Sanchez
Behind Sunday
Behind the work. Elevating the mission.