A few days ago, I wrote about something I’ve been rethinking in our church: the tendency to treat every available screen like a digital bulletin board.
The main idea was simple:
Every screen needs a job.
That article generated more conversation than I expected, and one question naturally follows from it.
If we stop putting every announcement on the lobby TVs, what should actually be on them?
I don’t think there is one universal playlist that every church should copy. The better approach is to think about the lobby television in different states based on who is in the building, what they are doing, and what would actually be useful to them at that moment.
For us, I’m beginning to think about four primary states:
Weekday. Pre-service. During service. Post-service.
Same television. Four different jobs.
State 1: Weekday
Walk into a lot of churches during the week and the lobby TVs are either turned off or still rotating last Sunday’s announcements.
I think there is a better opportunity here.
During the week, the screen should function primarily as part of the environment. Someone may be coming in for a meeting, counseling appointment, rehearsal, student event, small group, or simply visiting the building for the first time.
They probably do not need a slideshow telling them about six upcoming Sunday events.
They need to know where they are and get a quick sense of who the church is.
For a weekday lobby screen, I would keep things extremely simple:
Church logo
Mission or vision statement
Service information
One QR code for more information
That may be enough.
At our church, one of the phrases we use is:
We Exist to Reach People to Know God
That kind of message makes much more sense to me on a weekday display than a rotating collection of event flyers.
It reinforces identity.
It gives the room some intentionality.
And if somebody wants details, the QR code gives them a way to get there.
The screen does not have to explain everything the church does.
It just needs to help the space make sense.
State 2: Sunday pre-service
Sunday morning changes the audience completely.
Now the lobby is full of people arriving, checking in kids, getting coffee, finding friends, asking questions, and making their way toward the auditorium.
Attention is scarce.
That means our screens need to become more useful, not more complicated.
This is where I think many churches make the mistake of loading up a ten-slide announcement rotation because Sunday is when the most people are in the building.
More people does not automatically mean more information will be absorbed.
In fact, I think the opposite may be true.
Sunday morning is one of the busiest environments we create. If someone glances at a television for three seconds, we need to decide what deserves those three seconds.
My ideal pre-service lobby screen would probably contain three types of information.
Welcome and identity
First, establish the environment.
Church logo.
A welcoming message.
Mission or vision.
Something that immediately communicates, “You’re in the right place.”
For a first-time guest, that matters more than knowing about an event three weeks from now.
One priority
If there is something the entire church genuinely needs to know about, highlight it.
One thing.
Not eight.
Maybe baptisms are coming up.
Maybe groups launch next week.
Maybe registration closes today for a major event.
Give that message some actual room to breathe instead of forcing it to compete with everything else happening at the church.
This does require somebody to make a decision about what gets priority.
That is not always easy, but I think that decision is part of good communication.
One obvious next step
Then give people somewhere to go if they want more.
For us, I like the idea of one QR code leading to a central place where someone can find events, giving, groups, serving opportunities, baptism information, and other next steps.
The screen does not need to contain all of that information.
It just needs to provide the doorway.
Again:
The screen creates clarity. The phone handles complexity.
State 3: During service
This is the easiest decision for me.
Once service starts, I think the most useful thing our lobby TVs can become is an extension of the auditorium.
Put the live program feed on them.
At that point, the announcement rotation has largely finished doing its job.
The people remaining in the lobby are there for different reasons. A parent may have stepped out with a child. A volunteer may be serving at a desk. Someone may have arrived late. Someone else may simply need to step out of the auditorium for a few minutes.
Showing them another event graphic is probably not particularly useful.
Letting them continue participating in the service is.
The worship feed, message, host moments, baptism, or whatever is currently happening in the room now becomes the most relevant content available.
This is also a good example of why I like thinking in terms of screen states rather than playlists.
Nothing about the physical television changed.
Its purpose changed.
Before service, it helped people arrive and get connected.
During service, it helps them stay connected to what is happening in the room.
What about audio?
If you are sending the live program feed to lobby displays, I would also think intentionally about audio.
A television speaker turned up loudly in every hallway is probably not the answer.
But strategically placed program audio in lobby areas can make the transition outside the auditorium feel much less disconnected.
The goal should not be to recreate the PA system in the hallway. It should simply allow someone who steps out to continue following what is happening.
This is one of those details that is easy to overlook because technically the television is already showing the feed.
But video without useful audio may not actually solve the problem.
State 4: Post-service
Once service ends, the screen gets another job.
People are no longer arriving.
They are leaving, talking, making decisions, finding ministry leaders, picking up children, and figuring out what comes next.
That makes post-service a great time for next-step communication.
Again, I would resist turning the screens back into a twelve-slide carousel.
Instead, I’d prioritize things that make sense immediately after someone has experienced the service.
Maybe:
NEW HERE?
READY FOR YOUR NEXT STEP?
NEED PRAYER?
FIND A GROUP
SERVE WITH US
You may still highlight one major upcoming event, but I would keep the overall message focused on action.
This is also where a QR code becomes particularly useful because somebody is much more likely to take out their phone after service than while rushing through the lobby before it.
Think about location too
Not every television in the building needs to show identical content.
A screen near kids check-in has a different audience from one near the auditorium doors.
A television in the student area may need different information from the main lobby.
A screen beside a Next Steps area may be much more action-oriented than one mounted over the coffee station.
This is where digital signage gets interesting.
Instead of asking:
“What should be on our TVs?”
we can ask:
“What should be on this TV, in this location, for this person?”
That is a much better design question.
You may eventually end up with different content zones throughout the building.
Main lobby
Welcome, identity, priority communication, live program.
Kids area
Check-in information, kids branding, pickup instructions, relevant family communication.
Next Steps area
Groups, serving, baptism, prayer, connection.
Auditorium overflow or lobby
Live program feed during service.
Now the screens are actually responding to their environment.
Don’t design a lobby slide like a flyer
There is another practical issue underneath all of this.
Even when we choose the right information, we can still communicate it poorly.
A lobby television is not a flyer.
It is not an email.
It is not an event registration page.
Someone may only look at it for a few seconds, often from twenty feet away.
That means the design needs to reflect reality.
A good lobby graphic probably needs:
One strong headline
Very little supporting copy
Large typography
High contrast
One obvious action
If somebody has to stand directly in front of the television and read three sentences to understand the announcement, the design is asking too much from the environment.
Give them the idea.
Then give them somewhere else to get the details.
I’d rather have four great slides than fourteen mediocre ones
There is a temptation with digital signage to think more content equals more value.
I’m starting to believe the opposite.
I would rather have a small number of intentional screens or slides that someone can actually understand than a huge playlist trying to represent every ministry equally.
Imagine a pre-service rotation containing:
Welcome / church identity
This week’s priority
Next Steps / QR code
One strong environmental or mission graphic
That is four slides.
Someone walking through the lobby might realistically see two of them.
They still have a chance of understanding something.
Compare that with fourteen slides rotating every eight seconds. A person could stand in the lobby for almost two minutes and still never see the announcement that was supposedly important enough to include.
More content does not automatically equal better communication.
Someone has to decide what gets priority
This is probably the hardest part of the whole framework.
Technology makes it easy to add another slide.
Leadership requires deciding whether we should.
Every ministry has legitimate things happening. Every leader understandably wants people to know about those things.
But the communication system cannot treat every message as the highest priority simultaneously.
Somewhere, somebody has to curate.
That might be a communications director, creative director, pastor, or small group of leaders. The structure will look different in every church.
But there needs to be some answer to:
What are we asking people to pay attention to this week?
If the answer is “everything,” we probably have not actually answered the question.
A simple framework you can use this Sunday
If I were starting from scratch with lobby TVs this week, I would use this:
WEEKDAY
Job: Reinforce identity
Content: Logo, mission, service information, one QR code
SUNDAY PRE-SERVICE
Job: Welcome and orient
Content: Welcome, one priority message, Next Steps, one QR code
DURING SERVICE
Job: Extend the auditorium experience
Content: Live program feed
POST-SERVICE
Job: Help people respond
Content: Next Steps, prayer, groups, serving, one priority
That is not a rigid formula.
It is a starting point.
Your church may need something completely different. But simply assigning each state a purpose forces us to think beyond:
What slides do we have available?
And toward:
What would actually help someone right now?
The bigger principle
This whole conversation is really about something bigger than lobby televisions.
Creative ministry should not simply fill available space.
Production should not simply make signals appear on screens.
Communications should not simply distribute every piece of information everywhere.
We are designing an experience.
And good experiences usually come from clarity, hierarchy, and intentionality.
The television in your lobby is one small piece of that system.
Give it a job.
Give it the information it needs to accomplish that job.
Then let everything else go somewhere better suited to handle it.
Because sometimes the best thing we can do with a screen is not put more on it.
It is finally decide what belongs there.
If you’re using lobby TVs or digital signage at your church, I’d love to hear how you handle the different parts of Sunday.
Do your screens change once service begins, or are you running the same content all day?
Drop your setup in the comments. I’m especially interested in how other churches are handling live program feeds, lobby audio, and different content zones around the building.
Carlos Sanchez
Behind Sunday
Behind the work. Elevating the mission.