Avoid this common mistake on Daylight Saving’s Sunday.

Daylight Saving Time – It’s a love hate relationship for most people. We love it in the Fall when we get an extra hour of sleep. We hate it in the Spring when we feel robbed of our precious time. Daylight Saving Time is especially tricky for churches. How do you inspire people to wake up an hour earlier to be at church that day? We want to help you make the most out of Daylight Saving Time.  We want to make sure you only lose an hour, and not your people.

So, we’d ask you to avoid this common mistake:

Don’t wait to move clocks forward after the Sunday Worship Service. 

Some pastors ask their members not to move their clocks back until after the Sunday morning worship service. We understand the motive, but let’s examine the pitfalls.

1. First-time Guests don’t get the memo.  When a guest happens to visit your church for the first time on Daylight Savings, they will show up at the time posted on your website, invite cards, or other marketing material. When they don’t get the memo of your church’s time change (or lack thereof) they show up an hour early. Not a good first impression for a first time guest.
2. Sunday afternoon flies by.  Let’s just face the facts.  You are going to lose an hour.  When most people are given the option, they would rather lose an hour of sleepSaturday night verse an hour of daylight Sunday afternoon.  There’s something disappointing about getting out of church at noon, only to realize it’s really 1pm.

We believe the best way to approach Daylight Saving Time is to simply promote it the best you can. Here are 2 things we would suggest:

1. Use graphics (we can help with that!). People are visual learners. We can customize a Daylight Saving graphic specifically for your church.
2. Use repetition.  It usually takes someone hearing your message 7 times before it sinks in.  Don’t just put an announcement in the bulletin.  Print it.  Speak it.  Announce it. Post it.