How should you say that the church office is closed?

Right now a lot of church offices will be, and have been since Christmas day, closed.

This is understandable. People like holidays. Especially ministers directly after Christmas.

But, I wonder about the importance of this closure being communicated to the congregation and wider community.

Usually, a message similar to "The church office will be closed from Christmas Eve. If you leave a message then they will not be promptly returned, if at all. We will reopen on xyz."

But, I think this can be vastly improved.

At minimum, you should say that someone will be checking the messages every other day and that someone will be in touch promptly. To say that no one will return calls or enquiries is unacceptable.

Further, you should say that there will be a recorded message which will say the times of the services, especially on Christmas eve/day and over New Year's since your church isn't shutting down and people, locals or those on holidays, might want to know when you're services are on.

For those within the congregation, there should be a clearly defined method of receiving pastoral care with the point person's telephone number easily findable. Just because it's summer, doesn't mean that people don't get sick or die.

The way the office sabbatical is communicated matters is because you desperately want to avoid the message that your church is completely closed or, if someone does get in touch, that they would be calling a vacuum.

It would be a dire message to send to your congregation and those outside the church that for a two week period (if not the majority of January) that the mission of the church ceases or that you stop caring about people.