Alright...we're moving along here! It's good to see that we have some 'outside' thinkers giving us input. Hopefully we'll get even more discussion this time. This particular topic has been debated for some time...it can even get somewhat controversial.
Here's week number three of our discussion:
Fact #3 - Church guests are highly consumer-oriented.
If your church building is difficult for newcomers to navigate, if your people are unaccepting and unfriendly, another church down the street may have what they’re looking for. You need to look at your church through the eyes of a first-time guest. Rick Warren says that the longer a pastor has been a pastor the less he thinks like a non-pastor.
Action: Consider employing objective, yet trained, anonymous guests to give an honest appraisal. Many restaurants, retail stores, and hotels utilize the service of one or more “mystery guests” to provide helpful analysis of welcoming and responding to the consumer. Churches would be well served to utilize a similar service.
2 comments:
It is always good to get a glimpse into what an objective eye is seeing.
I would love to say I had a friend who would do this, but I am not sure at the moment. The key is to find someone who would be open and honest and not just criticize and use personal preferences, if ya know what I mean.
Another great way to keep a fresh view of what a visitor feels is to actually be a visitor. We should all (from time to time) take a (preferably Sat. night!!!!) trip to another church and be the visitor.
I agree with Michelle about visiting another church to see what it's like to be a visitor. This experience could help open our eyes more to our own strengths and weaknesses. I think I might know someone who could be a secret shopper, does anyone on lead team think they might know someone? I don't think it would hurt to have more than one secret shopper and it might be beneficial to have people who are different ages and at different stages in life.
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