Best and Worst

My best and worst guest experiences at a church…

As a church consultant, I visit a lot of churches (approaching 200). I’ve experienced friendly churches, and…the other kind. Here are two examples, of good and bad (both from Kentucky, interestingly enough), from a couple of larger churches..

Let’s take the bad first. No greeters on the doors. The person at the info booth drank coffee and talked to his friend, while we were clearly waiting – while looking straight at us. He never spoke to us. The person handing out worship programs at the door gave us a look that I can only describe as disdain.

The good example? This church had great parking people, and folks to greet newcomers at a tent outside before they even got to the building. The person that greeted us didn’t tell us where things were, he SHOWED us. He walked us through the key parts of the building, and gave us a card for a free “premium” coffee, standing in line with us until we were waited on. After the service, he spotted us leaving the sanctuary/auditorium, remembered our names, and walked us out to the parking lot. On the drive out of the lot, there were many signs saying how happy they were that we had come to church that day.

I would go back to one of those churches.