Church and the newcomer often make for a bad combination. I don’t know about your church visiting experience but often going to church for a visitor is like reliving high school: people make you feel awkward, at times things get embarrassing and its one of those things in life where you just want it to end but seems to go on forever. This may not be everyones experience (it was mine when i went for the first time!) but there are some things i think we need to consider about the way we do church, particularly our Sunday services.
Here are a couple links about the visitor and their church experience. The one comes from a Christian perspective the other, definitely not!
Church from a visitor’s perspective
Church Marketing sucks is a website seeking to encourage better use of media and marketing within Churches to aid the Gospel. It comes a 9 part blog post series, not too long so its easy reading.
This is a local paper in Seattle who sent out 31 of their staff to some kind of religious Sunday meeting. From churches, to Mosques, to the living room for a bit of morning TBN, these guys each write about their experience of going to church. WARNING: there is strong language, sexual allusions and other naughty stuff in the article. I nor anyone at …daylight would endorse their perspectives as such, but we would probably acknowledge that’s the reality of the situation. So there is something to learn from this article i think as there are some who made up their minds about church before going and others who were pleasantly surprised
The reason i put these two together is that i realised that in running a church service on Sunday there is no formula that will guarantee the visitors comfort, engagement or acceptance of the Christian message. So, good decor, contemporary music, modern equipment or tasty chow will not guarantee that the visitor will like the service, the people or feel comfortable. It begs the questions;
What is the purpose of our services?
And how do we engage with the seeker in that purpose?
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