Home Outreach Leaders Articles for Outreach & Missions 3 Not-So-Obvious Reasons Church Visitors Don’t Return to Your Church

3 Not-So-Obvious Reasons Church Visitors Don’t Return to Your Church

3 Not-So-Obvious Reasons Church Visitors DON’T Return to Your Church

There are three not so obvious reasons that church visitors don’t return to your church. All pastors know the feeling. A new couple visits on a Sunday morning. Maybe they just moved to the area and they are looking for a church, or a friend invited them, or they decided to give church a try. They seem really sharp, exactly the demographic you are trying to reach. You have a great conversation in the lobby.

They promise to be back next week, but they’re not. They never come back.

Another family comes three weeks in a row. Each weekend you see them in the lobby after church and it seems like they are really connecting. They miss the fourth week, but they’re back on the fifth. And then they never come back.

What happened? Why didn’t these families connect? Why do so many people flow through your church without sticking?

You’ve read the books, been to the conferences and tried everything you can think of, but the back door of your church is always wide open. What is going on?

While I haven’t been to your church, or if I have let’s pretend I haven’t, I have visited scores of church across the country and I know why many people don’t stick.

Sometimes the music is really bad or the preaching is really boring or the children’s ministry is really awful, but there are other, less obvious, reasons church visitors don’t return:

3 Not-So-Obvious Reasons Church Visitors DON’T Return to Your Church

1. Church visitors don’t return because your church is a Members Only club.

I can hear your reaction from here, “Not us! We work very hard to be inclusive. We go out of our way to welcome visitors; we even invite them to a monthly reception to show them how welcome they are. Swing and a miss on this one, cheesy boy.” (I don’t know why you are calling me “cheesy boy,” but I could use a nice slab of sharp cheddar about now.)

Actually, the more you think you’re not a members only club, the more likely you are.

Guests are just that, guests. They are welcome to watch and even participate, but they are not a part of the club. Walking into the church is like walking around in a foreign country.

There are signs with clever labels like “Treasure Cove,” “Warehouse” and “Waves” that mean absolutely nothing to the outsider.

Your announcements are laced with insider language about ministries and programs that everyone, wink-wink-nod-nod, already knows about.

Sermons are filled with inside jokes and references to individuals that an outsider knows nothing about.

You even have special shirts and name badges to clearly delineate who belongs and who does not.

The effort required to learn your language, understand your references and get to know your members is just too challenging for the new attender, so they don’t come back.

You don’t mean to be a members only club, you just are.

2. Church visitors don’t return because your church doesn’t care about details.

The first-time attender showed up a few minutes after your website said your services start because they wanted to sneak in the back, but when they arrived, the band wasn’t even on stage.

The auditorium was almost empty when they sat down, which made it easy for the pastor to find them. He explained that the congregation is notoriously late, but the service will start in a few minutes.