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12 More “Reflections” From Church Spies

12 More

Some years ago, I wrote a post called “8 Confessions of Church Spies” based on the work of our church consulting company, The Lawless Group. With this post, I want to add some specific comments from more recent “spies.” Maybe they will lead you to consider your own church’s situation.

  1. “We couldn’t tell where the front door was.” The problem was that the church had many doors, and none looked like a main entrance.
  2. “It was clear the church cares about their building.” It was clean, neat and well-cared for. Excellence was the standard.
  3. “The congregation enjoys worshiping together.” You can usually tell when that’s the case—just as you can usually tell when they don’t care much about worship.
  4. “One person came out of her way to greet me in the sanctuary.” In this case, the spy was already seated in the worship center—but the church had greeters stationed there to greet anyone they didn’t know.
  5. “The location wasn’t the easiest to find.” Let me put it this way: If it weren’t for GPS, our spy isn’t sure he would have easily found the building.
  6. “We would consider going back to this church for the preaching.” It was clear, biblical and applicational.
  7. “We didn’t see the guest parking until after we’d already parked.” That happens sometimes—the guest parking is so isolated or hard to see that no one even knows it’s there.
  8. “Nobody spoke to us other than greeters at the door.” It’s not unusual to hear that comment when we send spies to churches.
  9. “Nobody was at the Welcome Center when we arrived.” Needless to say, that’s a problem.
  10. “I got to the small group on time, and nobody was there yet.” That’s also a problem. Guests who arrive just prior to starting time should not be the only ones in the room.
  11. “It was easy to walk through the children’s area.” Ease of access to a children’s area is usually a sign that the church hasn’t instituted sufficient security and safety measures yet.
  12. “Nobody explained children’s church.” This church released their children from the worship service to go to children’s church, but no one explained details for guests (e.g., What ages could attend? Where would the children be? Who would be leading them? etc.). Parents aren’t likely to release their kids when they don’t know these details.

Do any of these comments speak to your church?

This article originally appeared here.