New CHURCH VISIT Category
Along with our Regeneration process, we are not having Sunday morning services (WHAT?? Can you do that??) so that we can visit other churches in our area to see how we can make our place better. There are SO MANY great churches around here that we feel are “getting it done,” that we want our folks to watch and learn so that we can try to implement some of their strategies to make Finley Crossings the best it can be! I want us to work on our CHURCH PLANTING eyes, so that this place really becomes the church we have envisioned it to be for ALL people!
I am starting a new category to help us “talk out loud” about the good (and bad) things we have experienced on our visits to other churches. We are NOT, I repeat NOT going to badmouth any of our sister churches . . . so if you have a bad experience . . . please don’t mention the place by name. I don’t want us to get the reputation of not wanting to support other churches. If you had an awesome experience, like Jenny and I did yesterday . . . then by all means use the comments section of this post and mention their name and a link to their website. You can also email me with your comments if you don’t want them on the world wide web.
Again, let’s learn together. . . but also like the Kindergarten teacher might say . . . “be nice and play nice with others!!”
January 25th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
I realized, sitting in the car, waiting to go into a new church, that being the visitor is scary. It’s intimidating. The thought really crossed my mind numerous times to turn and run. But I didn’t. which made me think that having friendly people in the parking lot is a great idea. I would’ve been a lot less likely to turn and run if there had been a friendly face in the parking lot telling me where I should go and what to expect. We were greeted by someone who opened the door. There was then a row of people who were all drinking coffee that said welcome but didn’t tell us where we could get coffee. The church was well marked on how to get to the bathrooms, the children’s areas, the sanctuary. We walked around and no one stopped us to talk or ask us why we were wondering around the
children’s area without children.
The children’s area and sanctuary were well decorated along with a pretty cool youth area. there was music playing before the service which was nice. the announcements were displayed on the screens along with the pillars of the church, which were informative. their missions emphasis was displayed by banners in the sanctuary; their jeruselem, Judea, samaria, and the world. that was very cool.
we ended up sitting in a row where someone had already put their stuff with two seats open. they walked by us and
grabbed their stuff with not so much as a word and moved. It made us think..how many times has that happened to visitors at our church?
the service was ok. a little rocky and there was a guest speaker and he was not even introduced, and didn’t introduce himself. we read who he was in the bulletin.
people did not move from their seats during the “turn around and shake hands” portion of the service.
overall, not the most positive of experiences. however i did receive a letter from the pastor and a postcard from another staff person this week, telling me who to contact if I had questions and thanking me for visiting, which was nice.
I know that Finley and no other church is perfect as we are imperfect people and there is always room for growth. But I am thankful for our church. I think we’ve come a long way and this is a great opportunity to grow even more and reach out even better.
February 28th, 2007 at 9:40 am
I proceeded to visit a “new” church during a sunday in the generation process as well, although I did go with an old friend so it probably was not as intimidating.
There was one main thing about the church I visited that I would like to mention. There was one guy who kind of stuck with me the whole time…I thought this was a good idea because I was never left alone (although at times I would have liked to be…). He was very friendly and introduced me to everyone. I realize depending on how many new guests we have this can be difficult, and I don’t even know if that was planned, but it made me feel welcome (although he said my name wrong on about 6 different occasions…I’m JOSH not SHAWN!-and yes I did correct him). Overall my experience here was good, I left with a good feeling and wouldn’t mind visiting again.