It’s been said, “The reason people don’t go to church is because they’ve been.” While you won’t find that statement in Scripture, I believe that it is the gospel truth! Most churches have a revolving door for their guests; people leave just as quickly as they come. What if your church could keep 30% of the guests who walk in the door? Would that change your church world? What if your church could retain 50%? What about 70%? If we could all do that, no church in America would be declining!
I just had my staff read the best church hospitality book on the market. Surprisingly, the book isn’t about churches at all; rather, it’s about Disney World. Inside the Magic Kingdom by Tom Connellan contains some of the best insights into hospitality, guest satisfaction, and competition I’ve ever read. I believe everyone in church leadership should own a copy and strive for their churches to master the principles inside.
Why study about Disney? Weren’t Christians on a “boycott Disney” kick a few years back? Regardless of how a person feels about the organization, there’s a lot to learn from Disney World. This single fact alone should grab our attention: 70% of the visitors at Disney World every year are repeat visitors.
Consider the word, “competition.” Maybe you’re thinking of the church across town. Maybe you’re thinking of TV, movies, and shopping malls. My eyes were opened regarding our church’s competition when I read, “Your competition is anyone who raises customer expectations–because if someone else satisfies customers better than you, no matter what type of business, you suffer by comparison” (Page 20, Inside the Magic Kingdom).
Certainly that statement is true of businesses, but is it true for Churches? YES!! Satan wants people to take hold of any excuse to never return to your church and hear God’s message. In your church, Satan will magnify any and all frustrations for newcomers, so they will never come back. They may be willing to give Wal-Mart the benefit of the doubt, but when their eyes are clouded by The Evil One, they won’t give that benefit to churches!! It is the RESPONSIBILITY of the Church (capital ‘C’) to give newcomers a “WOW” experience and outperform our competition at every turn!!
“But my church doesn’t have the resources to out perform the competition.” That’s just an excuse. “I can’t motivate volunteers as well as Disney motivates their staff because I’m not paying the volunteers.” Another excuse. The bottom line is this: no excuse is good enough where souls are at stake. We’re not talking about giving people a great vacation or warm-happy memories. We’re talking about rescuing people from the clutches of Hell.
Drop the excuses, Church. Find your motivation. If Disney can get ridiculously-motivated by an animated mouse, we should be ridiculously-more-motivated about Jesus Christ!
Great insights! I heard someone say recently to replace the phrase “I/We can’t do that” (i.e. “we don’t have the resources”) with the phrase “It’s not a priority”. Changes the way you think about the roadblocks you seem to have.
We’re in Minnesota and trying to figure out why our attendance has dipped. We’ve had a long winter, tons of snow, people are busy, kids sports are humming – a lot of good reasons, but we’re not sure that’s it. Are any other churches wrestling with this right now?