When Your Church Experience is Like the Restaurant You'll Never Go Back To

You have a list. It’s a mental list of all the restaurants (many of them fast food) that you’ll never return to. Maybe the facilities were subpar, maybe the fries were cold. Usually, it’s the service. I know I’m not the only person who’s stood in front of the counter for five solid minutes waiting for one of the four lethargic employees behind the counter to acknowledge my existence. There are restaurants I’ll never go back to. Restaurants that I was predisposed to give my business to. Restaurants where I genuinely wanted to eat their food. And yet they seemed to go out of their way to make sure I had a horrible experience, by their indifference, by their unprofessionalism, or by their demeaning manner. I know you’ve been there too.

How ridiculous would it be for the manager to call his employees together and say, “We’re losing business, we’re not making a profit. Do you know why?”, and for the employees to answer, “It must be the economy. We’re in a recession, and people aren’t eating anymore.” “It’s our location, no one drives on this road anymore.” Or, “No one eats hamburgers anymore, they’re all vegetarians.” In reality, the truth is much simpler. They simply don’t value their customers enough to give them a quality experience.

Here’s the twist: how many of you have walked out of a church having had the same experience, vowing never to return? Perhaps the facilities were old and outdated. Maybe no one gave you directions to where you needed to go. No one said hello. The only eye contact you got was from an angry member letting you know that you were in their seat. Maybe the songs didn’t connect and the preacher made no sense. You walked into that church wanting to connect with God and hoping to find a spiritual family. Yet you walked out, vowing never to return.

How ridiculous would it be for the pastor to gather his members together and say, “We’re losing people, our attendance is down. Do you know why?”, and for the members to answer, “People just don’t love God anymore. They’re not faithful to the Bible. This world is going to hell in a hand basket, and no one is committed to church anymore.” In reality, the truth is much simpler. Sometimes churches treat newcomers as pests, not guests, and unintentionally communicate the fact that newcomers aren’t really wanted at their church.

What a shame. As a church, let’s be better than that.

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