I have a confession to make to you all. I am a complete church junkie. I love the Church, think about the Church, dream about the Church all the time. Honestly, since I was a teenager I have always been interested in what the Church is and what other churches are doing. Now back in high school I admittedly liked going to other churches to see what good looking girls they had there but thankfully I visit other churches for different reasons now.
When I say church junkie I mean I am into every part of it. From the staff positions that churches hire to the thickness of the seat cushions, I love it all. If I am on vacation or a work trip it is very rare that I don’t visit multiple churches in that area to take a tour or meet with one or some of their staff members. Since I have done this so many times I thought I would give you a quick glimpse of what I look at when I visit a church. Now this does vary from when I go visit. Many times it is not during a service time so I can’t get a good idea of everything that you would normally see when there is a service going on.
Facilities
-Foyer space vs. auditorium space
-Signage
-How good is the worst seat in the house
-Cleanliness
-Master planning
Staffing
-I like to see unique positions that churches have beyond the staple, kids, youth, music etc. I just met a generosity pastor a couple of days ago.
-Ratio of staff per 100 attenders
-Friendliness (helpfulness) of the staff. I have visited churches from 30-30,000 and the amount of people has nothing to do with how friendly and helpful they are.
-I’m obsessed with staffing flow charts. I find most churches don’t have these (we just finished ours at The Oaks)
Service planning
-Why are things put where they are
-How they do announcements (Usually the worst part of any service)
-Smoothness of transitions
-Stupid transitions (mic to mic hand-offs)
-Length of service. Some churches should have a two hour service others shouldn’t go more the one hour.
Preaching
-Use of Scripture
-Style (TD, Bell, Chandler, etc)
-Length
-Illustrations
Volunteers
-How many
-What positions
-Recruiting, resourcing, rewarding
I have honestly thought about adding “secret shopper” service to HelpStaff.me because I think it could be a huge help to churches but I haven’t yet formalized it. Look for it soon.
There are several things that I look at. What about you? What do you look for when visiting a church?
Not sure if you are married or not, but as a pastor’s wife, let me beseech you to keep your passions within proper boundaries, and keep the first things first - your marriage. Not having boundaries or balance is neither something to brag about or be proud of, and will sooner or later catch you in your marriage. My experience and perspective.
Teresa,
Thanks for your concern. As with anyone I always appreciate prayers for a well balanced life and marriage. I suppose I should do a post sometime on how I balance my love for the church and the way I balance that with my family.
Justin-
I remember you passion at NCU and it’s great to see God growing the passion even more. If everyone looked at the church not just from a ministry point of view but like a business like you, I think churches would be growing faster and this “me” generation of teenagers would be surrounded by people who are passionate like you.
I love that you met a Generosity Pastor. How many churches can say they are just as passionate about giving as they are recieving their tithes!
Thanks for being passionate.
Jennifer Risner-Gottlieb
hey man, just wanted to stop by and say youre awesome…keep being you. hope to see you sometime.
Ashley