THEY have supermarkets everywhere quaking in their boots as they scrutinise every aspect of their service.
But now the dreaded mystery shoppers can be seen walking down different aisles; those of local churches.
As part of a scheme being launched in churches across the Wakefield Anglican diocese mystery worshippers will be dropping in to gauge the standard of warmth, welcome and fellowship.
It will be modelled on the mystery shopper schemes used by researchers to assess the service offered by hotels, shops and other retailers.
The mystery worshippers will focus on how welcoming the churches are, with a checklist including how comfortable newcomers are made to feel they, whether coffee and biscuits are served and the level of friendliness before and after the service.
Will they get their sixpence back if they’re not satisfied?
Will they also rate the quality of theological orthodoxy?
Oh, never mind:
[blockquote]However, the specific content of the services will not be under scrutiny by the mystery churchgoers.
It is not about reinventing worship, it’s about putting churches back at the heart of our communities and that starts at the front porch.
“We want to make sure that we are creating a good experience of church that the visitor will want to repeat.â€[/blockquote]
It’s about style over substance.
I suspect they’re basing their approach on Ship of Fools Mystery Worshipper, some of the finest church reviews on the Internet.
#3. Reminds me of the joke. A dirty hippy goes to a church. The people tell him “first you need to bathe.” He bathes and returns. “No,” they say, “you need to cut your hair and buy a bible.” he cuts his hair and buys a bible. “Don’t you see,” they say. “We don’t want people like you in here.”
The hippy opens his arms into the sky. “What am I supposed to do, Lord?” The sky opens. “It’s OK,” God says. “They haven’t let me in there either.”
Hospitality is the gospel in action. Otherwise its just words. Anyone can say words.
I imagine one church: Visitor – “I’m interested in what church is all about.”
Priest: “First, I want to know if you can handle my beliefs. then we’ll be nice. Otherwise, perhaps you can go somewhere else.”
that is, alas, my non-theological version of orthodoxy. And then, I imagine stating my theological version of orthodoxy and people falling asleep.
#5 John Wilkins
I would support what you say: firstly welcome; secondly support and sustenance and third through the Spirit transformation. Is that not the best that we can receive?
It all starts with a welcome.
I wonder if they plan to publish the evaluations — like here
http://www.shipoffools.com/Mystery/index.html
or if USA churches interest you most try this list:
http://www.shipoffools.com/Mystery/archive/us.html
I have mixed feelings about this. Yeah, when you visit a new church, you want to feel welcome. But at the same time, I find high-pressure, aggressively friendly “greeters” to be a turn-off, and a distraction from worship. I don’t want to feel like I’ve just walked into a car dealership.
We visited a Church in York, PA (St. Andrew’s Episcopal). At the Peace, the woman in front of us turned around and said (this is classic!):
“I’m sorry, are you new, or am I just terribly unobservant?”
We loved it!
I’m probably in a minority here, but if I go to a church, no matter how welcoming they are, and their theology is not right (you can tell from the hymns/songs chosen, from the sermon, from the announcements, etc.), I don’t go back.
JE <><
I saw this on another forum:
…many of us are like the astronomer who said to the theologian, “I don’t understand why you theologians fuss so much about predestination and supralapsarianism, about the communicable and incommunicable attributes of God, imputed or infused grace, and the like. To me Christianity is simple–it’s the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.â€
To which, incidentally, the theologian replied, “I think I see what you mean. I get lost in all your talk about exploding novas, expanding universes, theories of entropy and astronomical perturbations. For me astronomy is simple: It’s ‘Twinkle, twinkle little star…’ â€