Friday, August 31, 2007

Consumers or Contributers

There at least 2 type of people who attend church. They are either consumers or contributors.

Consumers attend and receive and take. They judge the worth of attending on factors like were they welcomed. Were they blessed during the worship. Were they Fed during the preaching. Were there kids looked after.

Contributors attend and serve and give. They judge their worth of attending on assisting on bringing people closer to God. They did this by driving a bus to bring people from the car park, setting up the auditorium, welcoming people to church, serving tea and coffee, playing a music instrument, singing in a choir, cleaning a toilet, working a computer, stacking chairs, teaching kids.... the list goes on.

Read this article from lifechurch.tv. Craig compared how a visit to our churches should be like to a hotel he visited that showed him the most incredible customer service he has experienced.

After a few days at this luxurious resort, Amy and I agreed that we’ve never had a better experience. How did they do it?

Here’s what I learned from interviewing some staff members:

Their goal in everything was to exceed our expectations. In every way, they did. Whether it was putting down a towel for us on our chairs by the pool, remembering our names, folding down our comforter at night, leaving a handwritten note, or neatly arranging our shoes by the foot of the bed, details obviously mattered.

How did they do it?

* They were intentional. Each new staff member attends a three-day event to learn to culture of the resort. Then everyone attends a two-week customer service course.They had a large staff. This resort had 250 rooms.

* They had over 1000 staff members. If each room averaged two guests, the resort had a better than 2:1 staff-to-guest ratio. In our churches, if we have 100 members and have 5 guests on a weekend, we have a 20:1 ratio. Think about how we could better serve our guests!

Businesses should never exceed the hospitality of ministries. We must be intentional. And we must train our members to see themselves as “unpaid staff” or ministers to welcome those who don’t know Christ and invite them into our family.

Non-believers should feel more loved by the church than by any institution in the world.


If you are not already in the game its time join in and make your church the most incredible place on earth to visit.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sometimes people switch from consumers to contributors and then back to consumers.

Often times when life gets good or gets bad they make the switch....

Post a Comment