Faith Perceptions recently released the latest edition of their church index, which provides insight into the experiences of first time guests. More specifically, the findings are based on 1,152 separate and unique church services attended by the company’s mystery guests (think mystery shoppers for church attendance) between early 2008 and June 1, 2012. The overall results for each church size are shown below (p.6).
So What?
Large churches (those with average weekly worship attendance between 301 and 500) received the highest overall score, and were the only size congregation to be graded as “good.” Small, medium and mega churches all received fair ratings while micro and XL churches were rated as poor.
The surveys include questions about the following areas: directions, service, signage, pre-service greeting, pre-service atmosphere, seating, music, in-service greeting, sermon, speaker, post-service atmosphere, connect-resources, friendliness, children’s ministries, return, and overall experience (p.7).
- How does your congregation engage in outside/objective assessment of the visitor/guest experience?
- Which of the areas included on the survey do you think are relative strengths for your congregation? areas in need of attention and further development?
- Which size category best describes your congregation? What are some of the strengths and some of the limitations of this size related to positive experiences by first time visitors/guests?