True! Sometimes church can be an exclusive club, understood only by those who've been there a while.

I try to visit one different church a month to learn how they do things better or to just go through that "first time visitor" experience and re-live and learn from that experience.

I'm no pastor but I do this for my church.

I'm looking forward to this series - it should be very enlightening.

I think it's important to keep this perspective in mind on our church websites as well. Most people say that a church website needs to serve two distinct groups of people: members and non-members.

However, I think the "non-members" needs to be split into both Christians and non-Christians. There's a big difference between someone visiting your website (or church) that came from another church vs. one that has never been to church before.

I am also a church hopper...I like to visit other churches to get a sense of waht goes on...they do tend to seem like private clubs with often little concern for being warm and welcoming to newbies. Sometimes it seems like they are putting on a show, instead of showing people the way.

Good post... I am looking forward to hear your perspective on the welcome part of the church.

Having to recently find a new church after a move to a new state - this is so applicable. I think a lot of churches have lost the concept of individualism of a congregation - even though it exists in every church. The church that tries to be everything for everyone typically ends up being a neutered not a lot for everyone kinda church.

I look forward to reading!

I look forward to your post. I've written some first time visitor articles at Evangelism Coach and look forward to hearing about yours.

We are still visitors in our current church, having been there about 4 weeks. Its a mega church, so there is no rush for people to meet us.

Pastor Chris
EvangelismCoach.org

Church is uncomfortable... Where else do you sing songs while staring at a trippy powerpoint with people you don't know, eat a cracker, take a shot of juice, drop money into a crushed velvet bag and listen to one dude talk about events we weren't at and worlds we can't see...

In design they call it "User Experience"

Tough Job for us all... Great Topic!!!

Church is uncomfortable... Where else do you sing songs while staring at a trippy powerpoint with people you don't know, eat a cracker, take a shot of juice, drop money into a crushed velvet bag and listen to one dude talk about events we weren't at and worlds we can't see...

In design they call it "User Experience"

Tough Job for us all... Great Topic!!!

I am really, really, really looking forward to this series of posts from you. Please speak to us - how can we make these lambs feel welcome in our pasture????

So true! I've said many times that finding a new church is HARD WORK. Now as a Communications Director for a church, coming from a video production and radio background, I take the visitor's experience very seriously and take our weekly attendance very personally [whether I should or not]. I'm looking forward to gleaning your wisdom.

In design they call it "User Experience"

I almost wrote that but didn't want to sound too nerdy, but thanks! I've heard design terms used in our church like "Accessibility" and not physically but how accessible are we as a church? "Flow" what is a typical flow for every person that enters the door.. walk through the steps and make it as smooth or help direct them.

At our mens group we talk about how not to hang out in church as the same group cause it is easy to form a click and everyone has their group and the newbies are left out.

Ok, end of nerdy talk!

I saw on the news a couple weeks ago, a reporter visited 7 different Christian Events/places/churches to basically see what it was all about. and had a camera following him.

http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/video/seven_mark_kelley/seven_christian_soldiers.html

Theres even a church marketing guy in the video... I thought about posting it in the CML, a while ago, but since this is here...

Great stuff David!

A visitor's perspective is just what the church needs to hear from every once in a while...

I am dedicated my blogspot, The Pew View, for that very purpose.

Look forward to reading the rest of your articles...

www.thepewview.com

I was going to write something quick about how I'm looking forward to more of the posts, and instead just wrote my own thoughts on my experiences as well... finding a church home.

Great Thoughts. We have created a monthly stepping stone church experience for Men in Daytona Beach, FL called "Church for Men". We are striving to create a church as unusual event for men. I look forward to the rest of your comments.

That CBC piece rocked! Thanks for sharing it, Josh. That is worth a whole CMS series on its own!

To see where it's coming from, you need to know that CBC seems to come from a viewpoint of global skepticism. That is usually applied to religion, specifically Christianity. So that it's as balanced as it is remarkable. That it drills home questions of message vs. medium and substance vs. style makes it particularly relevant here.

I have been visiting local churches for the past three months. I post Field Trip Reports for each church on my blog after each visit.

REVOLUTION

I work for MEGA church in Tacoma, WA area. We take our guests very seriously. I think this topic is so important for today's way of "church" How we engage with that brief moment with our guests each week is vital. We value our guests at Champions Centre. I'm eager to hear what your thoughts are.

Guess I've been around church too long myself. And I'm the guy who's supposed to reach the unchurched! Can't wait to see the rest of the series!

I've been around church a long time. And I'm the guy who's supposed to reach the unchurched! Can't wait to read the material...

Wow, this 9 part series really described how I have felt as a first time visitor many times. I hope many churches will take heed to such a useful insight.
Another suggestion I might offer is that a church should have a "real person" to answer the phone at least an hour before and during any service or event that is happening there. If I'm a first time visitor I may want to call to find out when the service starts or get directions if I'm new to town. Many times elderly people don't know the night before If they will physically feel well enough to attend church until just before a service. If nobody answers the phone who can they call to request a ride? Often they don't want to be a "bother" to anybody so they stay at home and watch a church service on T.V. which can never be a substitute for fellowship with others. A few days ago I rode with some friends to a large church in San Antonio to hear a nationally known speaker. The directions we printed from a popular map website were confusing and we drove around for an extra hour trying to find the place. The Church was packed but NOBODY answered the fricken phone and we missed over half of the event! And hey, if you can use the word "suck" I can use the word "fricken"! :)

I come from a corporate marketing world, now retired and serving on Session of my church and the moderator of the Membership Committee. While I find all the above comments to be relevant, I find them a bit distracting from the true mission of the Church and what we are or should be about. Use of the very term, Marketing connotes commercialism to me in a manner very similar to how the Christmas message often gets lost for the same focus on commercialism. But in this highly commercialized world we live in, that reality must be accepted and I get that. In our church, we often talk about all the issues discussed in the blogs above and try to be sensitive to them, as we put ourselves in the shoes of a stranger, visiting us for the first time. But at the same time, we try to discern about who we are and what our personal and individual, spiritual growth is about and try to communicate that message to our neighbors and strangers that walk through our doors. Last year, we created a new vision statement for the future and that is "Come-Encounter-Grow-Serve".