Independent Baptist Connection
11 Minutes and Counting
When Tom’s family left their driveway twenty minutes ago, they felt unsure about which church to attend that Sunday morning. Dad said he planned on driving until he saw something interesting or the Spirit impressed him about the church his family might enjoy the most.
The family knew there was a Baptist church somewhere. After a short drive through the city, as if the car knew where it was going, the Clarke family approached the parking lot of a large Baptist church on the other side of town. They heard good things about this church. Ads published in the weekly paper claimed it was a place to relax and meet new friends with classes for people in all walks of life. Now they would see for themselves what this church was all about.
Tom was looking for something special but he didn’t know just what, though he still had his own feelings about what made a good church. Neither Tom nor his wife and children would settle for anything less than what they wanted, even if it meant not attending church at all.
The sign at the parking lot entrance read: “Visitors please follow the yellow line.” Tom’s problem was that his car nearly jumped the curb as he looked for its starting point. He had no way of knowing the line faded into the asphalt surface of the parking lot two years ago!
Tom and his family didn’t know it. The church didn’t know it. Staff members gave little thought to it. Yet, a “timer” inside of Tom began its countdown. It was eleven minutes and counting and Tom wondered if this was the right church for him and his family.
Not finding the stripes that marked a parking space and seeing weeds that peeked through the asphalt bothered him. Though only a few small fire ant mounds dotted the parking lot, they also distracted Tom. By the time he parked and his family left the van, three more minutes passed. Now it was eight minutes and counting.
The walk to the front door of the church went by quickly because no one talked with him along the way to the main building. From a distance, the church looked eerie. Wilted flowers along the front of the building cast shadows of apathy on its entrance. What lay on the other side of those tinted doors? Were these people friendly, angry or bitter?
Tom pushed open the door for his wife and children but the more he saw of the inside of the church, the more questions he asked himself. It was now six minutes and counting.
Once inside, he felt puzzled about the church. There were plenty of people there, but no one spoke to him. Where should he go? Where was the bathroom? Where was the auditorium? Which way to the nursery or was there one?
This was a strange place to Tom and he had fears about how others saw him. His nerves tingled and his shoes squeaked as he walked across the floor. Frustration swept over him in the few minutes that passed like hours. Four minutes and counting.
Someone caught the look of panic on Tom’s face and asked if he needed help.
“Do you have a Sunday school class for my son,” Tom asked a well-dressed man. When he said yes but didn’t know where the class met without asking for help himself, Tom glanced more closely at the foyer.
Countless fingerprints on the glass windows and doors were so thick they left a film of oil that reminded him of fog. He also noticed how others were dressed because he never saw clothes like that before. He wasn’t having a very good time.
“Your class is up those stairs,” the man told him. “Go up one flight, then to the end of the hall. Turn left and go down three doors to the room on the right. Your children stay on the ground level. They go out this door and across the courtyard to that metal building over there,” he said pointing. Three minutes and counting.
After his children left for class and Tom and Cathy turned right instead of left, two more minutes passed. They wondered why no one offered them help in the hall or asked if they were lost. Members of the church smiled at them and grunted a brief greeting as they walked by but they asked no questions.
Tom and his wife sat in metal folding chairs near the front of the class. All the seats in back of the classroom were full. The teacher ignored them and other students in the class stared at their new visitors out of the corners of their eyes, asking themselves where they saw this couple before. Were this man and his wife members of the church no one knew? Since those seated in class were afraid to ask, silence greeted Tom and Cathy as they made themselves comfortable.
One minute and counting.
Brother Jack started class, but was so focused on the hunting trip he took last week that all he talked about was the “one that got away”. Announcements ate up more time. For the most part, though, Tom and his wife enjoyed the class once they got into the lesson. But the little “clocks” inside Tom and Cathy ticked away their minutes and reached zero. Time was up.
His family sat in the back of the auditorium where most of the other people sat. When the church members sang, the ones sitting beside them did little more than whisper their songs.
Cards were handed out to first time visitors and Tom read his carefully. Little boxes with comments beside them waited for their owners to check off points of concern. Questions asked about the prospect of a visit in the home or a desire to know more about the church. Tom checked no boxes that day and he kept the card instead of handing it in.
Both he and his wife decided early in Sunday school that they felt the same way about the church that the church seemed to feel about them. It wasn’t one thing that made them feel this way but the sum of all the things they saw, heard and felt in the first eleven minutes of their visit. It was their first impression that spoke to them, and it was a bad one.
While fiction, this story reflects the way first time visitors often see the churches that they attend. Business owners understand the concept that what their prospects first see stays with them, thus causing the spending of money toward lawn care and building maintenance, a fresh coat of paint or a new sign. But products differ from what church visitors seek when they attend a church for the first time.
It’s a narrow window!
Regardless of size, churches use many tools aimed at bringing in visitors. In a world that competes for attention, the House of God often finds itself beaten by other pastimes.
Church growth studies prove that good first impressions are vital to success because most visitors decide in the first eleven minutes whether or not a church deserves a second visit. What happens in this narrow time-window leads prospects toward a church or away from it.
It’s more than just the building or the grounds!
People express concerns about more things than shiny floor tiles, the lack of them, or how clean the carpet in the foyer. More than how clear the glass doors may appear, how clean looking the building or how bright the stripes that mark parking spaces, people search for other people that care about them. It’s a hunt that continues until finding a church with friendly people. Other aspects of churches also carry an important message to prospects but none bears as much weight as the first impression left by members of a church on a visitor.
While the challenge of bringing in visitors often succeeds, the work of getting them back a second time or seeing them join as members grows harder each day.
It’s more than a handshake or a greeting!
Most members greet first time guests with, “Hi, how are you doing? Hope to see you next week.” Such a greeting makes them feel wanted, but hearing the same words week after week often falls short of meeting their deeper needs as people. They soon conclude they went to church looking for something else.
Some prefer remaining as unknowns but others look for new friends able to help meet a need they feel. Greetings without names, backgrounds, or common interests lack the personal touch many people want in a new church! Without the needed support of friendship, church guests often remain strangers that feel out of place and their unmet needs lead them in a further search for a place to worship.
Churches, though, quickly assume visitors are the ones with the problems because they don’t come back. Yet, the problem may lie within the church itself and not within the first-timer visitor.
A lack of warmth sometimes highlights a lack of hospitality from the other church members. Any perceived absence of interest in them often shuts down the visitor’s desire for a return trip to what they perceive as a cold and uncaring place.
These issues reach beyond knowing about people, to ones that include treating them as special guests and getting to know more about them without making them feel uneasy or part of an “outside” group.
It’s more than a handshake or a greeting!
This work requires more than a greeting, a smile, a handshake or an exchange of names. It involves treating people as companions, loving strangers, receiving guests and being generous to them.
Making people feel like a vital part of church life by caring about them and making them feel at home extends a hand of warmth often missing in churches on the move in today’s society.
Perhaps attempts at finding detailed formulas for keeping visitors overlook what the business world has known for years: a happy customer is a satisfied customer. Put into church terms, it means a happy visitor is a satisfied visitor.
It’s a need to show hospitality.
The early church was no stranger to the need for showing a full measure of hospitality. Paul told the church members in Rome about their duty to practice it not only special days but all the time. His words addressed more than a need for brotherly love and he knew that the way church members treated visitors quickly told them, to their own way of thinking, what they meant to the church they attended. Members of churches showed their concern because they wanted to, not because they had to. Their desire was to spend time with new friends and not just to meet them. They broke bread together and ate with each other. Church members often made themselves servants to the stranger, sometimes opening their own houses to them.
Some churches take another approach. Strong efforts to greet visitors at the door, escort them to classrooms, sit with them or pray with them. Caring church members befriend these guests by talking with them and taking away the strangeness of this new church for them in the process.
Yet, other churches remain unchanged. They see no lack in the way they treat first-time visitors. But they also wonder why many of them never return. Perhaps, based on studies made about this subject, these churches failed the test within the first eleven minutes of the visit. For first time attendees, when a church leaves a bad impression a second chance seldom follows. It is now eleven minutes and counting. Oops! Time is up.
The family knew there was a Baptist church somewhere. After a short drive through the city, as if the car knew where it was going, the Clarke family approached the parking lot of a large Baptist church on the other side of town. They heard good things about this church. Ads published in the weekly paper claimed it was a place to relax and meet new friends with classes for people in all walks of life. Now they would see for themselves what this church was all about.
Tom was looking for something special but he didn’t know just what, though he still had his own feelings about what made a good church. Neither Tom nor his wife and children would settle for anything less than what they wanted, even if it meant not attending church at all.
The sign at the parking lot entrance read: “Visitors please follow the yellow line.” Tom’s problem was that his car nearly jumped the curb as he looked for its starting point. He had no way of knowing the line faded into the asphalt surface of the parking lot two years ago!
Tom and his family didn’t know it. The church didn’t know it. Staff members gave little thought to it. Yet, a “timer” inside of Tom began its countdown. It was eleven minutes and counting and Tom wondered if this was the right church for him and his family.
Not finding the stripes that marked a parking space and seeing weeds that peeked through the asphalt bothered him. Though only a few small fire ant mounds dotted the parking lot, they also distracted Tom. By the time he parked and his family left the van, three more minutes passed. Now it was eight minutes and counting.
The walk to the front door of the church went by quickly because no one talked with him along the way to the main building. From a distance, the church looked eerie. Wilted flowers along the front of the building cast shadows of apathy on its entrance. What lay on the other side of those tinted doors? Were these people friendly, angry or bitter?
Tom pushed open the door for his wife and children but the more he saw of the inside of the church, the more questions he asked himself. It was now six minutes and counting.
Once inside, he felt puzzled about the church. There were plenty of people there, but no one spoke to him. Where should he go? Where was the bathroom? Where was the auditorium? Which way to the nursery or was there one?
This was a strange place to Tom and he had fears about how others saw him. His nerves tingled and his shoes squeaked as he walked across the floor. Frustration swept over him in the few minutes that passed like hours. Four minutes and counting.
Someone caught the look of panic on Tom’s face and asked if he needed help.
“Do you have a Sunday school class for my son,” Tom asked a well-dressed man. When he said yes but didn’t know where the class met without asking for help himself, Tom glanced more closely at the foyer.
Countless fingerprints on the glass windows and doors were so thick they left a film of oil that reminded him of fog. He also noticed how others were dressed because he never saw clothes like that before. He wasn’t having a very good time.
“Your class is up those stairs,” the man told him. “Go up one flight, then to the end of the hall. Turn left and go down three doors to the room on the right. Your children stay on the ground level. They go out this door and across the courtyard to that metal building over there,” he said pointing. Three minutes and counting.
After his children left for class and Tom and Cathy turned right instead of left, two more minutes passed. They wondered why no one offered them help in the hall or asked if they were lost. Members of the church smiled at them and grunted a brief greeting as they walked by but they asked no questions.
Tom and his wife sat in metal folding chairs near the front of the class. All the seats in back of the classroom were full. The teacher ignored them and other students in the class stared at their new visitors out of the corners of their eyes, asking themselves where they saw this couple before. Were this man and his wife members of the church no one knew? Since those seated in class were afraid to ask, silence greeted Tom and Cathy as they made themselves comfortable.
One minute and counting.
Brother Jack started class, but was so focused on the hunting trip he took last week that all he talked about was the “one that got away”. Announcements ate up more time. For the most part, though, Tom and his wife enjoyed the class once they got into the lesson. But the little “clocks” inside Tom and Cathy ticked away their minutes and reached zero. Time was up.
His family sat in the back of the auditorium where most of the other people sat. When the church members sang, the ones sitting beside them did little more than whisper their songs.
Cards were handed out to first time visitors and Tom read his carefully. Little boxes with comments beside them waited for their owners to check off points of concern. Questions asked about the prospect of a visit in the home or a desire to know more about the church. Tom checked no boxes that day and he kept the card instead of handing it in.
Both he and his wife decided early in Sunday school that they felt the same way about the church that the church seemed to feel about them. It wasn’t one thing that made them feel this way but the sum of all the things they saw, heard and felt in the first eleven minutes of their visit. It was their first impression that spoke to them, and it was a bad one.
While fiction, this story reflects the way first time visitors often see the churches that they attend. Business owners understand the concept that what their prospects first see stays with them, thus causing the spending of money toward lawn care and building maintenance, a fresh coat of paint or a new sign. But products differ from what church visitors seek when they attend a church for the first time.
It’s a narrow window!
Regardless of size, churches use many tools aimed at bringing in visitors. In a world that competes for attention, the House of God often finds itself beaten by other pastimes.
Church growth studies prove that good first impressions are vital to success because most visitors decide in the first eleven minutes whether or not a church deserves a second visit. What happens in this narrow time-window leads prospects toward a church or away from it.
It’s more than just the building or the grounds!
People express concerns about more things than shiny floor tiles, the lack of them, or how clean the carpet in the foyer. More than how clear the glass doors may appear, how clean looking the building or how bright the stripes that mark parking spaces, people search for other people that care about them. It’s a hunt that continues until finding a church with friendly people. Other aspects of churches also carry an important message to prospects but none bears as much weight as the first impression left by members of a church on a visitor.
While the challenge of bringing in visitors often succeeds, the work of getting them back a second time or seeing them join as members grows harder each day.
It’s more than a handshake or a greeting!
Most members greet first time guests with, “Hi, how are you doing? Hope to see you next week.” Such a greeting makes them feel wanted, but hearing the same words week after week often falls short of meeting their deeper needs as people. They soon conclude they went to church looking for something else.
Some prefer remaining as unknowns but others look for new friends able to help meet a need they feel. Greetings without names, backgrounds, or common interests lack the personal touch many people want in a new church! Without the needed support of friendship, church guests often remain strangers that feel out of place and their unmet needs lead them in a further search for a place to worship.
Churches, though, quickly assume visitors are the ones with the problems because they don’t come back. Yet, the problem may lie within the church itself and not within the first-timer visitor.
A lack of warmth sometimes highlights a lack of hospitality from the other church members. Any perceived absence of interest in them often shuts down the visitor’s desire for a return trip to what they perceive as a cold and uncaring place.
These issues reach beyond knowing about people, to ones that include treating them as special guests and getting to know more about them without making them feel uneasy or part of an “outside” group.
It’s more than a handshake or a greeting!
This work requires more than a greeting, a smile, a handshake or an exchange of names. It involves treating people as companions, loving strangers, receiving guests and being generous to them.
Making people feel like a vital part of church life by caring about them and making them feel at home extends a hand of warmth often missing in churches on the move in today’s society.
Perhaps attempts at finding detailed formulas for keeping visitors overlook what the business world has known for years: a happy customer is a satisfied customer. Put into church terms, it means a happy visitor is a satisfied visitor.
It’s a need to show hospitality.
The early church was no stranger to the need for showing a full measure of hospitality. Paul told the church members in Rome about their duty to practice it not only special days but all the time. His words addressed more than a need for brotherly love and he knew that the way church members treated visitors quickly told them, to their own way of thinking, what they meant to the church they attended. Members of churches showed their concern because they wanted to, not because they had to. Their desire was to spend time with new friends and not just to meet them. They broke bread together and ate with each other. Church members often made themselves servants to the stranger, sometimes opening their own houses to them.
Some churches take another approach. Strong efforts to greet visitors at the door, escort them to classrooms, sit with them or pray with them. Caring church members befriend these guests by talking with them and taking away the strangeness of this new church for them in the process.
Yet, other churches remain unchanged. They see no lack in the way they treat first-time visitors. But they also wonder why many of them never return. Perhaps, based on studies made about this subject, these churches failed the test within the first eleven minutes of the visit. For first time attendees, when a church leaves a bad impression a second chance seldom follows. It is now eleven minutes and counting. Oops! Time is up.
