{"id":3054,"date":"2014-11-01T07:01:38","date_gmt":"2014-11-01T12:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thomrainer.wpengine.com?p=3054"},"modified":"2020-02-07T15:17:19","modified_gmt":"2020-02-07T21:17:19","slug":"top-ten-ways-churches-drive-away-first-time-guests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/churchanswers.com\/blog\/top-ten-ways-churches-drive-away-first-time-guests\/","title":{"rendered":"Top Ten Ways Churches Drive Away First-time Guests"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW RELATED POST:\u00a0Should Your Church Stop Having a Stand and Greet Time?<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

If you attend a church regularly, you\u2019ve probably noticed the phenomenon. A guest shows up for a worship service, but he or she never returns. It is, unfortunately, a common issue in many churches.<\/p>\n

I did a Twitter poll to ask these first-time guests why they chose not to return to a particular church. While some of the responses were anticipated, I admit being a bit surprised with some of them.<\/p>\n

Though my poll is not scientific, it is nevertheless fascinating. Here are the top ten responses in order of frequency.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Having a stand up and greet one another time in the worship service. <\/strong>This response was my greatest surprise for two reasons. First, I was surprised how much guests are really uncomfortable during this time. Second, I was really surprised that it was the most frequent response.<\/li>\n
  2. Unfriendly church members. <\/strong>This response was anticipated. But the surprise was the number of respondents who included non-genuine friendliness in their answers. In other words, the guests perceived some of the church members were faking it.<\/li>\n
  3. Unsafe and unclean children\u2019s area. <\/strong>This response generated the greatest emotional reactions. If your church does not give a high priority to children, don\u2019t expect young families to attend.<\/li>\n
  4. No place to get information. <\/strong>If your church does not have a clear and obvious place to get information, you probably have lowered the chances of a return visit by half. There should also be someone to greet and assist guests at that information center as well.<\/li>\n
  5. Bad church website. <\/strong>Most of the church guests went to the church website before they attended a worship service. Even if they attended the service after visiting a bad website, they attended with a prejudicial perspective. The two indispensable items guests want on a website are address and times of service. It\u2019s just that basic.<\/li>\n
  6. Poor signage. <\/strong>If you have been attending a church for a few weeks, you forget all about the signage. You don\u2019t need it any more. But guests do. And they are frustrated when it\u2019s not there.<\/li>\n
  7. Insider church language. <\/strong>Most of the respondents were not referring to theological language as much as language that only the members know. My favorite example was: \u201cThe WMU will meet in the CLC in the room where the GAs usually meet.\u201d<\/li>\n
  8. Boring or bad service. <\/strong>My surprise was not the presence of this item. The surprise was that it was not ranked higher.<\/li>\n
  9. Members telling guests that they were in their seat or pew. <\/strong>Yes, this obviously still takes place in some churches.<\/li>\n
  10. Dirty facilities. <\/strong>Some of the comments: \u201cDidn\u2019t look like it had been cleaned in a week.\u201d \u201cNo trash cans anywhere.\u201d Restrooms were worse than a bad truck stop.\u201d \u201cPews had more stains than a Tide commercial.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    There you have it. The top ten reasons first-time guests said they did not return to a church. I can\u2019t wait to hear from you readers. You always have such good additions and insights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you attend a church regularly, you\u2019ve probably noticed the phenomenon. A guest shows up for a worship service, but he or she never returns.","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3061,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"publish_to_discourse":"","publish_post_category":"","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,179,175],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-answers","category-first-impressions","category-grow"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTop Ten Ways Churches Drive Away First-time Guests<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If you attend a church regularly, you\u2019ve probably noticed the phenomenon. 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