Church Visit Reports

This morning I had a chance to visit not one...but TWO churches.  How did I do this you ask?  Easy...I slipped out of the first church after their worship was over then headed over to another.

Church #1: My first church visit was to a large church that has been growing like crazy over on the other side of town.  At Grace we get a lot of folks who attend this church to check out ours.  They say we're similar in many aspects with a little deeper teaching and closer to their homes on the south side of town.  I decided to take advantage of my day off and check out the worship and also maybe have a nice little time of worship myself.  Here's my list of notes:

• Great signage with service times outside the building and along the roadside.  They even gave service information at one of their other venues.  I went to the main location today.
• Parking lot wasn't full...that's a plus as I arrived 10 minutes before the service started.
• People at the front door to say hi.  I didn't notice any parking attendants...but they had some cones and great signage pointing me in the right direction.
• Ushers were fantastic at helping people to seats.  I sat right by the entrance to the worship center where an usher was working.  I observed how he had people wait and he went to find seats.  He then came back to usher them to the open spots he found.  I have no idea how the Grace usher team works the floor...but I thought this was pretty cool.
• I liked the powerpoint announcements before the services.  Great information about classes and upcoming events.  I am a HUGE believer in utilizing the screens before and after services.  There were a lot of people sitting there reading what was on the screens.  Gives people an opportunity to see who the church is and what we're all about.
• No countdown clock. I was surprised by this.  I wonder if they do it on normal Sundays?  Maybe it's just a Grace thing?  I'm curious if any of you worshipy people use a 5 minute countdown clock before services.
• Nice lighting. They had a huge scrim that went across the back of the stage for the colored lights.  We used to have a screen behind us that had rear projected images when we met at the school.  Had a neat looking effect behind us.  Right now we have a scrim that reflects light but nothing near the size they have.  No moving lights...or haze...I think I'm spoiled now at Grace with our lighting.  I had to remember...yes, you can worship without moving lights. (that's a joke by the way).
• Band was kinda tight.  Now I'm not going to tear them apart...they did a good job.  I think their worship leader was gone.  He took advantage of the holiday weekend as well.  I wonder if he visited Grace?  There were a few bad chords coming from the lead guitarist...enough to drive a musician nuts...but I think overall the folks in the congregation probably had no idea.
• Worship leader did a great job at leading folks.  If he's a sub...this church has probably got a LOT of depth in musical talent. I saw this guy at the Willow Creek leadership summit in the lobby during the summit.  I told our youth guy I bet he was a worship leader.  Sometimes you can just tell who they are.
  
• Video was good. They used a lot of loops behind the words.  I'm a sucker for cool video...and this was pretty neat.  I think our video Doog is ahead of the 8ball in this area.
• I asked that good usher a question and he kind of looked at me funny.  I asked if they used a technology we're using at Grace for checking kids in.  He was surprised by the question and I foolishly explained I was the worship leader from a church on the south side called Grace Church.  He knew which church we were.  I don't know...seemed like his demeaner changed after he found out.  I learned a lesson...keep your pie hole shut so as to not make people think you're "spying out the land".  I wonder if he told the usher leader some dude from Grace was visiting.
• After the last song of the worship set, I pulled that thing I usually hate to see at Grace...I left.  Their pastor wasn't speaking (again...just like our church was doing).  I decided to head on over to another church closer to Grace.

Overall my experience there was good.  I wasn't there early enough to get a flavor for the hospitality/friendliness.  Picked up a visitor package filled with great info.  I wonder if their worship guy would meet with me for lunch?  I may give him a call.  I'd love to learn from their experiences.

Church #2: Now this church is another one we get visitors from.  This is one of the largest churches in the Kansas City metro.  Famous pastor who's been on national television and is on local channels here in KC daily.  Here we go:

• Parking lot signage was helpful.  Sign at the entrance had the church name and the pastor's name.  I dunno why...this just stuck out to me.  Different flava than what I'm used to.
• They're undergoing a big construction project right now so parking was a little awkward.  I was surprised to find NO parking attendants around because of this project.  I guess it didn't matter since I found my way in.
• As I walked across the parking lot there was a group of about 5 men in suits standing on the sidewalk.  I realized that I might be a bit underdressed for this church.  Jeans, tshirt and Chuck Taylors might not be appropriate.
• Big sign at the door for their Wednesday Pot Luck dinners.  Hmmmm...
• Man in very nice suit opens the door and says hi.  I realized then that the suit guys were all the hospitality/greeters/ushers.
• No visitor packet.  We have GOT to get one of those done at Grace...yes that's on my agenda.
• So I'm 30 minutes early for the next worship service.  No biggie...I'll just see if someone will say hi.
• After standing around for 20 minutes...not one person said hi to me.  I really thought this was strange.  Is this odd?  Honestly I wasn't sure if this is a problem in churches.  At Grace we have I believe the friendliest greeters and hospitality folks.  One of our greatest strengths in reaching folks is the genuine kindness of our folks in this area of ministry.
• I head over to the info counter where a man in a suit is standing talking to the man in the suit behind the counter.  They are conversing and I begin looking at some of the flyers on the table.  I'm like 2 feet from one of the men and he looks at me out of the corner of his eye then continues to talk to the man behind the counter.  I think I was there for 2 minutes.  I'll admit...this was a test to see how long it would take for one of them to say something to me.  After 3 minutes (which felt like way more) the man extends his hand and introduces himself as the pastor of Ambassadoring.  He's the one responsible for getting visitors connected to the church.  Hmmmm....
• There was a long line forming at the auditorium doors...just like at the opening night for the Star Wars movies.
• I stood in line and grabbed a seat in the back row.  The band starts up...wait...that's not a band it's an orchestra.  Huh.  Then a line of like 7-9 people comes up to lead the singing.  I found out that they have a contemporary service earlier in the morning.  I missed it.  To me it might make better sense to do the contemporary service later as to give the lazy generation more time to sleep in.  Everyone knows the traditional folks like to wake up early to get to church...don't they?
• After the first song...I left.  Not my cup o tea as they say.

The ministry of this church is built upon the personality of the pastor.  Not saying it's a bad thing...just an observation.  You can see it all over the place.  The man I talked to wanted me to be sure and come back to hear their pastor this Wednesday.  I'll be a little busy doing this.

I enjoyed my time...I really am so thankful for the great team of people I work with.  My visits got my head spinning about how we do our weekend...from the car to the chair and from the first chord strummed on the stage to the last powerpoint announcement.  I love how the body of Christ has so many different things to offer people.  You can definitely say the church has something to offer just about everyone.  Diversity is good in the body of Christ.