Wayne Hedlund

Tag: Mystery Guest

  • Undercover Jesus

    This article was originally posted in April of 2012. I thought you’d appreciate reading it (or reading it again!) Enjoy!

    What if Jesus began attending your church, incognito? There’s a question worth considering! I wonder what His experience would be? Would He feel welcome? Would His experience be relevant, engaging and impacting? What would it be like if He came as ‘Undercover Jesus’?

    I’d like to share a very familiar Scripture and then make two intuitive leaps. Stay with me, I’m pretty confident you will be challenged in a unique way by the end.

    In Matthew 25 Jesus shared the very vivid illustration of the sheep and the goats. Among other things, He was communicating that there will be a sifting on judgement day; not everyone will be accepted into the kingdom . . .

    “He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.  “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’””

    Intuitive Leap #1
    Jesus’ obvious intent is that we are active in feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the poor, caring for the sick and visiting the inmate. However, the audience of people He expects us to minister to and care for is much larger than that select group. ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine….’ That statement changes a lot. Jesus is not JUST interested in people who are experiencing one of those unique challenges. He is interested in anyone with a felt need. That is the common denominator among circumstances like hungry, thirsty, sick, etc. Christ is exhorting us to expand our reference of who needs care to the hurting, the needy, the lost, the lonely, the broken . . . you get the idea. This especially includes people considered ‘the least of these brothers of mine’.

    That pretty much covers your congregation and community. Specifically, it includes church attendees who are particularly needy. It includes every guest that darkens your door “the stranger”. It includes the people who don’t have much of a voice in the life of your church “the inmate” as well as those who suffer from physical or mental disorders “the sick”.

    Intuitive Leap #2
    The final four words of this passage also requires major consideration: “you did for me.” This passage is much more than a declaration of the kinds of people we should reach. Jesus is clarifying a very big “WHO?”. The answer of ‘Who?’ goes way back to our childhood Sunday School days. It was the only answer that nearly always worked when asked a Bible question: Jesus.

    Jesus made it personal. He didn’t stop with, “Care for those needy people.” He played a very different and unexpected card. He connected every single thing we do (or don’t do) for this group of people to His personal relationship with us. Our personal devotions is no longer carried out in the privacy of our home, all by ourselves. It’s public. It’s out there with every person we touch. Jesus told us how to connect with and care for Him. He showed us the key to His heart. And in this passage He vividly declared that it matters.

    When we combine these two ideas, it’s clear how important it is that we honor, respect, and genuinely care for every individual in our church, regardless of their circumstances, character or influence.

    How does this reminder affect your ministry teams? Do you think you and your leaders genuinely love and care for individuals in your church as if they were Jesus Christ Himself?

    Image from pxell66 at istockphoto.com

  • Strategy Kickstart: Hire A Mystery Guest

    A Strategy Kickstart is a short 3-5 minute video clip which can be used to ‘kickstart’ a strategic discussion in your church or ministry. Simply show the video clip to your team and use the ideas and question posed in the video to stimulate a valuable and hopefully relevant discussion on how you can better fulfill your ministry mission.

    In today’s Strategy Kickstart I challenge your team to consider hiring a mystery guest to provide more realistic feedback on the Sunday morning experience from the perspective of a guest.

     

  • Giving Guests the VIP Treatment at Elevation Church

    I ran across this post at www.timschraeder.com that I just have to share. Evidently, Tim showed up at Elevation Church, with Pastor Steven Furtick, and had an outstanding experience. He called it his ‘VIP Experience at Elevation Church’. I know Elevation boasts a huge staff, lots of money, and an amazing facility. So do a lot of mega-churches. However, what Elevation gave Tim was much more than a ‘big church experience’. They expressed a very high level of excellence, mixed with awesome systems and an intentional ‘guest friendly‘ culture.

    You can do that at your church too. It may not look like, sound like, or smell like this; but I’m pretty sure it can feel like it. Take this article to your version of a ‘First Impressions Committee’ and hold a strategic session about what you can learn from it. Enjoy.

  • An Exceptional Sunday Service Report

    Does your church host Exceptional Sunday Services? Recently, I had the chance to provide some coaching in this area to an area church leader. After our meetings he went back to his team and with great zeal championed several small but key changes in his Sunday morning preparations. Check out this email he sent me a few weeks later . . . .

    Hello Pastor Wayne,

    Here is an update on our improvements on Sunday mornings. After some great discussion, we implemented a few things.

    • Our secretary changed our Service Planning meeting agenda to be more specific and include minutes.
      That alone has made a huge difference. We now better understand how everything breaks down and what needs to be improved. For the first time since I can remember we actually discussed, re-ordered and even trimmed some things in our Sunday Services. That made an immediately and huge difference in our services.
    • We began having a service coordinator for every service.
      We have three people serving in that role, I do it most of the time and the other two serve in that role when I am not around.
    • We also started a service coordinator meeting.
      This is a short 5 minute meeting where we walk through the whole service with all the key players involved in that Sunday morning service. At this meeting we discuss when music plays and lights go on and off. We talk about what microphone everyone is using and who to give it to next. Our transitions have improved quite a bit now that people know when they are to come onstage and know when to be ready. Everyone sees how efficient we are and also feel’s more part of the team! 

    It’s great when we have a guest speaker as well. They see how organized we are and when I go over the details with them about when they should begin and end they actually end on time now. A few weeks ago, a guest speaker who traditionally always ends late (and I mean always) ended on time and his message was actually better than other times.

    The main thing that made me want to write this email is that in the past we have been so uptight with ending on time (and often we wouldn’t end on time) that we would often just be stressed out. We have also always been concerned that if we become more organized we won’t leave room for God to move. Well, last Sunday we had an 8 minute altar call during worship. Not to mention 3 prophetic words. God moved, people were touched, and no one was stressed about time because we knew we had it all under control. The service still ended on time.

    By becoming more organized and efficient we are not taking God out of the service. In fact we are giving God MORE room to move. If we couldn’t end on time with our previous schedule imagine how uptight we would get when God moved during those services? But now we end early a lot and when God moves we are free to enjoy it because time is no longer an issue like it once was. There is no doubt that all our hard work developing the services has definitely given way to a greater presence of God in our services!

    Thank You Pastor Wayne for the help and coaching!

    I am so inspired and encouraged when I hear stories like this from church leaders. I am also confident that this church will continue to experience God’s Presence in their Sunday morning services as they continue to grow in their preparations  and communications. Their ‘partnership’ with God just took a major leap forward.

    If you’re interested in hearing more from me about hosting exceptional services then I invite you to download and listen to the “Hosting Exceptional Sunday Services Workshop“ I presented earlier this year at the Elim Fellowship Leadership Conference. I have included a copy of the workshop notes and several other resources as well. Click on this link to purchase it today.

  • A Mystery Guest Report on Four Churches

     
    What if I sent a special agent to your church to evaluate how you’re doing in that area? Hmmm. Interesting thought. I might have to explore that idea some more. Oh, wait. I don’t have to send a special agent. I just need to identify some guests who have already genuinely visited your Sunday service and ask them what their experience is like (or you could hire a Mystery Guest – read here to learn more).

     

    Today’s post is just that. A friend recently moved away from our church and settled in a new location. Naturally, she and her husband did some ‘church shopping’ to see if they could find a church family that they could participate in. After several experiences my friend was perusing my blog and noticed the “Guest Friendly Series” I wrote. She decided to email me her feedback on some of her experiences and agreed to let me post them for your benefit as well.

    Warning: these are real life reflections from a solid and mature believer who already has a heightened sense of what a ‘Guest Friendly‘ environment could look, sound, and feel like. I trust her input and feedback implicitly. Here’s what she experienced after visiting four churches. I wonder what her thoughts would be after visiting your Sunday service?

    Let me just share a few thoughts I’ve had as I’ve been a guest at a number of churches since I’ve moved down here. I’ve often thought to myself, “If it’s this difficult for me and I’ve been in churches my whole life – I desire Christian fellowship and am actively looking for it – what’s the chance that someone without those things is going to successfully integrate into the church?”  

    Church #1: 
    A lot of the things you touched on {in your ‘Guest Friendly’ series}, even simple things such as posting signs, can make a real difference. For example, there was one church I visited and liked, so decided to try the adult Sunday School the next week. I arrived in the foyer at the time listed in the bulletin – but no one was around. Where were the classes held? Finally, a couple people walked by and I stopped them and asked. They said I could follow them, actually they turned out to be teachers, and it was a little complicated getting there. I would never have found it without asking. Of course, it would have been better if I hadn’t had to ask!     

    Church #2: 
    When I read your example about people thoughtfully leaving the back row for newcomers, it reminded me of another interesting experience. I visited one church where there was a hallway outside and surrounding the sanctuary, with windows in the wall from the middle up looking in. There were some pews around the this hallway, and some others were sitting there, so it appeared to me to be an overflow space. The sanctuary looked pretty full, so I decided to sit in this space rather than try to find a seat inside. I sat near a doorway, and although two ushers kept the doorway filled, I could see and hear pretty well. To my surprise, when it was time for the sermon, the ushers closed the doors, with me sitting right there! I guess it was ‘time to shut the door’ and that’s what they were going to do! Now I couldn’t hear what was going on, so I had to either leave or open the closed door and find a seat in the sanctuary at this late point in the service. NOT guest-friendly! 🙂 But I’d made up my mind to visit this church, and I was going to do it! Non-guest-friendly, door-blocking sentinels…er, ushers…were not going to stop me! 🙂

    The interesting thing about that church was that there were 3 services, 2 contemporary ones, and a more traditional one in between. It wasn’t really clear on the website, so that’s how I ended up at the traditional one first. I stayed for the other one as well. 

    Church #3: 
    I have another example that relates to the whole ‘Guest Friendly Perspective‘ you wrote about. At another church, they had a visitors’ center, so I stopped by to get information on the church. The lady I spoke with was nice, but essentially they didn’t have anything there for her to give anyone. She said she was subbing, but would have the secretary contact me. So I leave my contact information with her. I get an email from the secretary a day or two later. Basically it said, “Next time you come, ask for this information in the back of the sanctuary after church.” That was really discouraging. What if I wanted that information to help me decide if I wanted to come back? I wondered why I had to beg for this information!     

    Church #4: 
    As you know, it’s really important for the church leadership to model and cast a vision for a guest-friendly culture in the church. If it’s not there, it’s not going to happen overnight. The church I’ve been visiting the past three weeks is by far the friendliest one I’ve visited so far.     What has intrigued me is that the people in the pews are friendly; it’s not just coming from the pulpit. Each Sunday, the people in the row near me have smiled and welcomed me and not just during an official greeting time; when I first entered the row they gave me a warm greeting. This has happened 3 separate Sundays with 3 different people! The first week, the lady near me took the time to introduce me to several others in the church, and to take me out to the foyer for some “guest honey” that someone brings for visitors. Another time at a ladies’ event the group leader took the time to introduce me to others in the group as well. What a difference that makes! I saw several of those ladies at church this Sunday and it’s huge to have someone recognize you…. I’m not sure anyone has actively been teaching “guest friendly” here, evidently it’s just in their DNA.

    I guess all I can say is that “guest-friendly” is a need! It’s also an important responsibility for the body of Christ.

    Image source unknown.

  • Mystery Guest – Free Resource for Your Church

    I challenge you to try a dangerous experiment. The idea is to pay an unchurched person to come to your church anonymously and evaluate the experience. What better way to get feedback from your community than to ask them to give their honest opinion? It’s dangerous because, if you do it right there’s a chance the truth just might hurt.

    The fact is many of our churches are in-grown. We tend to be primarily focused on the people in church and end up seeming exclusive to guests. At Elim Gospel Church where I serve as Executive Pastor we try to remember to speak in guest friendly terms. Despite our attempts we still regularly catch ourselves making comments and references that assume every listener has been around our church a while, knows their Bible stories or has an awareness of basic biblical truths.

    Just this past month I was speaking to a small group of adults who were attending a class to learn more about getting plugged into our church; many of those present had only attended for a few weeks or months. At one point in my teaching I referred to “Daniel when he was confronted by the official due to his unusual eating habits.” Those were just about my exact words. I assumed everyone knew who Daniel was, had read the story, and were aware of the end of that story. My one sentence was supposed to somehow convey the fact that there are often good reasons to question our leader’s motives. Wow. Talk about a serious “miss” when it comes to being guest friendly!

    Our vernacular from the pulpit is just a piece of the overall puzzle. What else is confusing, irrelevant, or perhaps even offensive to your average unchurched guest (assuming you actually get those?) What about the worship experience? How about their interactions with other attendees? Here’s the big question . . . “What do they think of your bathroom?” I’m not joking. You’re bathroom speaks volumes and is a big “first impression” maker.

    So we intend to hire several “mystery guests” with the express purpose of learning the truth. I challenge you to do the same. Here are my suggestions on how to pull this off at your church as well.

    Stay in the Dark 
    It is very important that you and all of your key leaders who are responsible for the Sunday morning experience stay in the dark about whom and when the mystery guest will arrive. There is no way in the world you can convince me that you or anyone else will treat the mystery guest exactly the same way they would a “regular” guest. You will be too self conscious. You will either be thinking too much about trying to impress them or trying NOT to impress them.

    So keep it a secret from yourself and your Sunday morning leaders. Ask someone you trust in your church that doesn’t have Sunday responsibilities to recruit the mystery guest. Let them know that they shouldn’t tell anyone that they are the recruiter, who they recruited, or that they know any details about when they might arrive. Also request that your trusted friend have minimal interactions (if possible, none) with the mystery guest. They should make it clear to the guest in advance that this is intentional.

    No Strings Attached
    Remove from yourself and everyone who knows about this project any expectations that the guest will get saved or come back. There should be no strings attached to this guest in your minds. In a best case scenario your mystery guest will come back of her own volition and eventually experience transformation in her life, but you don’t want to give her the impression that you are actually trying to ‘trick’ her into that God-led experience. Keep it solely focused on how you can improve your environment on Sunday to accommodate and encourage guests in their experience.
    Pay Your Mystery Guest 
    I’m not going to tell you what we have decided to pay our M.G. That is a decision that’s entirely up to you. I will say that you should make it well worth it to them. They are setting aside a couple hours of their Sunday to serve your needs. They are willingly placing themselves in an environment that may be very intimidating to them. You also want it to be very obvious that this is a paid position and not something they are doing out of kindness or as a favor. This is important and will likely ensure their responses are really honest.
    Keep it Anonymous 
    I think this is important as well. If possible (in smaller churches it may be hard) the trusted friend should be the only one who knows who the M.G. was, and everyone should agree to not ask. The Mystery Guest should also be told in advance that your trusted friend will not be privy to their thoughts and opinions about the experience. This keeps lines of communication clear and open AFTER the guest has visited the church. Let me explain. Jane Smith is invited by Tina Churchgoer to be a M.G. Jane attends and has a bad experience. She holds nothing back and shares exactly what she felt during the experience. How awkward would it be if, after the guest’s appearance, Tina Churchgoer approaches Jane and says, “so it went pretty rough, huh?”
    Provide All the Resources 
    Your guest should be provided with a clear understanding of what they are evaluating. Your trusted recruiter should give the Mystery Guest a welcome letter on church letterhead and all of the questions or areas of evaluation you are looking for. Do not expect them to know what you want evaluated!
    Hold Your Mystery Guest Accountable
    Here is what I suggest this look like, tactically:

    • You recruit and train a trusted friend to be the contact. 
    • Your friend identifies someone he/she knows who is not currently attending a church. There is no need to find out if they ever have attended church. 
    • Your friend gives the new recruit a welcome letter and questions in a sealed envelope. 
    • The mystery guest attends and completes the survey. They mail or email it back to you. 

    Once you have received the survey, you place the $ amount on a Visa card with a thank you note in a sealed envelope and ask your friend to deliver it to the mystery guest.

    Don’t Wait 
    I urge you to do this now. Don’t wait until you revamp your service or train your ushers. Just do it now. This will give you a great first benchmark for how your ministry is operating right now. It will also force your hand. It would be so easy to wait for a while – and then for a while longer. There’s always something else to do and something else we should fix first. The potential for negative feedback is enough to put off this idea indefinitely. Take the plunge.
    Let Me Know How It Goes! 
    Free Resource: I have included a copy of our Mystery Guest welcome letter and survey for your benefit. Feel free to utilize some or all of what we have created to get you started! You may download it HERE.