Church Loyalty and Customer Satisfaction

Two items that caught my eye this week seem to have something in common – Customer Satisfaction Doesn’t Matter and Americans not losing their religion, but changing it often. Both discuss how people change brands – or churches – even though they aren’t disatisfied with what they have been getting. Consider this:

By every metric you could choose to assign to my experience, I’m a satisfied customer.

Now let me tell you something that should scare you, no matter what business you’re in. If something even slightly better came along as another option for me, I would switch without hesitation. (Customer Satisfaction Doesn’t Matter)

Her shift in religion was gradual, said Case, 41, a freelance writer and editor in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

“It wasn’t so much ‘You people stink and I am out of here,’ as ‘I like this better and this is what I want to do.’ ” (Americans not losing their religion…)

In the church world, some say the Christians are to blame for being finicky and immature. Others blame churches for either not adapting to people’s desires or for failing to create mature Christians who remain loyal.

Instead, I see a different reason. Customers and church goers alike have little loyalty these days. It’s the result of a mobile society, where relationships and their counterpart – loyalty – take a backseat to what is best for the moment. Can churches counteract this?

Some people are surprised that I have remained loyal to my home church, where I have attended for 15 years. It’s a good church, but there was a time when I wasn’t a satisfied member. Yet I stayed because of a few key relationships and a network of acquaintances. Today, I couldn’t be happier.

Likewise, I remain committed to the denomination – not because it’s perfect, but because it’s my family. I see its short-comings, and I’m not motivated to remain because of a misguided elitism. I want to serve as part of the team that reached me, taught me, and trained me.

Yet, I don’t know how to connect with others in the denomination who share similar interests or are engaged in the types of ministries I’m truly passionate about. I know they exist, but the people who I personally know that do the things I really care about aren’t part of my denomination. I wonder at times if it isn’t God’s hand at work, leading me to the people He wants me to be with. Meanwhile, a few key relationships and a network of acquaintances keep me loyal.

Unreached, unchurched, unsaved… is anyone unvalued?

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the words we use to describe lost people. For years, I’ve reserved the word unreached to refer to groups of people who live beyond the reach of Christianity. They are part of a people group who have no Christian witness. Unchurched are those who live within a reached group of people, but they have personally experienced little of the church, or more importantly, the gospel message. The unsaved, meanwhile, are people who aren’t Christians for whatever reason.

I use the words to convey degrees of distance from the truths of the gospel. Those who are unreached are the farthest away, short of a miracle, of finding salvation. All the unreached are unchurched, and all the unchurched are unsaved. It’s a matter of degree.

But it’s not a matter of value. I understand that the longer I volunteer at the Inner City Church. The kids in my class aren’t unreached, but they are unchurched. Does that make them less valuable to God than an unreached, unchurched kid someplace else? Or are they more valuable than the kids at The Rock who are churched and saved?

This isn’t a competition, so why do I try to make it one? This quote from a favorite blog says it well:

Are we searching to validate our work? Relate the story of how God is orchestrating the expansion of His kingdom. Are we wanting to connect with other believers? Tell of the redemptive relationships you’ve made. Feel the need to convince people of the great spiritual need all around us? Forget about it. If the daily news and ongoing interaction with unbelieving people hasn’t convinced them, your story won’t either.

If God led you to minister to a people, that ministry is valid, important, and right. It needs no justification. Talk about your ministry, but talk about what really matters. Refuse to compare your ministry to others.

Motivation for missions and ministry

I’ve been thinking lately about what motivates me to be involved in missions and ministry and how that compares to what motivates others. Part of it is professional (i.e., “How do we motivate people to give to missions?”). A portion of it is church-related (i.e., “How can I influence others to help with the inner city ministry?”) There’s also a very personal component to it (ie, “What really are my motives in all this, and are they Christ-exalting?)

For some time, a key motive for me has been God’s glory. I believe that the God I know and serve is so great, so good, so loving that He is worthy of the praise of all peoples. He deserves the praise of the people He created and died for. Moreover, if only people knew how great He is, they would gladly and joyfully serve and follow Him. That motivates me to make Him known, whether that is halfway around the world or just around the block. I’m compelled to make His greatness known.

Other people are motivated by other things:

• Compassion for the poor and hurting
• Concern for those who will spend eternity in Hell
• Obedience to the command and call of Jesus

What motivates you? Why do you give your time, talent, and resources to ministry?

An Unexpected Opportunity

The plan I had in mind for my future at my church seems to be going in a different direction. I had planned to start something to reach out to international students at local colleges. I wanted to begin with a “host an international student for a day” event, where families in our church would agree to host a student for a couple hours on a Saturday. It’s one of those experiences that too few internationals get and an opportunity the church misses to welcome foreigners in our midst. After that, I hoped a couple Christian students would begin attending the church, and I would just see where it went.

I’m not abandoning that idea, but some unexpected opportunities with the Inner City Assembly of God church have come up. One of my coworkers and her husband are leaders in the church, and my church’s pastor is working with their pastor to connect our people to their ministries. Sarah, my coworker, told me a week ago they needed help Saturday cleaning their new property before a big event. I shared the need with a few friends, but the next day, I discovered our pastor had committed to having a group help that day – but didn’t have a group to go because he learned of the need after Sunday’s service. Although it was last minute, six of my friends and I went to help last Saturday for a couple hours.

Talking with Sarah and her husband Garrett, I learned that one of their biggest needs is for some people to really commit to the church. Garret told me about how he had basically cut ties with his old church to focus on the inner city work. Garrett and Sarah have been in the kitchen cooking for the hungry for weeks (months?) during services because they don’t have enough volunteers, and they need some people to come on-board and help at the church every week. The assistance of occasional volunteers is helpful, but they really need people who will be there consistently. It struck a chord with me, and I told Garrett I would think about it. Despite mentioning that churches can get upset when their people leave for projects like this, he told me to spread the word, and I wondered how he expected me to do that.

The next day at church, my pastor and I talked about the inner city church. I asked what his plans were, hoping to better understand them so maybe I could use my “network” to strengthen the partnership. He said he wanted us to be involved in anything they needed and felt comfortable with us doing, so I told him what Garrett said about needing help Sunday mornings. He said he wouldn’t have any problem with me making that my “Sunday morning ministry”, but that he would rather I “make it a ministry than do it solo.” When I asked him what he meant, he said he would prefer me to take four or five other people with me. So long as they were solid Christians, he didn’t care if the Rock couldn’t continue counting them as attending or members. I stood their, dumbfounded, and he laughed, told me to pray about it, and let him know how God led me.

I have the coolest pastor ever. When was the last time you heard of someone telling her pastor, “I want to go help at another church on Sunday morning” and getting the kind of response I got? I don’t think that’s a good time idea is the norm, not please take other people with you.

The Boring Church Helper Routine

My church has a new senior pastor – my former youth pastor at the same church, actually. Hearing him talk about doing something for Jesus that excites you strikes a chord with me for a couple reasons. For starters, when I was a teen in his youth group, I did what seemed impossible and started a Bible study \ outreach at the state’s most secular boarding school. I wasn’t even sure that any of my classmates were Christians, and while I discovered a few might have saving faith, I was blown away by who came to the group and the conversations it started with non-Christian friends. I didn’t think these people would come to a weekly study, but they wanted to meet every morning over breakfast plus have a longer weekly study. Years later, at least one of those friends became a Christian, after hanging out with my college friends and eventually joining our church.

It was scary and overwhelming at times, but at least it was exciting. I went on to do even scarier and exciting things in college, starting international student ministries at OSU through Chi Alpha. My campus pastor had asked me to start the ministries and serve as an officer in our group that year. We started the international ministries with me, one international student who sometimes attended Chi Alpha meetings, one Christian American student who wanted to help, and that same friend my high school. He wasn’t a Christian yet, but he wanted to help and was my most devoted volunteer. Through the friendships he made, he became a Christian.

Three months into the adventure, we finally had four students come to a social event, and we were estatic. Two weeks later, they brought more than 20 friends to another event, and two weeks after that, about 75 students attended a welcoming party the day before fall classes started. Our ministry was launched, and I spent the next two years coordinating investigative Bible studies for Hindus and Muslims curious about Christianity, endless social events, trips to airports and Walmart, and discipleship groups for Christian internationals. With everyone’s help, we went from having one international student who sometimes attended to having more than 10 internationals in worship every week and many more plugged into friendships and hospitality services.

Fast forward to today, and the truth is, I’m bored with my current church helper routine. Everyone who knows me knows that I’m active, but only those who know me really well know that I’m not challenged. I’ve felt that way for sometime, but Pastor Darren’s insistence that boring Christianity isn’t good makes me more aware of it. I’ve going to do some news things in the church, like teaching a five year olds class, that I am mildly excited about. There is the possibility of me taking on some new things in our young adults ministry too, as the previous leader moves on and another couple takes on the “pastoral” role.

Yet, I worry it’s just going to be another church helper routine, when what I crave is the opportunity to lead something that gives other people the opportunity to help. There are so many people in our church who want to do something to positively impact the community, but they end up competing with each for the same spots of service in the church.

I want to be the one who starts something new. I’ve got a plan in mind, but until then…. what do you suggest?

That mobilization thing

I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the idea that I could me a missions mobilizer. I love to write, I love to design, and I know the Web. I love to communicate the importance of involvement in the Great Commission, and I feel like I don’t get to do that nearly enough. So why not develop a site where I let it all out? Or write articles for sites geared to the emerging church generation, start a MySpace group, participate in online forums, encourage those I’m in relationship with to be more involved, and blog about it all?

I don’t know what the right strategy is, but I do think it’s time for me to start doing this. At work, when anyone suggests that I did more than what was required or otherwise suggests that I shouldn’t expend so much energy in my work, my response is often, “This is who I am; this is what I do. This [promoting missions] is what I will be doing, in one way or the other, for the rest of my life.” It’s time I just start doing it every way I can, whether that’s tied to an organization, employer, church, or not.

Going forward, I want to start a blog devoted to my experiences in missions mobilization and communications. I’ll write about the things I create at work, the message boards I participate in online, the articles I publish on different websites, and the people I talk with at church and elsewhere. The blog will be the journal of my mobilization efforts and my reflections along the way. (My first task is to name the blog. Any suggestions?)

Of course, a blog about my efforts to mobilize those within my circle of influence is only as good as my efforts to mobilize. And so I’ll do more to communicate the missions vision to the church. I’ll continue participating in related message boards, but I’ll write some articles for Christian websites, especially those frequented by the younger generation. Some of the missions topics I want to write about include:

• Missions’ Goal – calling all nations to praise Him
• Support roles in world missions
• The priority of the least reached
• “But what if I’m not called?”
• Postmodern missionaries
• Motivations for missionary activity
• Communication tips for missionaries
• Online media strategies for missionaries and agencies
• Top 10 missions books

New Ministry Strategy and Media Blog

I came across a new ministry strategy and media blog today, Forward Thinking. Recent posts includes topics like strategic volunteering, defensive blogging, and ministry branding. All are written from a decisively Christian view and seem to reflect a genuine desire to glorify God through the strategic use of media, technology, and business principles. For instance, in the post about strategic volunteering, the author demonstrates how the principle reflects Biblical teaching, quoting Eph. 4:15-16 in support. The blog doesn’t smack of a desire to increase a church’s size through slick marketing; rather, it reads like genuine Christian service meant to enable churches to communicate and function more effectively, for the glory of God.

The blog reflects my own desire to merge my skill in communications with my passion for world missions. I’ve thought about starting a blog or website geared to helping missionaries better communicate their stories, but I’ve never got past the thinking stage. Seeing this blog, and the (possibly new) Lucky Rock media ministry \ ministry strategy \ mobile & Web ministry group that it is connected to rekindles my dream .