We’ve covered mystery worshippers here before. Twice. Some people loved it, others hated it. So we wanted to get your opinion on the idea of asking a stranger how to run your church.
45% of you love this idea. You think it’s incredibly helpful to get an objective outsider’s perspective on your services. Personally, I’m a huge fan of this kind of breath of fresh air. You don’t have to take every suggestion they make, but you should at least be collecting objective data to include in conversations about what your church is doing.
46% of you went with the snarky options. About half of those want to finish surveying their imaginary friends first, and the other half already have a metric–attenders invite friends, and those friends give feedback. I think these answers translates to, “Mystery worshippers are a dumb idea.”
The final 8% of you say no, but for different reasons. Half just think it’s a ridiculous idea and don’t want some shadow person telling them what to do. Another half already have some good ways to measure their success. Maybe those are surveys or town hall meetings, who knows, but feel free to let us know in the comments.
This week, we’re asking how is your church responding to the current financial crisis? Let us know in the right sidebar of the home page!
Russ
December 10, 2008
We just ask people that have come and gone what they didn’t like about it or what we could do to improve. It’s free, we get great input, and we don’t have to hire a mystery worshiper.
Phil
December 10, 2008
On the subject of this week’s poll. Have you ever noticed how poor churches are at asking for money, or is it just me?
Put it this way, if your company needed more money would you get an accountant to ask for it or a sales guy? Personally I’d go for sales, so why is it the church accountant is left with the task of asking for more money!
Brian
December 10, 2008
I think I’m probably with Joshua in that this could be valuable input if used properly and in conjunction with other tools and considerations. You would have to take the input in context. We can’t assume that a random visitor understands the full scope of what a church’s mission is.
What I’m really hesitant about is any process that reinforces the notion that a church attender is there to be an audience member, and to be entertained. I know too many churches that already struggle with membership of this mindset.
Laure
December 10, 2008
I totally understand where you are coming from, Brian. I think that it’s important to target the questions that you ask a mystery worshiper.
The questions shouldn’t be about what they “liked” or “didn’t like,” as personal preference is really not important. The questions should center around concepts such as:
– How easy or difficult was it to get involved?
– What ministries or programs could the church add to better meet the needs of your family?
– How easy or difficult was it to feel comfortable as a part of the church body?
These questions will help a church to determine how their effective their ministry is without getting into side issues like music style, dress code, paint colors, sermon themes, etc.