I do not have a lot of money nor do I make a lot of money. I wanted to clarify that before blogging about my guest experience at Nordstrom. In their men’s department, they have a great selection of sale items. I look for specific shirts on the sale rack. So, I find 2 -3 shirts. Yes! Here comes Mitzi who always helps me when I am checking out the sale section. She finds me a dressing room. She tends to whatever I need from her-even colors on me. She makes me feel like I am her most important customer in that big store. Her smile. Her attitude. Her servant’s heart. What’s the big deal? I find myself returning to the sale rack for clothes and wanting Mitzi to always help me. In fact, I just received a personal thank you note in the mail from Mitzi for shopping at Nordstrom. She says it was such a pleasure to assist me. Her note went on to specifically say something about my shirts. Again, she made me feel important.
I think to myself that if Nordstrom can offer that experience why in the world can our churches not do the same? I am tired of churches always worried about their little internal group. When will we serve our guests with a great smile, a great attitude, and a servant’s heart? Granted there are lots of churches hitting it out of the ballpark, but there are many more who do not care at all-I have been in those churches.
There are a lot of pastors who only care about the platform (primarily their message), but neglect a place that perhaps speaks louder…the place where people enter the church. Also, make sure you follow up with people who are guests at your church like Mitzi did with me. It all makes a difference.
You can say whatever excellent words you want from the platform, but if the excellence is not demonstrated in a first and lasting impression you are wasting your time. Zaxby’s has a saying they used to put on the bottom of their receipts that said they wanted to create encore experiences. Does your church or my church care to do the same? After all, we are doing this on God’s behalf, right?
Related posts:
josh-thanks for the comment. i know it can be hard to find a church where as a couple there is a connection. i sometimes think it’s almost like a relationship with someone of the opposite sex. there has to be chemistry, commonalities, shared dreams, character similarities, etc. there is a fit out there for you and amy bro. keep searching. i have this one project i would love to launch to help people with their church search, but i do not have the funding right now. it would be a great resource though. who knows…in due time:) let me know where you guys settle in. again, thanks for reading and commenting. i value your thoughts.
right on. I know exactly what you mean. Amy and I have been trying to find a church for several months now and we just now found a church that we wanted to visit a second time. It has been frustrating at times and for all the times growing up that I did not want to be “bothered” by someone visiting, I found myself wanting someone to follow up with us other then a form letter thanking us for coming. Lots of times hardly anyone spoke to us. There was one church that I would has considered visiting again, but it did not seem to matter if Amy and I were there or not. It is interesting that a company like that puts so much energy into service that the churches seem to miss out.