As I stated yesterday, my family and I just got back from the trip of a lifetime. Even though I started my professional ministry career in Orlando, we hadn’t been back as a family since we left over 10 years ago. My oldest son was only two when we left and my two youngest children weren’t even born. We had a great time visiting friends and seeing how the church has grown since we left. While there we also visited Universal Studio’s Islands of Adventure and Disney World’s Magic Kingdom in consecutive days. While visiting these two parks there were several things that stood out to me that I could relate to the church.
I cam some up all the differences in one word … intentionality. Yesterday I spoke at length about the differences between our first impressions at the two parks. I didn’t base those comparisons just on my thoughts but also on the thoughts of my 12, 8, and 6-year-old children. If you missed yesterday you can click here to read more.
Another noticeable difference between the two parks is their customer service. At Universal I felt like a customer. At Disney I felt like a guest. Again, I did not have a bad experience as a customer at Universal. On the contrary, it was a great experience. But nonetheless, I felt like a customer. At Disney I truly felt like they had been awaiting my arrival and that my family was their guest. Even in the chaos of experiencing Magic Kingdom with approximately 75,000 other guests (yes it was extremely busy) every employee I encountered from restaurant to ride to shop to “princess” all interacted with my family in a seemingly personal way.
How did everyone at Disney know how to do this? Again, I think it comes back to being intentional. You know how when you tell someone “thank you” at Chick-fil-A and they always respond with “my pleasure?” That isn’t just a coincidence. Chick-fil-A is very intentional in their training so that every employee responds the same way. Friends that I know that have worked at Disney tell me their training is very similar.
Back to church world, this is another extremely important lesson to learn. Every church must be intentional in how they interact with guests and attenders. I have never known of a church that considered themselves to be unfriendly. On the contrary, most every church thinks they are the friendliest church in town. This may be true amongst themselves, but is this true for guests and/or outsiders. The joke about a guest taking a “regulars” seat in church isn’t so much of a joke in many churches. Many churches will take a couple minutes out of their program and ask everyone to greet one another. While there is nothing wrong with this in theory, most guests don’t want to hear someone on stage tell people to come be friendly to you. Six of the most important minutes during a church service are the three minutes before it starts and the three minutes after it is over. This gives the regular attenders of the church a great opportunity to be friendly and honor the guests that are there.
Back when I was a youth pastor I had a rule for all of our student leadership team. On our outreach service night the student leadership team was not allowed to hang out or sit together during the service. Their responsibility was to interact with and engage in conversation with people they did not know. Yes, it was a challenge at first because our student leadership team were all close friends and they enjoyed being together. Just like in “big church” today, people come to be with their friends, but there must also be an emphasis to be kind and courteous to everyone.
Again, it is all about the leadership of the church leading by example and intentionally equipping and encouraging its members and regular attenders in this regard.
I will conclude my thoughts on what I learned while in Orlando with Part 3 tomorrow.
Randy Harp 