Anyone go to church yesterday and notice a strange face in the crowd? Maybe it was a “secret worshipper” paid to evaluate your church, pastor and congregation.
Yes, The Wall Street Journal reported on a new kind of communicator—the church consultant. Like mystery shoppers at department stores or mystery diners at restaurants, these unknown worshippers evaluate everything from the church’s cleanliness to the pastor’s sermon and warmth of the congregation.
In the story, WSJ featured Thomas Harrison, a former pastor, who opened his own consulting firm in 2005, Media Embassy, to help churches “polish their media and public-relations skills.”
“In an increasingly diverse and fluid religious landscape,” WSJ said, “churches competing for souls are turning to corporate marketing strategies such as focus groups, customer-satisfaction surveys and product giveaways.”
Sound familiar, kind of like your job?
Of course, the flip side, which WSJ touches upon, is what certain theologians call “spiritual consumerism.” Grading churches for superficial reasons might lead worshippers to congregations for the wrong reasons, the story said.
The story also discussed measurement. Apparently every church that’s used one of the six or so church consulting firms has seen an increase in congregants. But, really, aren’t the measurement criteria two-fold—physical and metaphysical? Sure you’re getting them in the door, but what about saving their souls?
I’m dying to see those results.
(The video is audio only.)
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Comments (2)
Welp, guess the only thing worth clinging to now are guns.
Posted by Sue | October 13, 2008 12:47 PM
Posted on October 13, 2008 12:47
UK-based Ship of Fools has been doing this for years (and they have quite a few mystery worshippers outside of the UK), and the results are always interesting, and sometimes telling. Ship-of-Fools also runs an online churh, which opened after The Ark, an online reality show pitting biblcal characters in a big brother type ark for 40 days, closed.
Something about the phrase "churches competing for souls" just doesn't sit well with me though, but maybe I'm missing the business of relgion.
Anyway, check out the Mystery Worshipper column here: http://ship-of-fools.com/mystery/index.html
Posted by Mike | October 13, 2008 10:13 AM
Posted on October 13, 2008 10:13