October 28, 2014
By Eddie Pipkin
Too hard, too soft, and just right.
Have you heard the tale of Goldilocks and the Three Churches?
Goldilocks visited three churches on three consecutive Sundays, and while she enjoyed the worship at each one, she was particularly interested in how they would follow up with a visitor like herself.
When she visited 1st Church of the Woods, they made her stand up during worship and tell all about herself. They gave her a paperweight with the church logo, brought her a homemade cake later that evening, called her on the phone to see if she was interested in teaching Sunday School, and sent her personal letters from the pastor and two potential spiritual mentors, along with a spiritual gifts assessment and a boxed set of pre-printed offering envelopes. Goldilocks thought they were trying a little too hard.
Next she visited 2nd Church of the Woods, where no one even spoke her to her in worship and later that week she received no phone calls or visits, just an automatically generated generic postcard that said, “Dear Visitor.” She thought their attempts to connect were definitely too soft.
Finally, she visited 3rd Church of he Woods, and the folks at 3rd church got the whole visitor thing just right (and she’s been an active and engaged part of their ministry family happily ever after).
How did they do it? How did they find the elusive balance between too much contact and not enough? How did they decide what the message would be and how it would be delivered?
One of the questions I often get from church leaders, both new church starts and existing congregations, is how to get people wh