That’s right – if you promise greatness, you better deliver. I’ve said this for years and I’ve heard my friend, Shaun King, say it many times before, too. More on that later, but first let me tell you the inspiration for this blog post. Like many of you, I saw the Burger King commercial this weekend promoting their smoothies and frappes for just $1 this holiday weekend. On TV, they showed a very nice looking frappe and it caught my eye. So I went to Burger King’s website and they promoted the special with the above picture.
You can imagine my frustration and disappointment when I visited BK last night and they gave me a small coffee cup with an ugly looking frappe in it. (See picture below) Not only did the drink not pass the eye test, it didn’t pass the taste test. I didn’t taste anything like what it looked like in the advertisement or as good as it’s McDonalds’ McCafe competitor.
How does this relate to ministry and my church you ask? It relates big time and happens every Sunday in America. I first became aware of this years ago when my friend, Shaun King, and I were both speaking at the same conference. Shaun had launched a church in Atlanta and had a huge turnout for his first week due to great online presence and marketing. The teachable moment Shaun pointed out was that after all the marketing hype, when guests arrived, their church wasn’t ready or prepared.
In my travels and survey of churches around the country I’ve seen church websites that advertise one thing and deliver another. I’ve seen churches that post professional audio recordings of recording artists and say, “This is what our band sounds like.” Not. I’ve seen churches post video from Hillsong United on their website and then people show up and see something much, much worse.
I’ve seen churches use popular words and phrases like relevant teaching, family-friendly kids ministry, contemporary worship, modern worship, etc., etc. Unfortunately, many guests visits churches that promise things like this and then the church doesn’t execute. Their worship isn’t done with creativity and excellence. Their kids ministry isn’t clean, safe, fun and secure.
How is this a problem? It’s why I made a career out of being a consultant and secret shopper. Because first impressions matter. You only get one chance to make a first impression. You can pump up your church all you want on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, billboards, newspaper ads and through your church’s website, but bottomline: When they finally come, you better back up what you promoted. If not, they won’t return. My hope is that you plan, pray and execute with excellence in every area of your Sunday morning experience and blow your guests away – exceed their expectations. That’s a win for your organization. Blessings as you seek to reach the lost!
