Hey Fletch—We have a lot of people who visit our church but they don’t come back. We send out letters and emails to newcomers. Apparently these are not working. Any thoughts?

Fletch—I stumbled on an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal. Hold with me while I explain it. Rob LaZebnik wrote: How to Avoid Being Boring at 60 What to do when your life is so routine that you’ve run out of stories? Embark on a series of tame, achievable, eye-opening challenges. 

This isn’t the first place that I might turn to answer your question, but he provides a fascinating insight into the non-church world. LaZebnik decided to do sixty things that he had never done before, as a way of growing and having interesting things to talk about with friends. 

The first item that he mentions is, Attend a megachurch:

Though I’m a skeptic about all organized religion, I went to a 2,000-person-strong service at one of America’s largest evangelical megachurches and, honestly, saw what the hype is all about.

Young, very attractive singers in Bonobos pants and white sneakers launched into soaring rock songs on stage. The pastor was a charismatic woman who told us how, in the story of Joseph, his brothers decided not to kill him but to sell him into slavery. She said, “They thought, ‘We won’t be murderers, we’ll be human traffickers!’” 

Not John Mulaney-level comedy, but solid stuff for an evangelical church.

The self-described skeptic was impressed at the solid stuff for an evangelical church. He remembered the worship and the message. This is off to a good start. 

Here is the kicker where things go downhill:

The disappointing thing, though, was that the crowd just filed back to their cars after it all ended. I wanted to get inside the heads of these people who had such a different outlook on life.

We can’t say if the megachurch had a coffee shop, guest area or welcome session. Perhaps he didn’t make use of those things. What we can say is that the regular attenders did not engage him in conversation. They seemed to evaporate and drive away. He wanted to talk! He wanted to get a better grip on such a different outlook on life. 

I’m sure that if the church knew that a WSJ reporter was there, from a newspaper with millions of readers, that they would have rolled out the red carpet. They would have had pastors and church leaders with him, talking about their different outlook on life. They could have gotten Joe and Josephine Congregant to dialogue with him. They would have gotten him backstage to talk with the preaching pastor between services. I would have offered all this and more.

This reminds me of Hebrews 13:2 that I translate as, Don’t forget to show hospitality to strangers, as some people hosted angels (messengers) without knowing it.

  • An angel is a messenger from God.
  • A international student is a messenger who may become a future leader.
  • A neighbor is a messenger from your community.
  • The reporter was a messenger from the Wall Street Journal. 

All messengers will share their experience at your church. In this case, it was a lost opportunity to show hospitality to a WSJ reporter … who represented a 134 year-old, respected voice in international media, with a circulation of 3,749,000. What a huge audience for the messenger to share his experience with!

To answer your question about visitors not returning to your church, perhaps let your people know that you never know who you are sitting next to. It could be a messenger from God, a future leader of a foreign country, a neighbor, or a reporter from the Wall Street Journal.