Church - In and Out

As a child, one of our family days out was a visit to a wonderful London store (sadly now long gone).

We went there every September to buy school shoes and meet all the other uniform needs too. It was a splendid building and I was fascinated by the marble and gold entrance with the words ‘in’ and ‘out’ on the floor and the doormen who admitted customers and hailed taxi’s for laden shoppers emerging from the place. The place buzzed and few emerged empty-handed, for they always seemed to find what they wanted inside. It was (aside from the monster railway displays at Christmas) a wonderful place to behold having within it's walls everything from clothes to kitchen appliances, fly fishing gear and shotguns too!

Recently images of this shop popped into my mind and a thought that this shop and church are very similar places hit me, and here’s the reason why:

Shop - Looking for something
Many of those who went into that shop were looking for something specific. They knew it was a place where what they needed could be found and so they came. They knew about the shop and what it had through adverts’ and other satisfied customers.

Church - Looking for something
Many who come into a church building do so because they too are looking for something specific. It might be something specific like love, acceptance, forgiveness, a sacred space or just a place to which they are drawn. People know that church and a place to be in time of need are synonymous through the many years of Christian tradition of our land and perhaps they’ve seen adverts too!

Shop – Just browsing
Some of those who went into the shop did so because they had time to kill. Once they’d entered the shop owners worked hard to create a need in the customers that one of their products could supply. This is what the science of marketing is all about; the knowing of what, and where, to place something so it gets chosen. Stop and think for a moment about times when you’ve gone into a shop to browse and come out with a purchase. What made you pick it? Was there a real need or had the marketing people won one?

Church – Just browsing
Having spent time ‘just sitting’ in our local cathedral-like church building I am aware that some people just pop in because the building is there. They, like many shoppers, are ‘just browsing’ and one of the tasks we have is to display what the Church has to offer such that those who come in find a need they might not realise they have, met. This means our buildings need to be warm, attractive and welcoming places and the ‘products’ we have put on show so that the potential ‘customer’ can become aware and find that which meets their need/s.

Shop – The Back Door
The shop I recall had a side door and this was often the way that the browsers and those who hadn’t purchased left. What I now realise is that this was also the door into bargains and the door out with opportunities. The reason for this was that all the ‘real bargains’ (as my Dad called them) were to be found there. It was, I now realise, a masterly piece of selling for it changed those who would otherwise have left with nothing into customers. Put the attractive stuff where those who weren't really in the market to buy became consumers. I know it always worked for us!

Church – The Back Door
With Church, whilst many people enter our buildings, many also leave by the back door without having bought in! We need to do is understand how we can make what Church offers known to them so that, like the shop’s back door, it becomes a place of taking up what is on offer.

Want to be someone who does that? Someone who helps to close the back door and help people to engage and come into the church family?

George Fisher (Lichfield Diocese) has produced a four-week course entitled ‘Closing the Back Door’ and we're going to offer it to anyone who can make St Francis' on a Sunday at 6pm (If you're interested in doing it where you are, why not contact the diocese and find out more?).

So for those who might be able to find Tamworth (it's in the middle of the map), starting at 6pm the dates for our venue are:
Oct 7th - Why people leave
Oct 14th - Pastoral Care
Nov 4th - Discipleship
Nov 11th - Gifts and Service

Pax