What is it like for someone who is not church-involved to attend a service in your congregation? What strikes him or her? What causes alienation? And vice versa: what are the things that touch and appeal to the guest? In short: how does a guest experience your service?
René van Loon, who previously wrote the book Spring in the church (2020) wrote, is researching this across the breadth of the church spectrum: Catholic, Protestant and evangelical. If you, as a congregation, would like to participate in this research, he would like to get in touch with you. The idea would then be for you to invite five non-church guests to each attend a service in the coming months of December-January-February, and fill in a survey form about it. Finding people willing to participate is proving to be less difficult than it seems: many people are willing to help.
As a congregation, look in the mirror through the eyes of the guest!
As a local church council, you will gain insight into the survey forms of people who have attended a service in your congregation. This gives you a unique opportunity to look in the mirror through the eyes of the guest. They show you what is beautiful and valuable, what appeals to a visitor. And you also get an insight into what evokes alienation. No doubt there are things that can be improved, sometimes quite simply. Of course, at the end you will receive the book with the results of the entire study.
More information and registration
Are you interested? If so, please send an email before 16 November to renevanloon@samaritaan.org. You will then receive further information and can then decide whether to actually participate.
