In my career as a consultant and coach for churches, I have visited dozens of Canadian churches from St. John’s to Powell River and from Edmonton to Kingsville. The worship experiences have been amazingly varied: from liturgical to charismatic, from a forest in a local park to a historic cathedral, from Hmong to French, and from Catholic to Salvation Army. Every time I visit someone else’s church, it is a learning opportunity I cherish. As a missiologist, I firmly believe that churches must participate in God’s redemptive mission. So, one of the questions I always ask is, “How would a newcomer, especially one who is not a Christian, experience this worship service?”
I always take some imaginary friends with me when I visit churches. They are a composite of people who have had spiritual conversations with me but are not connected to a church. They cause me to wonder what their response would be to the church I am visiting. Some of them are spiritual people who do not consider themselves Christians; others have concerns from past negative religious experiences; others have perspectives shaped by a different faith. I find it helpful to ask myself how my friends might react to each experience of worship.
In all of my church visiting, I have learned that a few things are vitally important in order to welcome newcomers. So, at the risk of contributing to the crazy amount of “click bait” you are already exposed to, here are three things I have learned from being a church visitor (and that you will want to discern about your own church, too).
What to Pay Attention to in Your Worship Service
- Invitation/Friendliness (Hospitality)
The experience of visiting a new church starts well before stepping through a doorway. Most of the time I have been invited by a friend. However, it can be quite a scavenger hunt to visit a church where you do not know anyone. Recently I found a church in a city in southern Ontario from their online posting and, while I was able to get to the correct neighbourhood without a problem, I had to walk most of the way around the block (following the sandwich boards and banners) to find their entrance in the back of an apartment building. I strongly recommend that you ask someone to test how easy it is for a stranger to find their way into your worship service or listen to the experiences of recent visitors.
One of the most obvious things that affects a new visitor is the friendliness of the “regulars”. Our hospitality needs to be spiritually and relationally sensitive to the needs of the visitor, who comes to worship with expectations unique to their life experience. A few months ago, I attended a worship service in the Maritimes where I watched the office administrator leave the building to stand in the parking lot to wave in someone she had met that week. Her new neighbour had recently arrived in Canada, and she wanted the visitor to know she had a friend to sit with in this new community. How people relate to each other before, during, and after worship speaks volumes about the qualities of Christian community that have been nurtured over time in each particular church. But it is essential that this community is ready to open up and take in strangers and newcomers, even before they come in the door.
Discernment questions: How challenging is it for someone to enter into the worshipping community? Do the folks at your church spontaneously welcome someone into church and do what they can to make them feel at home?
- Gospel-Shaped Community
Recently I visited Baptist, charismatic, Mennonite, and Presbyterian church plants that offered opportunities to reflect on what it means to enter into Christian community as part of the introduction to the Lord’s Supper. These short explanations of the meaning of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus were directly linked to the themes of the Sunday morning. One of the ministers even offered a personal invitation to meet with anyone who wanted a follow-up conversation that week.
Some experiences of congregational worship focus more on moral teaching than the message of salvation. However, I have experienced church worship services that are transformative because kerygma (proclamation) and didache (teaching) are intertwined. Love of God and love of neighbour are often just-below-the-surface themes of worship, and the ways they are present has an impact. I have interviewed people who started following Jesus after moving to Canada and they spoke about the importance of experiencing the community of faith during worship—the power of the spiritual and relational environment of a gospel-shaped people. The emotional ambience of a service, as well as the themes of the songs, prayers, and speaking, combine to create a collective experience of worship that is more than the sum of its parts. How people relate to each other before, during, and after worship speaks volumes to the qualities of Christian community that have been nurtured over time.
Discernment questions: Acknowledging that the Gospel can be presented during worship through both words and actions, is the good news of Jesus clearly explained at some point in the service? Is an opportunity to interact with the good news offered during the Bible reading, as part of the sermon, or as an invitation to conversation, reflection, or prayer?
- Faith-full Intentionality
My biggest take away from a new church experience is always reflecting on why they did what they did together; what was their intent? Sometimes it is obvious; when a congregation offers Spanish, French, and English during worship we know something about who is being invited to participate. Often it is more subtle or nuanced; a certain way of wording the pastoral prayer, or how children are encouraged to engage, can speak volumes to a visitor. Leading worship is definitively more art than science; it is crafting a moment in time together where we experience God, share life with each other, and reflect on how the Holy Spirit is at work around us.
Discernment questions: How does your church’s intentional faithfulness in worship sensitize people to the presence of the Holy God among you? How do you identify (and celebrate) the “fruit” that is nurtured by the environment of worship?
How to Experience Someone Else’s Worship Service
One of the most effective ways to get better at welcoming visitors is to practice being a visitor yourself. Experiencing other churches and church traditions while travelling, or worship services that meet at a different time than your own, can be valuable learning opportunities. As a veteran church visitor, I have discovered that, in order to learn well, the most important thing to get right has been my attitude. When visiting churches, it is important to enter in genuinely curious about how the body of Christ is embodied in this place, at this time, among these people.
- I genuinely want to know why they do what they do, so my lack of familiarity is actually an opportunity to learn something. When I am authentically interested, often one of my new friends will explain to me why what I experience as strange or confusing has value for the people of this community.
- While I generally try to enter fully into the experience of worship, I do not need to turn off my spiritual and theological discernment. Often there are moments in a worship service when I realize that they have found a way to express something about God that many of us have neglected.
- There are other times when I leave with something on my heart that caused a “ping” on my spiritual/theological radar. I often pray for the church I have visited, and these moments can inform my intercession. I have to remember that, as a visitor, I may not fully understand all of the issues but I know God is present with them.
James Watson (MDiv, PhD) had the privilege of visiting worship services as part of his 20-year career as a consultant and coach for church planting and congregational health. He carries these experiences forward as a 2024 Research Fellow at the Canadian Institute for Empirical Church Research at Wycliffe College, where he is leading an in-depth research project on Canadian church planting. He is enjoying the opportunity to reflect on how the Holy Spirit is at work among the churches in Canada.
