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Last weekend my wife and I continued our hunt for a new church home in the Chicagoland area.  We decided to go to a larger church in the western suburbs.  If I had to sum up the experience in a simple way, I’d say I wanted to like this church because they were doing a lot of communications things right—but in the end, I just couldn’t say this was a church I would attend.

It was easy to get information about the church.  I could find my way around with no problems.  During worship, the lyric slides were simple and easy to read.  The welcome and announcements went smoothly.  The worship folder had lots (borderline too much) information about the church.  All in all, the communication strategy and implementation was good.  But the overall style of the church just didn’t match what I was looking for.

I guess the biggest lesson in this church visit is this: No matter how well you communicate the identity of the church, you’re not always going to win.  People are different.  They have various things they’re looking for in a church.  But just because every visitor won’t become a regular attender doesn’t mean you should give up on what you’re doing.  If your communications strategy is well thought-out and executed it will pay off when someone walks through the door whose personality matches the church.  It’s true in the case of this western Chicago church.  There are thousands of people going there.  They’re doing things right and they’ve found people who match their brand and mission.

(Juice on the Loose is a feature where we visit a church and share what we learn from the communication stuff they’re doing.  To read the first post in the series, click here.)