Friendliness tops the list

A very helpful question every church should be asking is "What's working, and how can we do more of it?" (Chip and Dan Heath suggest this rather than focusing on what is not working.)  That makes sense to me.  Of course, we want some level of competence in a lot of areas, but it's great to be a Living Legend in at least one area.

Let me tell you what our guests see as something that's "working" at Wesley UMC: Friendliness.  The first and second time guests who fill out a little survey we send them, and folks who join our church, telling us why they stayed, usually include the words "friendly" or "welcoming" in their reasons. The truth is that these days, there's almost nothing that a church would rather have "working" than friendliness.

Gary Macintosh and Charles Arn have recently been asking people who had visited a church for the first time to name the most important impression they took away.  The leading answer was "the friendliness of the people."  Denominations, facilities, preaching, and music all took a back seat to friendliness as the thing that impressed people most.

Thanks so much folks.  Your friendliness is helping to win souls for Christ.  We already have a great, and well deserved reputation for our music program and Service to the community. Thank you for putting friendliness right there at the top of the list.