What the Church could learn from…The Hospital

This morning Jeanne and I had the joy of waking up to our little Gigi covered in some sort of Allergic Reaction all over her cute little body.  Jeanne and I had the exact same thought at the exact same moment – “How do we avoid having to go to the Hospital over this one?” Don’t get me wrong – We love our baby, we just hate our Health Care Plan.  And to be honest, I break out in an allergic reaction to Hospitals in general.

After embracing the inevitable, we packed Gigi up and took her to Children’s Memorial Hospital here in the city.  Here’s what we experienced in our first few moments there:

1. We found great parking right outside the entrance.
2. Easy to spot Signage that told us exactly which entrance to take.
3. Three people in the first 60 seconds asked us if it was our first time and if we needed any help finding anything.
4. An amazingly engaging and surprisingly calm environment.
5. Someone walked us from the entrance down the hall in the direction we were heading.
6. We got to keep our coffee!

Within 45 minutes we were signing out with the brilliant medical advice of “Just ride it out” (which was actually my advice from the very beginning, although not as welcomed by Jeanne).

We left that hospital wondering, Why can’t people’s First Impression of Church be more like ours at the Hospital (minus the bill)?  Why do we make it so hard and so confusing for so many people who already have a million little battles of resistance running through their morning?  What does a City Hospital know that the Church doesn’t?  I know that not all visits to the Hospital are like this.  But it brings up a great tension.

A great exercise for you and your team to do as often as possible is to go another church and see how they do it.  See what your First Impression is – from when you park your car until you park your rear in a seat.  Or better yet, survey your own experience:

• Where are you setting up unnecessary speed bumps or road blocks to people having a great First Impression?
• What do you assume that people know?  What don’t they know?
• How are you anticipating and and eliminating unnecessary resistance?
• How can you get every single “insider” in your church involved as an owner of your church’s First Impression?

It really would be a shame if people had a better experience at a HOSPITAL than they do at our church.  We could learn a lot.

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