The last blog post dealt with 5 of 10 things guests wished we knew about them. Today’s post completes that list of ten things. In no particular order, here are 5 more things that guests wished we knew about them:

1. We are influenced by our kids’ experiences at church. Your church service and the Bible study we attended were really good. In fact, it was a good day. At this point we’re really hopeful that this might be the place we land. But before we can make a decision about all that, I need to know how you treated my kids. So the first question I’m going to ask my children is, “Did you like it?” I’m not going to start with “What did you learn in Sunday School?” or some other more appropriate question. If my kids had a bad experience, I’m not going to force them to come back. If my kids had a great experience, though, and I didn’t, I’m highly likely to tolerate that since my kids are happy.
2. We are taking up to 18 months to join a church. We are not in a hurry to join your church. In fact, we aren’t really “joiners” in the first place. We’re going to attend your church because the preaching’s really great. But we are going to go to small groups at the church down the street because they learned our names and were very welcoming. There’s even another church that has great worship, and we love the concerts they occasionally do for the members and the community. We’re in no rush. We’re just going to take our time and see what happens. If you want to keep me interested in your church, you’re going to have to do continual follow-up for a long time.
3. Our first impression of the church is hard to overcome if it’s negative. The first seven minutes we are on your church campus are really critical in helping me decide if this is the right place or not. You’ve heard the expression, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” It may be overused, but it’s true.
4. Our last impression of the church is hard to overcome if it’s negative. I don’t want to put any pressure on you, but even if we’ve had a really good morning at your church, it can be ruined by the last thing we experience. I know that’s not fair, but it’s just the way it is. Ignore me after the church service, or head off to lunch without being neighborly and inviting me to attend as well. You can do everything just right and still trip up at the finish line. You’ve got to pay attention to me all morning long.
5. The church doesn’t get bonus points for being friendly. Guess what? I’m glad that you think you have a friendly church. Perhaps you do. But you don’t get any extra points for that because you are a church! You’re supposed to be friendly! Don’t pat yourself on the back too hard, alright?

Today’s list plus yesterday’s list spell out 10 different things guests wish we knew about them. I hope there are at least a few of these that you can improve upon in your quest to reach new members.