God bless you
Virginia

I think maybe there are two different questions at hand. What I think you’re asking is how to make people feel welcome in church. But I think you also raise an interesting question of how we help people to worship.

Maybe the way we look at it is like this: When you go to Chick-Fil-A, you’re there for food (and in ordering a kid’s meal, a bit of fun for your kid). What better to do to go above expectations than to give more food or more options of fun?

But what would this mean in church? Clearly ice cream would be nice (!), but how does that better serve why we’re in church to begin with? We don’t go to church to get more stuff, we go to church to give back to God. People go to worship to feel connected with God, to give back, to praise. And we know that just asking people to give more or worship longer isn’t always received well. So in that case, if ‘more’isn’t always better… but maybe having more options is. Or maybe having better quality of worship/giving/praising is the key to providing a pleasant surprise (like being upgraded to first class on a plane).

What would that mean? Seat-back credit card readers to make donations from a card? Multiple rooms with various praise experiences available (poetry reading, singing, art, interpretive dance, etc)? Hiring acclaimed singers to perform praise songs during service?

Or maybe we just give them ice cream. I dunno.

In all seriousness, though, I think there’s something to be said for going above and beyond in serving others. I heard a professional photographer share recently that they spend hundreds of dollars on gifts for each of their wedding couples, just to send them gifts and give them an out-of-this-world customer experience. Because plenty of photographers can shoot good pictures, but what’s going to set this photographer apart and attract attention, if not rave reviews about amazing customer service and experience?