Don’t Look Right

A few years ago I attended a security seminar for churches. You know…how to take down a perpetrator when they try to take two crackers out of the Lord’s Supper tray. (My previous experience as an unarmed security guard in a polyester suit made me a natural fit for the training.)

One of the things we covered was the “Don’t Look Right” principle. The security authority guy said that when something doesn’t look right in your weekend worship experience, you’ll know it. Call it a hunch, call it a sixth sense, call it just being really in tune with your environment…you’ll know it.

It’s the same way secret service agents are trained to spot counterfeit bills by spending so much time running through the real deal. After years of handling authentic money, they can catch a fake twenty from 100 yards away.

And it should be the same way in our guest service experience. Your leaders should know what supplies are out of place, what people are out of place, and what systems are out of place at a glance.

We usually do that as part of a quick walk through before the services begin. A quick checklist – be it physical or mental – will do wonders to keep the DNA of your guest service experience intact.

And part of that comes by actually having a system. If you’re reinventing the way you do ministry on a weekly basis, there’s no way you can develop a standard from which you can determine what “don’t look right.”

So what is it that don’t look right on your weekend?