Mystery Worshipper reaction

Having visited Birmingham Christian Centre a few weeks ago and written about my experiences I have had a few reactions to what i wrote which you can find further down this page. I thought i should address some of the commets that i have had, one especially from Birmingham’s leading Black Opinion Writer Veron Graham. This is what he had to say;

As a Christian, an experienced journalist and blogger myself, I don’t think this is a very responsible way to write, my brother. I’d never go so far as to asses a church like a food critic. I would have thought a Mystery Worshipper wouldn’t have much time to focus on much else but worshipping.

Veron has a point – As a Christian Journalist i shouldn’t be critiquing a church like it is a restaurant or a concert, but i think there is a place for people to write about there experiences of church’s from a subjective position. Having been heavily involved in church’s myself i think that as Christians we can often miss tiny details that would make church’s more accesible for visitors and the unchurched.

Having re-read the original blog i posted i think it was unfair to say “It was a very unpromising start with only a dozen people dotted around the 700-seat auditorium” – This was a mistake to judge a church by the number of people and always has been the wrong approach to Christianity, and growing up with a Carribean background my comment about Afro-Caribbean’s being half an hour late is very much in good humour.

By saying “A better welcoming team” people on the door were serving God just as well as the pastor and the worship team were, I just think there could be some general principles put in place to make sure people who are new are comfortable in the church from the outset.

As i said and will reiterate, I think BCC is a great church, I know a number of people there, it resources many other smaller churches in the City and i intend on going back in the future as a worshipper. My motivation for doing this was to write objectively about visiitng new church’s i visit and to provide some helpful pointers on how i think they could improve.