So in our part of the country, school starts tomorrow and church "starts" next weekend.  Effectively what that means is thousands of people will try church for the first time in Central Ontario this month. 

There’s a lot at stake.  Can you imagine the courage it takes to walk into a church for the first time in years, or decades?  Can you imagine the internal angst some face as they wonder whether to risk going into a strange place full of people they mostly don’t know (or trust) to explore a God they’re not sure is there?  I feel that every time someone new steps into Connexus. And we can blow that first encounter before we know it if we’re not careful.

Over the last month I’ve had enough poor customer service experiences to reflect back on what we can do better in church to welcome a guest.  First impressions count.  And I know church attenders are not "customers", but in reality, there are some similarities. Here are some ways I’d love to be treated as a guest.

• It’s not about your needs, but my needs.  Two days ago I walked into a shoe store and the only two employees were so deeply engrossed in conversation I thought I’d never be able to get a question in.  Sometimes Christians are so engaged with each other that they forget to engage new people.
• Anticipate what I want.  Body language 101 can tell you whether a guest has a simple question, wants a warm welcome, or simply wants to find out where her two year old goes.  Determine early on what kind of information/experience the guest is seeking and meet that need. No less, nor more.
• Be warm.  Some guests don’t want chit chat.  Some do.  But in either case, a smile and an authentic openness can go a long way to making a guest see that they’ve hooked up with quality people.
• Take me there.  Don’t point to Aisle 16 "somewhere near the back".  Take me there. Show me.  If I’ve asked, it’s because I really want to find what I’m looking for.  I almost pointed someone to Xtreme yesterday, but instead, I corrected myself mid stream and walked them to the entrance.  Much better.
• Take an interest in my story. The best service people always engage people with basic questions "Where are you from?  How did you hear about us?"  They can surf off those questions to take a genuine interest in the guest’s story.

Churches tend to either smother people or be cold and anonymous, but if we can hit even a few of the notes above, I wonder how many more people might decide their first experience of church was a great one.

What do you think?  What are your stories?  What’s the worst that has happened to you?  The best?  What principles do you think we should follow/avoid when interacting with people?

Shift Seven: Forgive

This one sounds easy, but it’s harder than most of us think. Of course we forgive.  But do we?

Life brings lots of knocks and hard hits.  I had a few leading into 2006, but that year brought a whole spate of new ones.  It left me a bit numb. Without getting into details, I had some friends who really hurt me.  I owned whatever I could in the hurt and went back to them and apologized for my part, but ownership on their part was short and fleeting, and it left me stinging.

I thought I had let it go… but as someone once told me, you’ve only really forgiven someone if you can truly wish them well and mean it.  I had work to do.

In the last two years, I’ve realized new dimensions to forgiveness.  I realized how badly I need to forgive to truly be free and ready to move into tomorrow.

I realized I also needed to forgive myself for past mistakes. I can be nasty at beating myself.  The voices of critics echoed in my head enough that it became a loop I heard far too often.  I had to learn to park that, bringing it all before God to lay it down before Him.

On the otherside of forgiveness is freedom.  Psalm 32 explains the dynamic so well. It even talks about how unforgiveness drains us and saps our physical strength.

God is good, and forgiveness is not ony available, God is happy to extend it.  This shift helped so much. I’m still working on some of it, but to have released so much of it and truly wish the people who have hurt me well is quite liberating. 

What do you struggle with in forgiveness?  How good are you at forgiving yourself?  What kind of release lies on the other side for you – what kind of energy and strength await on the other side of forgiveness?

A sad and significant story has been breaking over the last week in Ontario, my home province.  Contaminated prepared meats from a major Toronto company have caused a listeria outbreak that has killed 12 people and caused others to fall ill.  All the tainted product can be traced to a single company in Toronto, Maple Leaf Foods.

In chatting about it with Toni casually yesterday, I said I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the end of Maple Leaf Foods.  They have been around for 100 years and are a major brand, but I was not sure they could recover from a problem this big.  Not only are they being sued in several class action suits, but I’m not sure consumers would ever trust the brand again.

This afternoon, I abruptly changed my mind.  The President of Maple Leaf Foods, Michael McCain, held a press conference and did something radical.  He didn’t blame the government.  He didn’t point fingers.  He didn’t make excuses.  He didn’t just apologize.

He assumed full responsibility for the situation.  He unapologetically said the buck stopped with him and his company.  They were to blame.  Check out what he said:

While this is the most unfortunate of events possible, I absolutely
do not believe that this is a failure of the Canadian food safety
system or the regulators.

Certainly knowing that there is a desire to assign blame, I want to reiterate that the buck stops right here.

So I emphasize this is our accountability … and it’s ours to fix,
which we are taking on fully. We have and will continue to improve on
our action plans and I’d like to give you an update on those plans as
of this moment.

He then went on to articulate their action plan, including all they knew and didn’t know as of today.  (If you want the full text of his comments, click here.)

I first heard about this in the car today on the radio, and I wanted to cheer.  In an age where few have the courage to stand up and accept blame and responsibility, Michael McCain did it. 

And an ironic thing happened: it made me want to buy Maple Leaf Food products.  It made want to trust his leadership.

When things go south, as they inevitably do at some point for all of us, the temptation is to sugar coat, ignore, blame, waffle, avoid or fail to admit what really happened.  The irony is the very thing we think will help us will actually hurt us.  And the very thing we are most afraid of – admitting the truth and accepting full responsibility – will ironically inspire confidence in others.

I say Kudos to McCain and Maple Leaf Foods.  How do you react to this?  How does this make you feel?  What personal lessons do you see in this?