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LONDON – U.K.-based Christian Research has commissioned a popular agency that specializes in “mystery shopping” services to begin a new ”mystery worshipper” initiative designed to find the reasons why people do not go to church or practice the Christian faith.
The idea is modeled after the ”mystery shopper” style schemes where researchers evaluate the quality of service in hotels, shops and restaurants. The ”mystery worshipper” scheme is also very similar to one run by the Christian website Ship of Fools. In the Ship of Fools scheme, however, Christians are used to judge churches.
In this new scheme by Christian Research, non-Christians are being employed, as the purpose of the exercise is to find the reasons why more people do not choose to be Christian and what could encourage people to go to church.
Under the initiative, non-Christians will be paid £30 for every time they go to a church and evaluate it. The ”mystery worshippers” will judge churches on the sermon delivered, the welcome, atmosphere, warmth, comfort and appearance.
Benita Hewitt, executive director of Christian Research, said churches needed to find out how they were viewed from the outside by non-churchgoers.
”We have had some of our mystery worshippers saying that they were amazed by what they found – by the atmosphere and the welcome before the service, and the fellowship,” she said, according to the Times Online.
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”It was all so far from their expectations that they had before they came in – often based on childhood when they saw the church as a boring experience where you were made to feel guilty.”
Churches of different denominations in the town of Telford in England have already been the subject of a pilot scheme, while churches in the West Midlands are expected to receive their first ”mystery worshippers” early next year.
Stephen Goddard, co-editor of Ship of Fools, noted that two of the churches already rated in Telford had received marks of 100 percent.
”We did not send in soft, tame mystery worshippers, we sent in people possibly with an axe to grind against the church,” said Goddard, whose website is working with Christian Research to promote the new scheme.
"What came out of it was their surprise at how much the Church has moved forward from their experience as children,” he said, according to Times Online.
According to the 2001 census, over 70 percent of people in England call themselves Christian. However, a recent survey by Christian Research suggested that less than 10 percent of the population goes to church.
