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Throughout five decades in the ministry, including 12 at Houston’s Sagemont Baptist Church, Buddy Griffin said he always wondered what Sunday morning services were like at other churches.
After all, on most weekends, he was serving at his own church.
So when he retired from Sagemont at the end of 2013, Griffin set out to learn about other congregations, turning into a “secret church shopper” and visiting more than 100 congregations of all denominations—from cowboy churches to charismatic ones, from Episcopalian to Baptist to Lutheran. Griffin took detailed notes and compiled his research into a book titled What in HEAVEN Is Going On At Church? that will be released by Tate Publishing April 5,
Griffin’s research may have been birthed simply out of curiosity, but it also had a more serious goal: to help churches improve how they reach visitors, particularly those who are not saved. At about half of the churches, no one even spoke to him. At another 10 or so churches, he couldn’t find a visitor’s card, not even upon request.
“I looked at it from the perspective of being a lost man. If I walked onto this campus, would I want to come back?”
Buddy Griffin, author, What in HEAVEN Is Going On At Church?
“I looked at it from the perspective of being a lost man. If I walked onto this campus, would I want to come back?” Griffin, who served as men’s minister and prayer pastor at Sagemont, told the TEXAN. “My goal was to provide first-hand information to pastors and churches to advance the kingdom of God.”
Griffin went through the same routine at each church. He would get to the parking lot about 25 minutes early, park away from the main entrance, and then walk toward the door. Upon entering, he would walk around the lobby, acting as if he were a visitor looking for information about the congregation. He then would go sit in the first eight rows of the church.
“I had a rule that I would not speak to anybody unless I was spoken to,” Griffin said. “I would see if anyone would speak to me after the service, and I would hang around in the lobby.”
Then, Griffin would walk back to his car and take notes, marking down information he categorized into three points: 1) the Word (was the gospel preached?), 2) the Warmth (was he made to feel like he could fit in?), and 3) the Welcome (did he receive a friendly greeting?).
In too many churches, Griffin said, either Christ wasn’t the center of the service or Griffin was not greeted—or both. In one memorable instance, he arrived at the wrong time for the service and asked someone if there was a class he instead could attend. Once finding it, he was abruptly told it was “full,” so he turned around, found the fellowship hall, and sipped on coffee and read his Bible until the service started.
But other churches excelled at making him feel wanted. One congregation contacted him on Sunday afternoon, thanking him for coming. Another one actually visited him on Sunday night. (The longest a church took to contact him was 62 days.)
All total, he visited 100-plus churches of 28 different denominations, making sure they were comprised of various races and nationalities. Griffin always sent the data to the pastor, with a letter and a picture of himself. Most pastors, he said, were thankful for the information.
Griffin said he learned a lot during his secret shopper research, both negative and positive.
Some congregations—mostly “high church” ones—are “so in love with tradition” that it has replaced Jesus, he said. Still other churches focus so much on money during the service that it seems to be their “biggest concern,” even for visitors.
“It was very obvious sometimes,” Griffin said.
Yet Griffin made discoveries that encouraged him, including “how big God really is.”
“I had some preconceived views of denominations, and I don’t know where I got them. I’m sure we all put people in boxes,” he said. “Every pastor, if they could go through what I went through, we’d be so much better—so much more loving and kind.”
For more information about the book, email Buddy Griffin.
