This brings new meaning to the phrase “church shopping”: a former pastor from Oklahoma is putting his years of ministry experience to work as a “mystery worshipper,” posing as a visitor at churches and meticulously reporting on every aspect of his experience. If your church’s door greeters aren’t doing their job, or if nobody’s vacuumed the narthex in three months, or if the order of worship is incomprehensible to someone who isn’t a church regular, he’ll let you know.

It’s part of a church consulting business (and it’s basically the same thing as ShipofFools.com’s Mystery Worshipper feature), designed to help churches better understand what a visitor sees and experiences when they stop in for a worship service.

I think it’s a really good idea. (I worked in a department store as a teenager, and I remember the quality of customer service shooting up by about 7000% anytime we suspected or feared that a Mystery Shopper was loose in the store.) Has your church ever tried this—either hiring a professional consultant, or just arranging an impromptu “audit” by somebody who isn’t a member? How about asking (and paying) non-Christians to visit and report their honest impressions? If so, were the results encouraging… or did they reveal serious problems in the way your church comes across to new visitors?

(Via Theophiles.)