Participant digital workbook
Study all nine Ms, reflect on what they mean for your church, complete each exercise, assess current practice and prepare your contribution to the church's shared work.
Digital workbook OR-NM-1.0 (prototype) · Nine M curriculum version 1.0
Your progress through the workbook
9 assigned modules, four lessons each, with a rated self-assessment and a 90-day plan per module.
0 of 36 exercises written · 0 of 45 areas rated (0%)
Every activity in the printed workbook can be completed here online. Your answers stay saved under your name, and the downloads give you the same complete workbook on paper.
M5 — Magnification (module 5 of 9)
Improve the complete shared worship and Sunday experience — from the parking lot to the pew — so that it is hospitable, excellent, accessible, spiritually focused, and consistent.
What this module produces
Sunday Experience Improvement Plan
- Guest Journey Map covering arrival, entry, seating, service, response, and follow-up
- Secret-guest walkthrough notes and observations from at least two visits
- Hospitality Role Standards and Checklists for parking, entrances, greeters, ushers, information, children's ministry, security, and accessibility
- Service Timeline Review naming unclear transitions, avoidable delays, and ownership gaps
- Worship and ministry coordination map showing who owns each segment of the service
- Accessibility and Safety findings log with corrective actions
- Monthly Experience Review design for ongoing feedback and correction
- Team training plan describing how hospitality standards will be taught and reinforced
- Documented gaps between current practice and the standards set in this module
- 90-day action plan with owners, due dates, resources required, and success measures
Objectives
- Map the guest experience from arrival to follow-up
- Establish observable hospitality standards
- Review the service as one coordinated experience
- Create a recurring listening and improvement method
4 weeks · about 6 hours of leadership time
Lesson 1: Seeing Sunday Through a Guest's Eyes
What you will learn: Map the experience from arrival through departure and follow-up.
75 minutes · Pastor, hospitality lead, facilities lead, and two to three volunteers who serve on Sundays
Scripture lens — Hebrews 13:2
2 Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
King James Version (KJV) · Public domain
This passage's charge to show hospitality to strangers, since some have entertained angels without knowing it, frames why the guest journey deserves careful attention rather than assumption.
Materials and evidence you will use
- Notes from the secret-guest walkthrough
- Current church website and any online service information
- A copy of the building's parking lot and entrance layout
- All eight journey stages documented
- At least three specific friction points identified with proposed improvements
By the end of this lesson, you should be able to
- Leadership can name every stage a guest passes through from the parking lot to their car leaving the lot
- A secret-guest walkthrough has been conducted and documented in writing
- The Guest Journey Map identifies at least three specific friction points
- Leadership has assigned first-draft ownership for addressing each friction point
Study reading
Understand the concept
Your work in this lesson focuses on this outcome: Map the experience from arrival through departure and follow-up.
A guest's sense of welcome is built one stage at a time, and only a leadership team willing to see Sunday through outside eyes can close the gaps that matter most.
Why it matters for your church
Congregations often overestimate how welcoming their Sunday experience is because leadership no longer sees it as a stranger would.
Small, unaddressed friction points can quietly cause first-time guests not to return, even when the sermon and worship were strong.
Mapping the guest journey gives leadership a shared, concrete language for discussing hospitality instead of relying on general impressions.
Examine the evidence
Use Notes from the secret-guest walkthrough, Current church website and any online service information, and A copy of the building's parking lot and entrance layout to compare your church's present practice with its stated intentions. Look for documented patterns, missing information, and differences between what people assume and what the evidence supports.
Your completed work should be supported by All eight journey stages documented, and At least three specific friction points identified with proposed improvements. Record uncertainty honestly so your team knows what still needs to be verified.
Prepare for the shared exercise
Produce a complete, stage-by-stage map of the guest experience based on a real secret-guest walkthrough, naming friction points and first-draft owners. The Guest Journey Mapping Session produces the Guest Journey Map, which contributes to the module's principal deliverable.
Before working with your team, consider this reflection: Think of the last time you personally walked through your building as if you had never been there before. What would you notice today that you have stopped seeing?
Key terms
- Guest journey: The full sequence of stages a guest experiences on a Sunday, from arrival in the parking lot through departure and any follow-up contact.
- Secret-guest walkthrough: An intentional visit by someone unfamiliar with the church, conducted to observe and document the guest experience as it actually happens.
- Friction point: A specific stage in the guest journey where confusion, delay, or discomfort is likely to occur.
Failure patterns to avoid
- Assuming the Sunday experience is fine because longtime members have never complained about it.
- Skipping an actual secret-guest walkthrough and relying only on leadership's memory of what a guest experiences.
- Documenting friction points once and never revisiting the map as the building or team changes.
Ministry case — A Sunday Morning That Almost Wasn't
A guest named Renee decided to visit a church for the first time after a difficult season in her life. She drove into the parking lot ten minutes before the service began and found no marked visitor parking and no sign indicating which door to use. She circled the lot twice before parking far from the entrance she eventually found by following other families.
Once inside, no one greeted her in the entryway, and she was unsure whether to sit near the back or the front. She almost left before the service started. A volunteer eventually noticed her standing uncertainly and walked her to a seat, which made the difference in her staying that day.
This story illustrates why mapping the guest journey matters: Renee's experience depended entirely on chance, not on a designed system. The goal of this lesson is to replace that chance with intention, so that no future guest's experience depends on who happens to notice them.
Lesson takeaway: A guest's sense of welcome is built one stage at a time, and only a leadership team willing to see Sunday through outside eyes can close the gaps that matter most.
Exercise — Guest Journey Mapping Session (produces: Guest Journey Map)
Produce a complete, stage-by-stage map of the guest experience based on a real secret-guest walkthrough, naming friction points and first-draft owners.
- List every stage of the guest journey from parking lot arrival to post-service follow-up.
- For each stage, record what currently happens based on the secret-guest walkthrough.
- Identify the friction point present at that stage, if any.
- Note who currently owns that stage, or write 'unassigned' if no one clearly does.
- Propose one specific improvement for each friction point identified.
- Assign a first-draft owner responsible for exploring that improvement.
- Review the completed map together and flag any stage that needs more observation before next lesson.
Worksheet columns: Stage · Current experience · Friction point · Current owner · Proposed improvement
Saves as you typeGuest Journey Map
Complete the Guest Journey Map here. Your answers are kept under your name and are waiting for you when you return.
Guest Journey Map # Stage Current experience Friction point Current owner Proposed improvement 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Saving keeps it private to you; submitting shares it with your coach and church panel.Worked sample — Northgate Community Church (illustrative example — not actual church data) (illustrative, scored 18/20)
Northgate Community Church is a fictional congregation of about 300 people used here to illustrate how a completed Guest Journey Map should read after a secret-guest walkthrough.
Guest Journey Map: Northgate Community Church. Eight stages mapped from parking lot arrival through follow-up. Five friction points currently unassigned or unaddressed; three proposed improvements scheduled for implementation within two weeks; a new follow-up process to be created before next Sunday.
- Install visitor parking signage and a directional sign within the next two weeks.
- Assign one greeter each week specifically to watch for unfamiliar faces.
- Create a simple connection card and a next-day follow-up process before the next Sunday.
The map is complete across all eight stages with specific, evidence-based observations from an actual walkthrough, and every friction point has a named improvement and owner, though two owners remain unassigned pending the next lesson.
Discussion prompts
- Which stage of the guest journey do we know the least about right now?
- What did the secret-guest walkthrough reveal that surprised us?
- Where do we currently rely on chance rather than a clear plan to welcome a stranger?
- If a guest left today without being greeted, would we even know it happened?
Reflection: Think of the last time you personally walked through your building as if you had never been there before. What would you notice today that you have stopped seeing?
Use these prompts to prepare your own response before the group discussion. Honest differences help the church identify where further work is needed.
Lesson 2: Hospitality from Parking Lot to Pew
What you will learn: Establish observable service standards for every hospitality role.
75 minutes · Pastor, hospitality lead, parking and security leads, greeter and usher team leads, children's ministry lead
Scripture lens — 1 Peter 4:9-10
9 Use hospitality one to another without grudging. 10 As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
King James Version (KJV) · Public domain
This passage's call to offer hospitality without grumbling and to use one's gifts to serve others suggests that hospitality roles are a form of stewardship, not simply logistics.
Materials and evidence you will use
- Guest Journey Map from Lesson 1
- Any existing informal volunteer instructions or handouts
- All eight roles have an observable standard and a checklist of three to five items
- Each role has a named owner or a documented plan to recruit one
By the end of this lesson, you should be able to
- Written service standards exist for every hospitality role identified
- Each standard describes observable behavior, not vague intentions
- A checklist exists for each role that a volunteer can use to prepare and self-check
- Leadership has identified how each standard will be communicated to current volunteers
Study reading
Understand the concept
Your work in this lesson focuses on this outcome: Establish observable service standards for every hospitality role.
Consistent hospitality is built through clarity, not charisma; written standards and simple checklists turn good intentions into a dependable guest experience.
Why it matters for your church
Inconsistent hospitality, even when well-intentioned, communicates to guests that their experience depends on luck rather than care.
Written standards make it possible to train new volunteers quickly and confidently instead of relying on informal shadowing.
Treating accessibility as its own standard, rather than an afterthought, signals to guests with access needs that they were specifically planned for.
Examine the evidence
Use Guest Journey Map from Lesson 1, and Any existing informal volunteer instructions or handouts to compare your church's present practice with its stated intentions. Look for documented patterns, missing information, and differences between what people assume and what the evidence supports.
Your completed work should be supported by All eight roles have an observable standard and a checklist of three to five items, and Each role has a named owner or a documented plan to recruit one. Record uncertainty honestly so your team knows what still needs to be verified.
Prepare for the shared exercise
Write an observable service standard and a companion checklist for every hospitality role in the guest journey. The Hospitality Role Standards Workshop produces the Hospitality Role Standards and Checklists, which contributes to the module's principal deliverable.
Before working with your team, consider this reflection: Think about a hospitality role you have served in or watched closely. What would you have wanted written down before your first Sunday serving in it?
Key terms
- Service standard: A written, observable description of what excellent performance looks like in a specific hospitality role.
- Checklist: A short list of checkable actions a volunteer uses before or during their shift to confirm readiness and consistency with the standard.
- Accessibility role: A hospitality function specifically responsible for identifying and meeting the needs of guests with mobility, vision, hearing, or other access needs.
Failure patterns to avoid
- Writing standards so vague they cannot be coached or checked, such as 'be welcoming.'
- Leaving one or more of the eight roles without any written standard at all.
- Creating checklists once and never updating or reviewing them with the volunteers who use them.
Ministry case — The Greeter Who Was Never Told
A volunteer named Marcus had served as a greeter for over a year without ever receiving written guidance on what was expected of him. He was friendly and well-liked, but he did not know that guests were supposed to be walked, not just pointed, to the children's check-in area, because no one had told him that was part of the role.
One Sunday, a young family with an anxious child stood confused near the entrance because Marcus had simply pointed down a hallway. The family nearly left before another volunteer noticed and personally walked them to check-in.
When leadership later wrote a specific standard requiring greeters to personally walk guests with children to check-in, Marcus said he wished someone had told him sooner. This case shows that most inconsistency in hospitality is not a lack of care but a lack of clarity.
Lesson takeaway: Consistent hospitality is built through clarity, not charisma; written standards and simple checklists turn good intentions into a dependable guest experience.
Exercise — Hospitality Role Standards Workshop (produces: Hospitality Role Standards and Checklists)
Write an observable service standard and a companion checklist for every hospitality role in the guest journey.
- List all eight hospitality roles to be covered in this session.
- For each role, write one paragraph describing the observable standard of excellent service.
- Convert that standard into three to five checkable checklist items.
- Identify the current team lead or owner responsible for training that role.
- Note any gap where no one currently owns training for that role.
- Review each role's standard aloud as a group to confirm it is observable, not vague.
- Decide which two roles will be the first to receive training using the new standards.
Worksheet columns: Role · Service standard · Checklist items · Team lead/owner
Saves as you typeHospitality Role Standards and Checklists
Complete the Hospitality Role Standards and Checklists here. Your answers are kept under your name and are waiting for you when you return.
Hospitality Role Standards and Checklists # Role Service standard Checklist items Team lead/owner 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Saving keeps it private to you; submitting shares it with your coach and church panel.Worked sample — Northgate Community Church (illustrative example — not actual church data) (illustrative, scored 17/20)
Continuing the fictional Northgate Community Church example, this worked sample shows how the hospitality workshop produced standards for its eight core roles.
Hospitality Role Standards and Checklists: Northgate Community Church. Eight roles standardized with observable behaviors and three-to-five-item checklists. Two roles, information and accessibility, currently share a temporary owner pending recruitment of dedicated team leads.
- Assign the hospitality lead as owner for both information and accessibility until dedicated team leads can be recruited.
- Train greeters and children's ministry volunteers first, within the next two weeks.
- Review all eight standards with the full volunteer teams at the next quarterly training.
All eight roles have specific, observable standards and usable checklists grounded in the guest journey findings, though two roles still lack a permanent owner.
Discussion prompts
- Which hospitality role currently has the least clear expectations?
- Where have we relied on a volunteer's personality rather than a written standard?
- What would change if every volunteer used a checklist before their shift?
- How would we know, without asking, whether the accessibility standard is being met each week?
Reflection: Think about a hospitality role you have served in or watched closely. What would you have wanted written down before your first Sunday serving in it?
Use these prompts to prepare your own response before the group discussion. Honest differences help the church identify where further work is needed.
Lesson 3: Worship Flow and Ministry Coordination
What you will learn: Review the service as one coordinated experience.
75 minutes · Pastor, worship pastor, service producer or platform coordinator, ministry leads whose segments appear in the service
Scripture lens — 1 Corinthians 14:40
40 Let all things be done decently and in order.
King James Version (KJV) · Public domain
This passage's instruction that everything be done decently and in order offers a direct scriptural frame for reviewing the coordination of the worship service.
Materials and evidence you will use
- Recent orders of service
- Guest Journey Map and Hospitality Standards from Lessons 1 and 2
- All service segments reviewed with planned and actual duration
- Every ownership gap identified has a proposed owner
By the end of this lesson, you should be able to
- A complete service timeline exists naming every segment and its planned duration
- Unclear transitions between segments are specifically identified
- Avoidable delays are named with their likely cause
- Every segment of the service has a named owner responsible for its timing and handoff
Study reading
Understand the concept
Your work in this lesson focuses on this outcome: Review the service as one coordinated experience.
Smooth worship flow is not the product of talent alone; it is the product of clear ownership and honest attention to the transitions between segments.
Why it matters for your church
A service that feels disjointed to a guest is often the sum of many small, unowned transitions rather than one large problem.
Reviewing the timeline honestly can reveal that certain delays are structural and predictable, not incidental.
Naming a clear owner for every segment reduces the burden on any single person, usually the pastor, to notice and fix timing problems in the moment.
Examine the evidence
Use Recent orders of service, and Guest Journey Map and Hospitality Standards from Lessons 1 and 2 to compare your church's present practice with its stated intentions. Look for documented patterns, missing information, and differences between what people assume and what the evidence supports.
Your completed work should be supported by All service segments reviewed with planned and actual duration, and Every ownership gap identified has a proposed owner. Record uncertainty honestly so your team knows what still needs to be verified.
Prepare for the shared exercise
Build a complete timeline of the worship service naming unclear transitions, avoidable delays, participation barriers, and ownership gaps. The Service Timeline Review Session produces the Service Timeline Review, which contributes to the module's principal deliverable.
Before working with your team, consider this reflection: Recall the last Sunday you attended. Which transition did you barely notice because you already knew what to expect, that a guest might have found confusing?
Key terms
- Service timeline: A segment-by-segment record of the service's planned and actual timing, with an owner named for each segment.
- Transition: The moment one segment of the service ends and another begins.
- Ownership gap: A segment of the service where no one is clearly responsible for its timing and handoff to the next segment.
Failure patterns to avoid
- Reviewing only the parts of the service that already have vocal complaints, while ignoring quietly recurring delays.
- Assuming smooth transitions require more rehearsal rather than clearer ownership and cues.
- Treating this review as a one-time fix rather than something worth repeating as the team and service evolve.
Ministry case — The Three Minutes Nobody Owned
At a fictional congregation, leadership noticed that the transition from the offering to the sermon consistently took an extra three minutes every week, though no single person felt responsible for it. The worship team assumed the pastor would signal when ready, and the pastor assumed the platform team would cue the transition once equipment was reset.
During a service timeline review, this gap became obvious once someone finally timed it across three consecutive Sundays. The fix was simple: the platform coordinator was given clear ownership of that transition, with a specific cue to signal the pastor.
Within a month, the transition dropped from three minutes to under thirty seconds, and several volunteers commented that the whole service felt calmer, even though nothing about the sermon or worship set had changed. This case shows how naming ownership, not adding more effort, often solves coordination problems.
Lesson takeaway: Smooth worship flow is not the product of talent alone; it is the product of clear ownership and honest attention to the transitions between segments.
Exercise — Service Timeline Review Session (produces: Service Timeline Review)
Build a complete timeline of the worship service naming unclear transitions, avoidable delays, participation barriers, and ownership gaps.
- List every segment of the service in order with its planned duration.
- Record the actual observed duration for each segment based on recent Sundays.
- Identify whether the transition into that segment is clear or unclear, and why.
- Note any avoidable delay associated with that segment and its likely cause.
- Note any participation barrier a guest might experience during that segment.
- Name the current owner responsible for that segment's timing and handoff.
- Flag any segment with no clear owner and propose who should take ownership.
Worksheet columns: Segment · Planned/actual duration · Transition clarity · Delay or barrier noted · Owner
Saves as you typeService Timeline Review
Complete the Service Timeline Review here. Your answers are kept under your name and are waiting for you when you return.
Service Timeline Review # Segment Planned/actual duration Transition clarity Delay or barrier noted Owner 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Saving keeps it private to you; submitting shares it with your coach and church panel.Worked sample — Northgate Community Church (illustrative example — not actual church data) (illustrative, scored 18/20)
This worked sample continues the fictional Northgate Community Church example, showing how a Service Timeline Review surfaced coordination issues across a typical Sunday.
Service Timeline Review: Northgate Community Church. Nine segments reviewed across recent Sundays; two transitions currently unassigned; two segments running consistently over planned duration; children's ministry pickup identified as a priority delay to resolve within two weeks.
- Assign the platform coordinator ownership of the worship-to-announcements and offering-to-sermon transitions, with a specific visual cue for each.
- Add one sentence of guidance for guests during the response time script.
- Open a second children's ministry check-out station to reduce pickup delay.
The timeline is complete and specific, drawing directly on observed durations across multiple Sundays, with clear ownership proposed for every previously unassigned transition.
Discussion prompts
- Which transition in our service currently feels the least clear to a first-time guest?
- Where have we assumed someone else owns the timing of a segment?
- Which delay in our service is structural and predictable rather than occasional?
- What would change if every segment had one clearly named owner?
Reflection: Recall the last Sunday you attended. Which transition did you barely notice because you already knew what to expect, that a guest might have found confusing?
Use these prompts to prepare your own response before the group discussion. Honest differences help the church identify where further work is needed.
Lesson 4: Feedback, Accessibility, and Continuous Improvement
What you will learn: A recurring method for listening, correcting and improving.
60 minutes · Pastor, hospitality lead, facilities and security leads, one or two ministry leads
Scripture lens — Proverbs 15:22
22 Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellors they are established.
King James Version (KJV) · Public domain
This passage's observation that plans fail without counsel but succeed with many advisers offers a scriptural basis for building a recurring, collective feedback rhythm rather than relying on one person's impressions.
Materials and evidence you will use
- Guest Journey Map, Hospitality Standards, and Service Timeline Review from prior lessons
- Notes from the pre-session accessibility and safety walkthrough
- All accessibility and safety findings from the walkthrough are logged with owners and dates
- A first Monthly Experience Review meeting date is confirmed
By the end of this lesson, you should be able to
- A recurring Monthly Experience Review format is designed with a fixed agenda
- An accessibility and safety findings log exists with corrective actions and owners
- Leadership has identified at least one ongoing channel for gathering guest and member feedback
- A 90-day action plan exists consolidating priorities from all four lessons
Study reading
Understand the concept
Your work in this lesson focuses on this outcome: A recurring method for listening, correcting and improving.
Hospitality and accessibility are not finished tasks but ongoing commitments, sustained through a recurring review and a disciplined findings log rather than good intentions alone.
Why it matters for your church
Improvement efforts that lack a recurring rhythm tend to fade within a few months, even when the initial work was thorough.
Accessibility issues left unaddressed communicate, even unintentionally, that some guests were not planned for.
A simple, consistent feedback channel is more valuable than an elaborate one that is used only occasionally.
Examine the evidence
Use Guest Journey Map, Hospitality Standards, and Service Timeline Review from prior lessons, and Notes from the pre-session accessibility and safety walkthrough to compare your church's present practice with its stated intentions. Look for documented patterns, missing information, and differences between what people assume and what the evidence supports.
Your completed work should be supported by All accessibility and safety findings from the walkthrough are logged with owners and dates, and A first Monthly Experience Review meeting date is confirmed. Record uncertainty honestly so your team knows what still needs to be verified.
Prepare for the shared exercise
Design a recurring monthly review rhythm and document specific accessibility and safety findings with owners and target dates. The Monthly Experience Review Design and Accessibility Findings Session produces the Monthly Experience Review design and Accessibility and Safety findings log, which contributes to the module's principal deliverable.
Before working with your team, consider this reflection: If a guest with an accessibility need visited this Sunday, what is the one thing from today's findings log that would matter most to them?
Key terms
- Monthly Experience Review: A short, recurring meeting that reviews guest and volunteer feedback, checks hospitality standards, and produces action items each month.
- Accessibility and safety findings log: A documented record of specific accessibility and safety issues, each with a corrective action, owner, and target date.
- Intentional feedback channel: A designed, ongoing way of gathering guest or member feedback, as opposed to feedback that arrives only by chance.
Failure patterns to avoid
- Treating this module's artifacts as a one-time project rather than living documents revisited monthly.
- Gathering feedback informally but never assigning anyone to review it or act on it.
- Identifying accessibility or safety issues but leaving them without an owner or target date, so they are never resolved.
Ministry case — The Ramp That Was Finally Fixed
At a fictional congregation, a member using a wheelchair had mentioned more than once, informally, that the ramp near the side entrance was steep and difficult to use alone. Because there was no formal channel for this feedback and no findings log, the comment was heard sympathetically each time but never turned into an action item.
When leadership finally conducted a structured accessibility and safety walkthrough as part of this lesson, the ramp was documented as a specific finding with a photo, a proposed corrective action to add a handrail, an owner, and a target date. The handrail was installed within three weeks.
The member later said that what mattered most was not just the fix itself, but realizing that someone had actually written it down and was tracking it. This case shows why a findings log, not just good intentions, is necessary to close accessibility gaps.
Lesson takeaway: Hospitality and accessibility are not finished tasks but ongoing commitments, sustained through a recurring review and a disciplined findings log rather than good intentions alone.
Exercise — Monthly Experience Review Design and Accessibility Findings Session (produces: Monthly Experience Review design and Accessibility and Safety findings log)
Design a recurring monthly review rhythm and document specific accessibility and safety findings with owners and target dates.
- Draft the fixed agenda for the Monthly Experience Review, including feedback review, standards check, and action items.
- Name who will attend the review each month and who will facilitate it.
- List each specific accessibility or safety finding from the walkthrough.
- For each finding, note the corrective action needed.
- Assign an owner and a target date for each corrective action.
- Identify which findings require budget or facility changes and flag them for the 90-day action plan.
- Confirm the date of the first Monthly Experience Review meeting.
Worksheet columns: Finding · Corrective action · Owner · Target date · Requires budget/facility change
Saves as you typeAccessibility and Safety Findings Log
Complete the Monthly Experience Review design and Accessibility and Safety findings log here. Your answers are kept under your name and are waiting for you when you return.
Accessibility and Safety Findings Log # Finding Corrective action Owner Target date Requires budget/facility change 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Saving keeps it private to you; submitting shares it with your coach and church panel.Worked sample — Northgate Community Church (illustrative example — not actual church data) (illustrative, scored 18/20)
This worked sample completes the fictional Northgate Community Church example, showing the Monthly Experience Review design and its accompanying accessibility and safety findings log.
Accessibility and Safety Findings Log: Northgate Community Church. Eight findings documented with corrective actions, owners, and target dates; two findings requiring budget flagged for the 90-day action plan. Monthly Experience Review scheduled to begin within 30 days with a fixed four-part agenda.
- Hold the first Monthly Experience Review meeting within 30 days, with the pastor, hospitality lead, facilities lead, and security lead attending.
- Route the two budget-dependent findings into the 90-day action plan for board discussion.
- Add a feedback question to the connection card before the next Sunday.
The findings log is thorough and specific with clear owners and dates, and the review design directly closes the loop opened in the first three lessons, though two items depend on future budget approval.
Discussion prompts
- What feedback have we heard informally in the last month that was never formally tracked?
- Which accessibility or safety finding, once we name it clearly, will be hardest to justify leaving unaddressed?
- Who should be in the room every month for the Experience Review, and who should not be missing?
- What is the single highest-priority item from this entire module that belongs in the first 30 days of our action plan?
Reflection: If a guest with an accessibility need visited this Sunday, what is the one thing from today's findings log that would matter most to them?
Use these prompts to prepare your own response before the group discussion. Honest differences help the church identify where further work is needed.
Rate this module
Rate each area from 0 to 4 as the church is today, not as you hope it will be.
- 0 — Not Established: Nothing is in place for this area today.
- 1 — Emerging: Something has been started but it is informal and inconsistent.
- 2 — Developing: It works in parts of the church but is not documented or dependable.
- 3 — Established: It is documented, consistently followed and reviewed.
- 4 — Exemplary: It is a strength others could learn from, with evidence to prove it.
1. Guest Journey
Weighted 20% of the Magnification score.
What this represents: A complete guest journey map exists from arrival through follow-up, based on a documented secret-guest walkthrough, and is reviewed by leadership.
Reference points for your rating
- 0 — Not established:
- No one has walked the guest journey from the parking lot to departure; leadership assumes the experience is fine because members are comfortable with it.
- 2 — Developing:
- A guest journey map exists in draft form covering some stages, but it has gaps and has not been tested with an actual secret-guest walkthrough.
- 4 — Exemplary:
- The guest journey map is current, tested regularly with fresh walkthroughs, shared with all hospitality teams, and used to drive specific improvements each quarter.
Use the closest reference point, then select 1 or 3 when your church falls between two descriptions.
2. Hospitality
Weighted 20% of the Magnification score.
What this represents: Written, observable service standards and checklists exist for every hospitality role from parking to pew, and volunteers are trained against them.
Reference points for your rating
- 0 — Not established:
- Hospitality roles are filled inconsistently by volunteers with no written standards, and guests report confusion about where to go.
- 2 — Developing:
- Written standards exist for a few key roles such as greeters, but parking, ushers, information, and accessibility are not yet covered.
- 4 — Exemplary:
- Hospitality standards are fully documented, consistently modeled, regularly refreshed with volunteer feedback, and visibly shape a warm, predictable guest experience every week.
Use the closest reference point, then select 1 or 3 when your church falls between two descriptions.
3. Worship and Service Coordination
Weighted 20% of the Magnification score.
What this represents: A reviewed and current service timeline names clear owners for every segment, and known delays and transition problems have been corrected.
Reference points for your rating
- 0 — Not established:
- The service runs from habit with no shared timeline; transitions are unpredictable and no one owns the pacing of the whole service.
- 2 — Developing:
- A service timeline has been reviewed once, surfacing some unclear transitions and delays, but changes have not yet been implemented.
- 4 — Exemplary:
- The service runs as one coordinated experience with named owners, smooth transitions, and a standing process for reviewing and refining the flow.
Use the closest reference point, then select 1 or 3 when your church falls between two descriptions.
4. Accessibility and Safety
Weighted 20% of the Magnification score.
What this represents: A documented accessibility and safety findings log exists with corrective actions assigned and substantially completed.
Reference points for your rating
- 0 — Not established:
- Accessibility and safety have not been formally assessed; barriers for guests with disabilities or safety risks are unaddressed.
- 2 — Developing:
- An accessibility and safety findings log has been started, covering physical access and basic safety, but corrective actions are incomplete.
- 4 — Exemplary:
- Accessibility and safety are proactively monitored, findings are resolved quickly, and the congregation is known as a place every guest can safely and comfortably attend.
Use the closest reference point, then select 1 or 3 when your church falls between two descriptions.
5. Feedback and Improvement
Weighted 20% of the Magnification score.
What this represents: A Monthly Experience Review runs consistently, gathers feedback intentionally, and produces tracked action items with owners.
Reference points for your rating
- 0 — Not established:
- There is no method for gathering guest or member feedback about the Sunday experience, and no review rhythm exists.
- 2 — Developing:
- A feedback method has been designed, such as a monthly review meeting, but it has not yet run consistently or produced tracked action items.
- 4 — Exemplary:
- The Monthly Experience Review is a trusted, recurring rhythm that continuously improves the Sunday experience, with a visible record of changes made because of it.
Use the closest reference point, then select 1 or 3 when your church falls between two descriptions.
90-day plan for Magnification
Name the first three moves, who owns each one and when it is due.
Completion checklist
- • All four lessons marked complete
- • All four exercises submitted
- • Required evidence uploaded
- • Named principal deliverable generated and approved
- • 90-day action plan created with owners and dates
- • Coach review recorded
0 of 4 exercises written · 0 of 5 areas rated
Pastor Lee Jenkins
5
Participant Workbook
Sample contents created by Allan Bell - CPA, CMA, MBA, for illustrative purposes.
What happens to these answers
Approval sits with people, not the software.
- Individual answers are held for the coach. Church reporting, board packs and the printed workbook show compiled scores and themes only.
- Nine M methodology, content, exercises and deliverables by Pastor Lee Jenkins.
- Prototype: responses live in this browser session only. No invitations, emails or text messages are sent, and nothing is written to a server.
A partnership between Pastor Lee Jenkins, the Stewardship Coach, and Allan Bell - CPA, CMA, MBA, Nsites founder and creator.