Keeping People

I just got off an 18 minute phone call with Robert from my internet service provider. We've used this service since moving here over five years ago. Until a couple of months ago, satellite service was all that was available for high speed internet. Since that is no longer the case, I called to cancel the service from Robert's company. By the way, we like the new service from the phone company.

Robert spent most of the 18 minutes trying to get me to stay with him. I said the price was too high so he offered a twelve-month discount. I said the price would just go back up in twelve months so he said another discount would probably be available then. I said the discounted price is still twice the price of my new service so he offered his minimum plan for me to use as a backup.

After going through all this, he asked if there was anything he could do to keep me as a customer.

The churches I have pastored and attended for the forty-something years I can remember have all had the same challenge: keeping people who want to leave. Some you really don't want to see go and others you wonder why they hadn't left sooner! But in both cases, not much has been done to keep them. Robert spent more effort trying to keep me as his customer than churches spend (on average, I guess) trying to keep members from leaving.

And once they are gone, not much is done to get them back. I predict that my mailbox and email inbox will be filled with advertisements attempting to court me back to the company I just left.

Churches should realize the value of having a particular family, couple, or individual in their congregation. We should think it is worth the effort - some effort - to gain, keep, or regain them.

I'm OK when someone tells me that they feel God calling them somewhere else. If they are telling the truth, I won't argue with God. It would be wrong for them to stay if God wants them to go. But I really wonder how often God has anything to do with a person leaving a church. He rarely gets the credit he deserves and often gets the blame he does not deserve.

Outside of God moving a person to a new fellowship, we - my church and your church - should invest in keeping them. We need them in so many ways that when they are gone a dozen holes appear overnight. Maybe a hole just big enough that only light can pass through it. Maybe a hole big enough to drive a truck through. When they are gone your church will miss them.

My experience tells me this is true. One internet service provider just lost a customer. Just one but that is revenue lost. A church loses much more than revenue when one of its members is allowed to walk away. At least try to keep them!

Take a look at 15 Reasons I Stayed in Church for some fodder for thought.