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I went out of town Monday and met a great, old friend for breakfast on Tuesday. He took me to his favorite, local breakfast spot - Pete's Diner.

We drove up and it looked like a typical diner (not sure what that means to you, but to me it means old, not particularly "shiny" or clean, a bit run down). But that's ok... I wasn't turned off by the outside or inside look of the place - I've been to enough diners to know that doesn't necessarily reflect on the quality of food. But I did get turned off when I sat down and saw the generic ketchup.

When I see generic ketchup at a restaurant, I image this: If they are willing to save a penny per customer (two pennies at the most) by using generic ketchup and this is one of the most visible foods, then how are they saving money in the kitchen? And all of a sudden, I don't want to eat there anymore.

The worst is a restaurant here in my town that I used to go to for breakfast. Not only was it generic ketchup, but the labels were falling off the plastic, generic ketchup bottle. And you'd open the cap to pour out the ketchup and it was obvious that the dried on ketchup around the cap wasn't just a few hours or even days ago... It might be MONTHS old. In other words, not only were they using generic ketchup, but they were REFILLING the generic ketchup bottles. I avoid that local diner whenever possible.

And I don't avoid it because I hate generic ketchup. I'm not sure I can tell the difference. But it tells me something about the restaurant's priorities. And for the first time, while sitting there with my friend, the application to church hit me.

What messages are we sending to new people when we do things with less than excellence? What are the "generic ketchups" in our building (cheap things that we don't even notice anymore)? What message is being received by new people that we aren't intending to send, but we are clearly sending when we save a few bucks and put "generic ketchup" on the table?

Here are a few more thoughts I have on generic ketchup (while thinking of church applications):

• I noticed the regulars never notice generic ketchup. They are used to it. It doesn't bother them and they don't think it should bother new people either.
• In fact, the management and owners are focused on pleasing the regulars rather than focusing on making the best impression on first-time customers. By doing so - they are all overlooking glaring problems.
• No one speaks for the first-time customer. If a regular doesn't like something, they will speak up. If a new customer to the restaurant doesn't like something, they won't say anything. They simply won't return. (This one happens in churches all the time!!)
• There are some things that loyal customers are willing to overlook that a new customer may not be willing to overlook.
• Even some positive, good changes will causes regular customers to complain, but the changes were helping new customers. Loyal customers may not like a new menu because they knew where everything was on the old one.
• Loyal customers tend to be blind to obvious faults that new people see immediately. That could be a smelly entryway (at our family's favorite diner), ripped cushions in the booths, plates and coffee cups that are so old, they look dirty even though they are perfectly clean, etc...
• Old and run down might work well for diners (my daughters prefer one in town), but I don't think it works well for churches. Diners have a nation-wide reputation for being old, run-down, but great prices and great food. Old, run-down yet effective diners are common. Ugly, smelly yet effective churches are not.

Let me give some applications to church life:

• Here is the primarly application - excellence matters. We often say that excellence honors God and inspires people. I don't think that means you have to spend a lot of money to be excellent. It simply means that whatever we do - we need to do it well.
• We must look at our church facilities through the eyes of new people. At our church, we know that many who walk in our door for the first time are either non-believers, new believers, or immature believers. So the look of our facility matters. If they are turned off while checking us out - let it be by the Gospel, not because the facility creeps them out a bit.
• We tell our new employees and new interns that they are very valuable to us in their first six months because they will see things that we don't notice anymore. They will ask, "Why do you do that?" And sadly, we never thought about how ineffective that was. And we try very hard to see everything through a new person's eyes, but once you are no longer new - it is really difficult to see it through new eyes.
• We need to try to get feedback from new people. They will help us see things we don't notice. We likely won't change some or many of them, but being aware of what is hard to swallow for a visitor is very important. For example, we choose to stand and sing for ten to twenty minutes straight every week. That is not visitor friendly, but at this point - for the sake of corporate worship, we do it. But we need to be aware of that tension.

What "generic ketchup" do you have in your church facility?

This week’s Guest Blog is brought to us, with permission, from my friend David Whitting.  David is the Lead Pastor at Northridge Church in Rochester, NY.  I had the privilege to work with David and the team at Northridge during the development of their new worship facility several years ago.  Since that time, the Lord has greatly blessed the church and David…and me via their ministry and friendship.