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One night, my church small group met at a Cold Stone Creamery. (For full disclosure, I’m not a fan in general. I don’t like to pick out ingredients for them to mix. I’d rather have the flavor choices laid out for me. I guess I’m more of a 31 flavors kind of guy.)

Anyway…after my wife and I put in our order, we moved down the line to the cashier, who appeared to be the owner as well. She was hassling a customer about whether or not they paid. She was actually yelling across the store at the man who said, multiple times, he had paid. Then she moved on to fight with an employee about how he rang up that customer. She was insistent that the customer had only been charged for a less expensive strawberry smoothie, not a strawberry shake. The boss and teenage employee went back and forth several times before the argument finally ended. All of this happened before we even stepped up to pay.

This was an uncomfortable situation not only for my wife and I, but also the customer accused of not paying and the employee who was just trying to fill orders. I bring all of this up because I think there are some relevant ties to churches.

Phil Cooke likes to talk about something he calls your brand at the moment. No matter how good of a reputation Cold Stone Creamery might have or how much they spend on advertising, the brand quality will be judged by the front line customer. This night, the angry boss was the brand at the moment. No matter how good the ice cream was (I must admit, I actually liked it) my experience overall was negative because of what was happening in front of me.

Who is your brand at the moment on Sunday mornings? Is it your pastor? A greeter? An usher? A regular attender? And how are they acting? Is a member telling a visitor they’re in the wrong seat? Is a greeter too busy talking with a friend to actually welcome people? Or is it the opposite where someone is being too aggressive in welcoming a person and they feel followed or pressured?

The point is as a church we need to ingrain the importance of everyone’s actions in relation to being welcoming. Plus it's important to orientate volunteers to the church's expectations. All of the work a church might do in marketing or reputation building can be lost in a single interaction.