church rater 3

The Church

What Church did you visit?
St Joseph the Worker Parish

What city or town is this Church located?
Bonneville Gettysburg, Pa
What date and service did you attend?
4-30-09 8 AM MAss

Evaluating

How would you rate this church?



Please provide ratings based on your own experience. Yes, I realize
this is subjective and your '1′ might be someone else's '5′. That's
ok. It's your rating and I really want your opinion.

Rate the following from 1 to 5. 1 is not effective, 5 is very effective!

Overall: 3 Friendliness 4 Singing NA
____________ Preaching 3


First Impressions

Outside:

Was the building easy to find?
very

Was it difficult to find parking?
no, i had to guess as far as where it was because i needed to find an alley near to the church to get on the back street that lead to the parking lot but i found parking easily

How about the interior or exterior signage- what would you do differently?

there were not really any signs i saw. I would probably put a sign out front with the church name, mass times, and "Parking in Rear"

What did the appearance, style, or construction of the building
communicate to you?
It looked like a catholic church. It was easy to find and i knew it was a main line denomination church because of the building style
Before the service:

Did anyone approach you and speak to you before the service got underway?
no, after
If someone did speak to you, how did you feel about that?
it was cool, they just said good morning and i said it back. Then the informed me that the Father was going to be coming out so i hung around to talk to him. The second time i went i had a short conversation with a women about what i was doing now and how sh felt that i would eventually come around to being catholic again
Can you share their names?
I don't remember, but she told me twice that her husband was the deacon

Did you know them before the visit?like i said i went twice and apparently i said good morning to her the first time i was there

General observations:

As you observed the people "doing their church thing", what went
through your mind?
that i didn't how their liturgy worked and tried to mumble under my breathe to pretend i knew what to say. I was trying to remember anything i could. i thought it was very tradition based
Were you able to understand why they do what they do?
yes. It is how catholic church works. I don't really know why. I mean i can think of the bible verses that they defend their actions with but i don't really know why they do church the way they do church. Like almost any mass you go to anywhere is the same. I don't know why that is.
Do they seem sincere?
i spent the whole time trying to find out. Some seemed very sincere and others did not
What do you think about the overall presentation of the service? (the
liturgy, program or flow of the service)
it is very organized and quick service that is executed with precision. I thought it was well done, organized and traditional

Bulletin and communications:

Is there anything in the church bulletin that you find confusing or offensive? no, not really. i didn't really look at it or read it because i needed to pay attention to the quickly moving service. it had events and all that...pretty good. I thought it was out of date because it said "Third Sunday of Easter." It was this weeks bulletin. They just celebrate easter as a season.
If this were your "business", how would you improve the communication
part of it- the bulletin especially?
I would probably include announcements somewhere in the service. Bulletin was pretty good. I think everything was in there that needed to be in there, even though i didn't know the bulletins were bulletins until i looked inside. There were no greeters and no one handing them out and you had to get one out of a bin for yourself. I would change that.

Were announcements clear, and interesting (did you want to sign up for
anything)? no announcements


Children's Ministry

Does this church appear kid-friendly?
no
Did you bring any children with you to the service?
no

If so, ask them about their experience. What did they tell you?


Music and Prayer

How would you describe the music? non existent except for the chants..i will count them

Did you enjoy any of it? some were interesting

Did you feel like you connected with God during any part of it? yeah, whn we were praying for Christ to have mercy i was able to get into that kinda

How was it different from what you are used to?

Oh man, it was chants without music and i am used to rock music

Would you enjoy worshiping like that often?
no
What did you think of the prayers that were offered in the service?

they were nice but very planned. The plannedness made them poetic but only some of them felt sincere

As you listened to the prayers, what did you learn about how that
church might think of people, or of God?
they think everyone should relate to God the same way and they veiw God as a being to be respected and related to properly

The Speaker's Presentation

Did the Pastor or speaker seem likable? yeah

Is he/she a person you might enjoy having coffee with? Why? yeah , he probably has some interesting views on God and Christianity and i could probably learn a little bit from him

Did he/she seem engaged/sincere/condescending?
kind of engaged, it felt like he does this seven days a week

Were you motivated to do or think anything differently because of the talk?

i was motivated to know God and experience him in a deeper way

What could they have done to make it more enjoyable or useful?

I wish it would have been longer and clearer. He didn't really spend any time on points. I didn't pay attention for like 30 seconds and i got lost and confused. It was just too short and i didn't get a chance to catch up.

Please erase any of the following descriptors that did not apply to
the talk: Enjoyable, , Thought-provoking, Boring, Relevant,
Gloomy, Credible,Useful,



The Message

What was the main idea of the message?
the bread of life and how we grow in experience as we grow in knowledge
What action did the speaker want you to take or consider taking?

getting to know God in a deeper way

Did the talk itself (the subject matter) hold your attention?

it did but i got confused. You had to pay attention because otherwise you would totally miss it

Did any part of the talk stand out to you in a positive or negative way?
not really
What is the one thing the speaker could do that would improve his/her
presentation? just talk about less stuff. You only have ten minutes so just talk about one point and repeat yourself a lot. I got confused because it was so quick and content heavy. you can move quick but cover one point well instead of a lot of stuff poorly. I think the subject matter was too deep for the time allotted

Do you think that you particularly will remember anything that was taught?

we will grow in experiencing God as we grow in knowing him

Do you understand God or people better because of it?

I understand experiencing God better and i understand why people ( or me) might not experience God in a period of time in their lives

Did it make you feel like you wanted to preach someday yourself ?
not really