Should I Leave A Calling Card?

Churches are notorious for wanting information. Every time I set foot in a church as a visitor I get asked to fill out a communications card. This card asks for name, address, phone number, email address, interests, comments and sometimes prayer requests. It's a lot of identifying information, and I'm not all the comfortable filling out all that info especially when I don't know what will be done with it.

When I was part of the evangelism department in my old church, we designed such a card for our church. The answer to what will be done with that data was two-pronged: First, it would be kept for statistical purposes. Second, it would be used as a method of contact so the church could follow up on the visit.

Following up presents an interesting issue with this project. Do I want a church to follow up with me after a visit? The answer is, sometimes not. In certain circumstances, definitely not. If I went to a church that I thought was absolutely hideous, I don't want them having my information and calling me to find out how I liked it. To date I've only revealed identifying information to one church since I've started this project.

So how do I get around not leaving a communications card? My initial solution was to come up with my own calling card with my name and the address of this blog. I figured that if the church really wanted feedback on the visit, then reading my review on this blog should be sufficient.

But I haven't put together a card until now. Part of the reason I've delayed is that I didn't want this to be seen as a church critic website. A critic's website has one purpose, to review churches. While that's part of what I do, it's not all I write about. Unfortunately none of that matters with people who want to ignore the extra, but I think it is time to formulate a calling card.

Why should I leave a calling card? First, when I'm asked if I've filled out a communications card, I can truthfully say that I have. Second, I won't say anything on this blog that I won't say to someone's face. (Although on this blog I may say it differently due to the audience.) By designing my own card I can control what kind of information I leave while at the same time the church can make a statistical record of a new person being in the church. Is it a perfect solution? Probably not, but it's the best I can come up with right now.