A market research company is offering to pay people to go to church. Faith Perceptions works for churches like mystery shopping works for restaurants, clothing stores and grocers. In 2008 they launched their mystery guest program, experiencing a 300% increase in growth between 2010 and 2011. They expanded their services from Missouri to an addition seven states, helping four Christian denominations.
According to a company news release, here’s how the process works. Faith Perceptions partners with church leaders. The leaders to not tell the congregation that they’re using the program so that they can get an accurate account. They find “unchurched” mystery guests from the local area to attend services. Once the person attends they complete an online survey about the experience. Faith Perceptions passes on that information to the church along with additional feedback. Church leaders use this information to make sure they’re reaching first-time visitors well. “We originally piloted the Mystery Guest program in Missouri. When we determined that it truly could expand geographically and into other denominations, we invested in the infrastructure required to successfully handle the increase. We now have over 2,500 mystery guests visiting churches in eight States and four denominations,” says Melanie Smollen, Project Manager for Faith Perceptions in a news release. “We’ve evaluated well over 1,000 worship services across the country.”
If you’re interested in getting paid to go to church fill out a short online form at faithperceptions.com. Keep in mind that the service is only happening in eight states. But given the company’s recent growth they’ll likely be expanding soon.