Know the Guest
By Jason Young
In 1 Corinthians, the apostle Paul
talked about becoming like those to
whom he ministered. When he was
with Jews, he behaved like a Jew and
followed their practices. When he was
with Gentiles, he ignored Jewish law.
No matter where he ministered, Paul
found common ground with everyone
so that he could bring them to Christ
(1 Cor. 9:19–23). How could Paul
have done this successfully if he was
unaware of who these people were?
To find common ground, he had to
know them. That went beyond simply
knowing their age group, gender, and
how they heard about the church. Paul
had to understand their customs. He
understood their weaknesses. Their
worries. Their values. It required real
empathy on Paul’s part to become like
those he wanted to reach. Paul needed
to know more than demographics (age,
gender, marital status, stage of life, area
of residence, ethnicity)—the types of
questions churches like to ask on their
guest cards. He needed real, personal
information. Note that there’s nothing
wrong with knowing demographics.
You can get some valuable insights
from this type of information.
Different ages and different genders
tend to behave certain ways. The same
is true for those who are affluent or
those who are impoverished. But if we
want to take our hospitality to the next
level, we need to know more. We need
to know what the service industry has
labeled psychographic information.
The term psychographics can
seem daunting. But quite simply,
psychographics are measurements
dealing with someone’s psychological
state. 1 These are things like
personality, values, attitudes, interests,
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