Encounters at the Counter | What Congregations Can Learn about Hospitality from Business (Johnson)

Lessons from Customer Service

Returning to the U.S. after foreign leave, Johnson began to look for employment. He hoped his 38 years of ordained ministry would enable him to return to full-time ministry. In the process, he became intrigued by a part-time customer service position at a bread company, applied for it, and was hired.

Johnson immediately noticed an interface between hospitality and spirituality. He made a commitment at the bread company to deepen the hospitality with spirituality, while vowing to enrich the spirituality of the congregations he mentored with hospitality. 

Encounters at the Counter shares Johnson’s engaging in face-to-face customer service. It explores the dimensions of hospitality that can be applied to congregations seeking to demonstrate genuine hospitality, such as: the contagion of happiness, maximizing routines, renewing resources, taking time and making time and promoting the quality of the product as well as the process.

About the Author

Alan Johnson, an ordained United Church of Christ minister, served local churches in Milford, Old Greenwich, Sharon, and Westport, all in Connecticut. He was on the national staff of the United Church of Christ, 1979-1995, as Secretary of Evangelism for Spiritual and Membership Growth and served as resident chaplain at University Hospital and as chaplain at The Children Hospital, Denver. He is a cofounder of the Interfaith on Mental Illness based in Boulder, CO and chairs the UCC Mental Health Network. He received his M.Div. from Yale University Divinity School. 

Paperback: 143 pages 
ISBN 978-0-8298-1817-8
2009