How Do You Expect to Catch Fish If There Are Holes in Your Nets?

The Cost of Broken Church Experiences

One of our church consulting partners tells a story of a church that ran a very successful campaign to attract new visitors to a specific service. The number of new visitors shattered the church leaders’ wildest expectations.

Then the next week rolled around, and the attendance numbers crashed back to normal.

What happened?

People had an expectation of what they would experience, but what they actually experienced didn’t match. So they lost trust, disengaged, and never came back.

Sound familiar?

The Say-Do Gap That’s Bleeding Your Church Dry

Pain Point: Churches work tirelessly to get people to give them a try—both online and in person. But when the experience is fractured, inconsistent, or simply disappointing, those people stop exploring and go elsewhere. You’ve worked so hard to bring them to the boat, only to watch them slip through holes in your net.

Solution: Practice what you preach. Walk your talk. Close the gap between what you promise and what you deliver across every single touchpoint.

Outcome: When that gap closes, your church community gains deep trust and becomes a fleet of passionate advocates—a common unity all rowing in the same direction to accomplish the goal of glorifying God, discipleship, and reaching the lost.

Key Takeaway: You must patch the holes in your nets to catch as many fish as possible. But first, you need to know where those holes are.

“He called out to them, ‘Friends, haven’t you any fish?’ ‘No,’ they answered. He said, ‘Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.’ When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.”

— John 21:5-6

Customer Experience: The Net That Holds Your Ministry Together

Your customers are your audience—both the members of your current church congregation and those within your community who aren’t connected with your church yet. Yes, we used the word “customers.” Because while you don’t sell products, you do serve people. And they choose whether to engage with you based on their experience.

The fishing net analogy has two critical parts:

Part 1: From Attraction to Engagement

• Attracting fish around the net (seeing your church on Google)
• Getting them into the net (clicking to visit your website)
• Keeping them in the net (watching a sermon online)

Part 2: From Engagement to Belonging

• Getting the fish from the net into the boat (revisiting your website multiple times)
• Bringing the fish to your table (attending a community event or service)
• Keeping them with you through retention (becoming active members and advocates)

The Cost of Holes in Your Nets:

• Wasted resources on attraction with no retention
• Damaged reputation as disappointed visitors share their experiences
• Decreased morale as your team sees diminishing returns on their efforts
• Failure to fulfill your mission because people aren’t sticking around for discipleship

The Power of Intact Nets:

• Accelerated spiritual growth as people remain connected to community
• Higher acquisition and retention rates from first-time visitors to regular attendees
• Authentic word-of-mouth growth as experiences match expectations
• Increased volunteer engagement as people connect with your vision
• Accelerated spiritual growth as people remain connected to community

The Critical “Nets” Every Church Must Maintain

Your church isn’t just one net—it’s a system of interconnected nets, each needing to be strong and without holes:

1. Brand Strategy

The fundamental beliefs, values, and positioning that guide everything you do. If this net has holes, all others will fail.

2. Brand Identity

The visual and verbal expression of who you are—logo, colors, typography, voice, and tone. Inconsistency here creates confusion and erodes trust everywhere else.

3. Brand Touchpoints

• Website — Often the first impression people have of your church
• App — The portable experience of your community
• Social Channels — Your voice in the digital public square
• Apparel + Merch — Walking billboards that create belonging
• Building/Campus — The physical embodiment of your values
• Sermon Messages — The core content that feeds your community
• Sub-Brands — Ministry expressions that must connect to the whole
• Programs — Where strategy meets real-life needs
• Events — Concentrated experiences that shape perceptions

A hole in any of these nets means lost fish. But how do you know where the holes are?

Finding the Holes: Auditing Your Church Experience

Here’s where brutal honesty is required. You must evaluate what you say against what you actually do—across every net:

What You Say

Start by documenting what you claim to be and do:

• Your stated belief, purpose, vision and values
• The appearance and promises on your website
• What your pastor says from the pulpit
• How you describe and conduct your ministries and programs

What You Do

Now audit your actual experience through each key net:

Brand Strategy

• Do your actions align with your stated beliefs?
• Would visitors identify the same core values you claim?
• Do all ministries and leaders operate from the same foundational conviction?

Brand Identity

• Is your visual identity consistent across all platforms?
• Does your tone of voice match your stated personality?
• Would people recognize materials from different ministries as part of the same church?

Website

• Does it work flawlessly on mobile devices?
• Is information current and easy to find?
• Do pages load quickly with clear next steps?
• Is the online giving experience frictionless?

Building/Campus

• Is wayfinding clear for first-time visitors?
• Do your environments reflect the quality you claim to value?
• Is security visible but not intimidating?
• Are children’s areas both safe and engaging?

Programs

• Do participants have clear pathways to deeper engagement?
• Do they deliver the transformation they promise?
• Are they accessible to the people you claim to serve?
• Is leadership training consistent with your values?

Closing Your Church’s Say-Do Gap

You must patch the holes in your nets to catch as many fish as possible. Every gap between what you say and what you do is a hole where potential souls slip away.

Self-Assessment Questions:

• If your church says it wants to be a place for young families, is your soup-to-nuts Sunday experience in line with what young families are accustomed to from other venues?
• If you claim to value excellence, does every ministry area reflect that same standard?
• If you say “all are welcome,” would someone from a different cultural background truly feel welcomed by your environment, communication, and programming?
• If you emphasize community, how many steps does it take for a newcomer to find meaningful connection?

The answers often reveal painful truths. But remember what Jesus did when the disciples’ nets came up empty—He didn’t condemn them. He redirected them. And the result was abundance beyond what they could handle.

How BLVR Has Helped Churches Mend Their Nets

At BLVR, we’ve guided churches through a framework to close critical Say-Do Gaps in their experience. For one partner, we uncovered a disconnect between their stated value of “reaching the next generation” and their actual communication methods.

By aligning their brand strategy, visual identity, and key touchpoints with their core belief, we helped them create a seamless experience from social media to Sunday morning. The result? Within six months, their young adult attendance increased and first-time visitor retention improved dramatically.

When Jesus told the disciples to cast their nets on the other side, the miraculous catch wasn’t just about location—it was about obedience. Today, closing your Say-Do Gap is your act of obedience. It’s about ensuring that what you claim to be is what people actually experience.

Don’t lose another fish through holes in your nets.