Nose Blind: Why Churches Need Fresh Eyes (and Fresh Noses)
Most people decide what they think about your church long before the sermon. Sometimes it happens in the parking lot. Sometimes it happens in the bathroom. But there’s another test most of us overlook—the sniff test.
Every building has a smell. You know it when you walk into a nursing home, a gym, or a dentist’s office. Those smells trigger emotions before a word is spoken. A friend once told me about a dentist who baked cookies in his office every day. He did not do this because the sugar was good for his business, but because he knew people dreaded the chemical-latex-tooth smell that clung to most dental clinics. He wanted patients to associate his practice with something warm and welcoming.
Churches have smells too. Some smell like mildew, old carpet, or decades of potluck casserole. The problem is, if you’ve been there long enough, you can’t smell it anymore. You’re “nose blind.” That’s why it helps to bring in fresh eyes—or in this case, fresh noses. Invite a trusted friend who doesn’t attend your church to walk through the building and give you honest feedback. Ask them not just what they smell, but what they see: cobwebs in corners, outdated furniture, unmaintained spaces that everyone else has stopped noticing.
This isn’t about impressing people with new paint or trendy design. It’s about stewardship. If God has given us a space to worship and welcome others, we should want it to be clean, fresh, and cared for. The environment communicates something about how seriously we take the gospel we claim to preach.
The sniff test reminds us that outsiders notice things insiders overlook. And sometimes a little honest feedback, and maybe even a fresh coat of paint or a batch of cookies, can go a long way in helping our churches feel less like a museum of the past and more like a home for the people God is calling today.
Questions for Fresh Eyes
When you invite someone to do a sniff test for your church, give them questions like these:
What was the first thing you smelled when you walked in?
Did anything feel unclean, stale, or unwelcoming?
Were there cobwebs, clutter, or maintenance issues that stood out?
Did any space feel outdated or neglected?
If this were your first time visiting, what impression would you walk away with?