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Topic: Sunday Smackdown: Christians vs the Waitstaff
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KnowHim
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Sunday Smackdown: Christians vs the Waitstaff
It’s Sunday morning at the local chain restaurant. A crew of bleary-eyed young adults shuffle in the door, donning aprons to prepare the restaurant for the day’s events. It is Sunday; D-day for restaurant employees. Sunday is the most feared day of the week for restaurant employees that directly contact the public, such as the servers. (Yes, we call them servers now - try calling your male server a “waitress” and see (or taste) where that gets you).
Sunday is not the feared day because we Christians storm the place with the word of God and the Holy Sprit, keeping the restaurants so busy. It is a busy morning, but certainly no busier than a Saturday night. It is the worst day for restaurant employees because of our horrible behavior as Christians…. the children of God.
Around Noon, the first of us Christians blow in the door. Hungry, stressed from dealing with the kids, and uncomfortable from wearing that suit to church that we didn’t want to wear anyway, we proceed to dump our problems in the laps of the restaurant employees. We are rude, overly-demanding, and worst of all - cheap.
Is it all Christians that do this? Certainly not, but it is enough that all Christians have been painted with this brush. We blame “the enemy for using this to try and steal our witness”, or “the enemy is using that to try and steal our witness”. This time though, the enemy is using us. If you got angry reading that last sentence, then you are one that is probably guilty.
The cards are stacked against the restaurant employees from the start by Christians. Most Christians still do not tithe regularly, but even so many that do, do so begrudingly. After giving away money to God that they didn’t want to, how likely are they to give a good tip to a man? One Christian restaurant employee I know told me, “They don’t even give the good Lord 10%, what makes us think that we’re going to get 15% (for a tip)”
We need to positively recognize people that are serving us. How did the Apostles treat Jesus when he washed their feet? Wonderful - he is Jesus! How do you think they treated servants who washed their feet after a long journey? After meeting Jesus, I bet they treated these servants well, but before? Maybe not so well.
We even have ministers on TV such as Kenneth Copeland reaffirming that servers are lazy, and “You just can’t get good service anymore.” I know he said this on several occasions because I have listened to nearly every show of theirs for the last 3 years. I know that the Copelands spend a great deal of time in restaurants and have a wide base of experience to draw from while making this statement about servers, but it is not accurate. He never prefaces his inditement of the service industry by saying “Hey, I just got done speaking for 5 hours today, like I have for the past 3 days. I am tired and a bit cranky from it all, and hey - I’ve been doing the Lord’s work. My associates and I should get special treatment.”
Now, I know he doesn’t say those things out loud, but we ALL think things like that sometimes whether we admit it or not. Think about it - we come out of church with a message that convicted us. However, now that we are back on the right track, we somehow expect everyone that wasn’t in that church service to hear the sermon, and to live by those lessons. Crazy, I know. I’ve done it before, though.
We need to be a shining example to the world when we visit to a restaurant. Our joy in the Lord must radiate from us so people say, “What is it about those Christians? Why are they so happy even when the world is going to **** ?” Want to know who holds that title currently? The Mormons.
We need to give God’s message to the world. Not a talented orator? That’s okay, because our lives can be the greatest sermon we ever gave - far more effective than the spoken word. Treat the server like they are Jesus washing your feet. “Even if they are doing a bad job?” Yes; especially if they are doing a bad job. Poor work means one of two things in their life.
The server is having a rough day or worse, a rough life. In this case they need some of Jesus’ love ministered through us.
The server is lazy, and/or hates their job. In this case they especially need Jesus’ love. You can’t give respect when you don’t have it yourself.
Learn tip etiquette. Learn tip etiquette.
Yes, I meant to do that. The tip is our final contact with these servers (people). Saying “God bless you” or giving them a Bible tract, in lieu of tip completely negates God’s message. May God forgive every one of us who do this.
In America, good service deserves 15 percent regardless of how much we tithed, or how much we just spent on the meal. The server doesn’t care. More importantly, neither does God.
I say go further - tip over 15 percent. Business tip etiquette suggests that we tip at least 20%. This is because we are representing our business. Since we are representing the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords’ business I suggest that the 20% figure is a nice start.
At least once a year, I challenge everyone to give an “extreme tip”. Bless the money first, and ask God to multiply it in the person’s life - bringing them to a closer relationship with him. Make the tip unreasonably good, and most importantly leave before they see it - this removes any chance we are doing it to benefit our ego.
Be nice in restaurants - It isn’t our server’s fault we may go to a church where we feel compelled to wear a suit. I think God looks little at the outer man, rather looking at our hearts. The server should also not be punished because we can’t control our kids, didn’t get enough sleep, or would rather be golfing.
Are you a nice person? Jon Maxwell, a great Christian leadership author said that you can tell a great deal about a person by how they act in a restaurant. He said if you are eating with a nice person who treats the server poorly, then that person is not actually a nice person. Do you consider yourself to be a nice person?
Clean up after ourselves - Yes, I know they get paid to do that, but when we let our kids pour the sugars all over the table (or the parents do it), we grind the baby’s crackers into the carpet, and leave food from one end of the table to the other, we are revealing that we are complete slobs, and extremely self-centered. That surely isn’t the Christian way.
Do not look down on your server because they are working on “the Lord’s day”. They wouldn’t be there if we weren’t. I know it sounds crazy that some people would think that, but unfortunately there are. (Shout-out to the Pharisees) : the Lord’s day is whatever day you make it - it used to be Saturday, anyway.
In closing, we should treat our servers like we want them to come to church with us next Sunday. Visit a restaurant enough, and you may actually get that opportunity. At least you may interest them is seeing what “that Jesus thing” is all about and they may check out that church they always drove by but haven’t visited.
Get ‘em in the door people, God will take care of the rest.
From: http://christiansontheclock.org/?p=12
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