one way that julie and i are alike is that we can talk to just about anyone about anything. our server's name at the restaurant was helen, and she was terrific ~ she worked her tail off and was as nice as she could be. every time she came to our table, we'd make small-talk with her, then the small-talk became a little bit longer with each visit.
julie mentioned in her teaching yesterday that sometimes christians make the worst restaurant customers. (she said she got ALL KINDS of looks from the audience when she threw that little pearl out.) at any rate, we decided to ask helen, "who are your worst customers?" ~ we clarified the meaning of worst as: demanding, rude, and impatient, along with poor-tipping. her answer, without hesistation: "church people."
we talked to helen for awhile about this, and then we decided to do a little informal survey. as helen called over different servers, julie posed the same question to all of them: "who are your worst customers?"
5 out of 6 of the servers said "church people" or "the church crowd" or "christians". they talked about dreading sunday shifts. one of them even mentioned a well-known family (in our community) by name and discussed how horribly they treat the staff. they described ranting customers who always leave having eaten for free, because they complained so much to the manager. i was embarrassed. (by the way, the 1 other vote was for "groups of old women". my apologies to any golden buckeyes out there reading this post.)
today, i googled this phrase: waiters say who are the worst customers. i found this great blog/article entitled "the dreaded church table" from relevant magazine, which is a christian publication. the author, daniel, who is a waiter, summed up his experience with church people in restaurants this way: (if you have time, though, read the entire article.)
so now every Sunday, i witness the painful, spiritual deaths of my (waiter) friends because those who are supposed to be saved treat them worse than those who have never even heard the message of Christ. if we don’t begin to love those whose job it is to serve, then the casualty rate on the front lines of the american church will continue to grow.
other articles/blogs on "church tables" in restaurants can be found here:
- http://www.str.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=6735
- http://seatmytable.blogspot.com/2006_04_01_archive.html
apparently, this isn't just a local problem.
pretty sad, huh?
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