what if?

We went to Denny’s this weekend to grab a quick bite to eat. Even though Denny’s has been around for a long time, this particular one has only been open for about a year and a half. The food was typical and the overall experience was average. We were finishing up and a different waitress came to our table and quickly grabbed a couple of empty plates with a smile and rushed off. I commented to Wendy that I liked that waitress, that she had been there since the opening of the store and was the one that put extra whipped topping on the kids hot cocoa one late winter night. Wendy’s comment was "yeah, that’s the kind of waitress that keeps a restaurant in business. She isn’t the type that’s worried about just her section, she gets it, she is all about the customers and their needs, making them feel at home."


Not only was she helping her co-waitress she was helping the bus boy and she did it so naturally and quickly that nobody even knew it happened except another’s customers that would not even be tipping her. It was very self-less and showed she had a true servants heart.


Before I could really think about it, I blurted out "what if the church were a restaurant?" I got a couple of strange stares from nearby tables, I don’t know why, it’s not like I meant we would worship the grand slam breakfast or other food items.


It’s just that so many times we walk into church, wanting to be fed and wanting to receive God’s touch. And sometimes those who have already decided to follow Jesus, keep coming in with this idea that church is all about them being served when in fact, maybe they should be strapping on an apron and helping the fellow workers make the real customers (non-Christians) feel at home and fed and served.


When we move to Miami to start a church for people that don’t like church, were going to fill it with people that serve others selflessly. The way we’ll do this is by us serving others selflessly. That will turn our customers into regulars and our regulars into co-workers and who knows, maybe our co-workers will become church planters too.