So I see this image that's going around the internet apparently like wildfire right now. The image is a bill that a pastor received at a restaurant and the place automatically added a tip for him - 18%. His response? He crossed it out and said "I give God 10% Why do you get 18" and then put 0 as his tip amount, and then put his title of Pastor above his signature for good measure. Was this a justifiable response? Was it a good way to be a testimony for Jesus?
Personally? No. He should have just paid it and if he was offended by the automatic tip being added (a practice that I dislike restaurants doing personally) he should just never go back . He should never have said a thing. If he wanted to be a testimony he could have politely done so, not this. As another pastor I am appalled that he did this. It leaves a bad taste in people's mouths about Pastors and Christianity. Is that what we are supposed to do? Go out of our way to insult people? No. We are to be a light in this world. He thought he was being a light, but instead he was the fulfillment of 1 Corinthians 13:1, If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. So yeah, he blew it for the rest of us. Way to be a gong/cymbal...
Yah, I understand Pastor Bell's frustration, but must agree I think he was listening to the dark side when he impulsively reacted the way he did. He actually robbed the wait staff (if 18% was the custom at that restaurant) and represented God's people as quick tempered, argumentative and non participatory. Maybe he could have changed the 18% and made it what he felt the actual service was worth, totally ignoring the temptation.
ReplyDeleteI think he should have given the waitress/waiter 20% as a blessing to him/her for their service, AND, more importantly stop think about tithing as "tipping God."
ReplyDeleteWow! I waitressed for awhile and nobody liked working sundays because the place would fill up after church, and alot of the customers were very stressfull to deal with. I would even be told, that I should not be working on a sunday(well then who is supposed to serve you?)or that I should join them at church sometime(in which I would politely say that I had just come directly from service). But the same thing remained, Sunday was the worst day for tips, and you had to work twice as hard to get the tips you did. How is that a witness to anybody. Does anyone realize that the minimum wage for servers is lower than the standard minimum wage? Fast forward 20 years, I make sure any server I have is tipped well, especially on a sunday or if there is any talk of God so they know we are a caring and loving people.
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