30% Tip for Bad Service?

Hi everyone! I know I know, I'm awful at keeping this updated. But just to fill you in, my father is church planting (starting a new church) in an area where there are no current churches. It's really exciting.

 There are many different models of church planting and one that my dad was considering is called Soma. I don't blame you if you haven't heard of it. I didn't either. Basically it's a structure of certain ideals. You can look it up here if you're interested: http://www.somacommunities.org/

Anyways, when my family took a road trip we listened to these soma tapes (guys talking about their model). One thing struck me more deeply than anything. One guy said, "You know I went to a restaurant once and I heard a waiter say 'I hate working sundays. The people coming out of churches (this was a restaurant that many in the church went to after going to the morning service) are the worst tippers' and I felt this was awful. I guess I came home one day and I felt totally convicted. I mean Jesus lavishes on grace upon grace on us."

 He then went on to say the most radical words I had heard in a while, "One day I got a waiter who was giving bad service. I was about to get out my cheque book and write a small tip. But then I realized, Jesus doesn't give us what we deserve. If we got what we deserved, we would all be dead. Jesus never would have died for us to take away our sin. So I decided that I should demonstrate this sacrifice in a tangible way to this waiter who could very well be a non-christian. I decided to give them 30%."

This became a habit of this guy and waiters and waitresses would say, "Not that I'm complaining, but why are you tipping me so much. I know my service wasn't great." That would lead to opening doors to relationships as well as evangelism (both of them). And sometimes waiters and waitresses would admit that they were having terrible awful days and that was exactly what they needed. That their service had been bad that day because they were afflicted with other issues.

Why am I saying all of this? to sell you on soma? No. Soma is very interesting, but that's your choice. I do, however, think that we are called to serve our community. We are called to love them regardless of their performance and to show tangible acts of service like Jesus did in his day. Some of you might not have the means to pay a 30% tip. That's fine. I don't think the money is important. I think it's the heart. Whether we smile at someone, compliment them, ask someone how they're really doing, babysit a neighbour's child when they're below the poverty line, or pay for someone's coffee at tim Hortons or Starbucks I think it's great. I think we need to realize that people are image bearers of God...and yes they have messed up, but God still loves them despite their performance. And we ought to too.