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The one thing I hear over and over and over again, is how waiters and waitresses hate to see the after church crowd come into their restaurants. The groups are rude, entitled, run the service people ragged, and then either leave a very small tip, no tip, or leave one of those folded religious tracts behind.
Believe me, this isn't one or two groups of church people doing this. I've heard about this from service people across the country for years now. It was also true when I was a waitress in the 70s. And yes, we hated to see the after church groups come in then just as much as service people hate to see them come in now.
As Christians, were you aware that you are disliked so much in restaurants when you walk in as a group? Are you embarrassed by what these groups do? Do you think if this were brought up to your fellow after church group, they would feel shame and change their behavior? Or do you think it's OK for them to abuse the service workers and leave no tip and if so, why? And has your pastor, priest, or minister ever said anything to chastise your fellow Christians on Sunday about this?
Sorry, but the needle on my BS detector just went deep into the red zone. I doubt very seriously you have heard this "over and over again from service people around the country for years now." I have participated in such groups off and on for decades, and I have never observed anything remotely resembling what you are describing. Your post just sounds to me like a typical anti-Christian rant, but I will give you points for creativity for coming up with this unlikely context for it.
I see rodents shaking their heads "No" to this similarly tall tale. They might just turn on their "raiser". Better head to the safety of the nearest restaurant...
I've not been a server but I know people who are and they say generally the same thing. Not really any rowdiness, but the low tips or even worse the fake tips - looks like a folded $20 but is just a religious tract. I guess if you've never been a server you probably wouldn't really know about it unless you go through other customer's bills.
I was a waitress for more than a decade, and it's true that there is a stigma about large after-church groups, though I think that is more because people in general tend to remember negative experiences more than neutral or positive ones than because those groups were particularly worse than any other large separate-checks party. I did get a few tracts but never instead of a tip, and we always rolled our eyes at them. Even now that I am a Christian I still think leaving tracts like that is a poor excuse for real evangelism.
I am a generous tipper; except in extreme circumstances 20% is my minimum and when I go out with large groups I always add extra to account for some people tipping less well. Because of my restaurant experience I never want to be associated with treating servers poorly, whether they have any idea of my Christian beliefs or not.
In my last church, we had a women's group that went out every other month or so. We got a table at a BYO Italian restaurant, the kind that has a pizza shop in the front and a dining room in the back and provides wine glasses and uncorks bottles but does not have a liquor license. Best food.
The women who was president of the group went in ahead of time and talked the owner into giving us a 15% discount. We always had a great time. A few times two of the men joined us.
We never ever would and never ever did leave a bad tip. No way. Paid cash, tip always more than 20%.
In my last church, we had a women's group that went out every other month or so. We got a table at a BYO Italian restaurant, the kind that has a pizza shop in the front and a dining room in the back and provides wine glasses and uncorks bottles but does not have a liquor license. Best food.
The women who was president of the group went in ahead of time and talked the owner into giving us a 15% discount. We always had a great time. A few times two of the men joined us.
We never ever would and never ever did leave a bad tip. No way. Paid cash, tip always more than 20%.
Not saying we never got loud. Good times.
Not normal churches MQ. The OTHER kind.
A friend of mine who was pretty much a career waitress complained of these things
1. Stingy tips.
2. Leaving tracts about "getting saved" instead of money, as is expected.
3. Complaining about what people are talking about at other tables. Language, beliefs and laughter.
4. Complaints when people were drinking. This was at an all you can drink brunch.
In context here, when the restaurant has a large group it is an automatic service charge already added to the bill. But then the servers hope that like a man showing his economic prowess to a date that someone in a church group would show off their success publicly and throw down even more money
I certainly have heard the complaints about the rowdy, obnoxious "after church crowd" as well.
But this is most certainly a "big group who knows each other" thing more than it is a "Christian" thing.
One exception to the rule...
I remember is being in a Furr's cafeteria to eat after church. I remember nobody could talk to each other because as each group came to sit down after going through the serving line they had to pray. So somebody was always doing a pre meal prayer the entire time we were in there (my party included) and out of respect... every other party within range of them would be silent.
There were probably more than one hundred people eating in there and it was really hushed the whole time.
I have never once seen people in a restaurant quiet down for a table near them to pray. If that's the case, I'm impressed by the consideration of the others. But every time I've ever been in that situation, it was a sort of "self-serve prayer". We'd each just bow our heads and pray for our own, or maybe each couple or small family group.
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Good times.
