Pick a Restaurant: How One Church Planter Trains His People to Live on Mission
Written by Glenn Smith
With more Americans eating out, one of the big questions that we deal with on almost a daily basis is “Where do you want to go eat?” Church planter Jason Gilbow helps believers think missionally, even about the mundane questions and activities of life such as this!
The college ministry of his new church began with 2 students. Jason said “These two felt called to our little work and began to bring friends.” The college group began to grow and within 5 months they were averaging about 30 collegians in their new church. The church began a second service on Sunday mornings to reach more of the college students. That’s when Jason had a powerful idea!
He suggested to some of the adult leaders in the church that the church buy lunch for the college students on Sundays, and the leadership agreed that it would be a good investment. So they picked a restaurant, the local Pizza Hut. Jason’s vision was to train these students to have a ministry at this restaurant with the employees, as well as with other college students who wanted to join them.
Jason said, “At the end of the second service (when most of the collegians were there) we would pray for Pizza Hut’s employees and then I would challenge our students to leave a $1 tip, be patient with the wait staff, encourage the employees and stick around after lunch to help with cleaning up and bussing tables.” He said, “The management and staff at Pizza Hut grew to love our collegians. Many kids would stick around to help clean tables and collect cups, plates, etc. The collegians also began to tip very well!”
Typically the restaurant would have only one or two persons as wait staff since Sunday lunches were not historically a huge business for them. One Sunday things got very busy and there was only one waitress, Stephanie, and her manager Teresa. Jason said, “Our students left a tip of over $240.” One of the guys handed it to Teresa and told her the tip was over $200. She began to cry and said, “You all are the nicest people I have ever met.”
Teresa is still the manager. This past year Jason’s group would number nearly 200 college students every week. They filled up Pizza Hut every Sunday. Jason said, “It was wild, but so much fun as kids were doubling up in chairs and even eating outside. These collegians developed a heart and relationship with the employees of Pizza Hut.”
The students really cared. They would pray for the employees by name. Sometimes the employees would even share prayer requests privately. The manager told Jason later that her employees began requesting to work on Sundays to be around the college group from their church. “Their eyes were always lit up after being around our college crowd” Jason observed.
“I can’t count the number of compliments the staff of Pizza Hut would pass along to me regarding our collegians and their kindness, patience and helping clean up” recounts Jason. “I believe our collegians became Pizza Hut’s church on Sundays.”
Today Jason tells all of his people to pick 2 or 3 restaurants that they will eat at frequently for the purpose of showing God’s love. He encourages them to pray silently as they walk in, to be kind, patient, encouraging, and oh yes, tip well! Jason says “I can’t help but think that church really started happening when we got to Pizza Hut!”
So, pick a restaurant!
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