Best Practice #3 - Honoring the Places Where Groups Meet

Our waitress Debbie: "You guys are the good church group that meets here."

Me: "We are?! What do you mean?"

Debbie: "There is another church group that meets here for breakfast regularly. They are not as nice as you guys. Sometimes they show attitude and can be just rude."

Me: "Well, we really enjoy coming here and appreciate the service. Too bad about that other group, but I'm glad we [meaning our group and the restaurant staff] have a good thing going."

So went an exchange I had with our regular waitress a number of years ago when our men's group met at a local diner. It is an example of how much the world does look at the actions of those who say they follow Jesus. We are constantly examined as to whether we are honoring, respecting, and loving others per our faith in Him.

There are specific ways your group can honor the off-campus place, business, or restaurant where your group meets. Here are a few:

• Ask permission to meet. If you are meeting at a Starbucks or Panera Bread, this may not be necessary (though it could be the start of relationship building with the staff). As a form of courtesy, our group that met in the diner did find it necessary to ask for permission. To keep individual costs down, our plan was for each guy to at least purchase one cup of coffee. But being a full-service restaurant, it was possible that the owner/manager would rather fill the seats with customers who would be paying more. Turns out that the owner was completely fine with our plan. We were meeting at 6 a.m. anyways and the restaurant wasn't crowded.

• Each group member to commit to ordering something. Since the restaurant we met at was paying for our electricity, heat, A/C and provided the tables and chairs for us to meet around, it would simply honor them by financially supporting their business. Of course, if a person was low on funds for one particular meeting, the other group members would pick up that person's tab.

• Go beyond the minimal order on a (minimum) monthly basis. As a thanks to the owner and staff for letting our group meet regularly with only needing to order coffee, we decided that once-a-month we would each order a full breakfast. At those times we took a break from our small group study and simply enjoyed some fellowship time together. This study break also opened up a little more time for conversation between us and the diner staff.

What suggestions do you have? What have you tried? What didn't? Please share your comments.