Tract do's and don'ts

From Tony Miano at The Lawman Chronicles

Today, while at my office at Living Waters, I received the following sad and disturbing e-mail:
I am contacting you about your money tracts. I’m guessing someone thought it was a wonderful idea, but let me give you the downside of these tracts…..

My daughter is a server at a well known restaurant here in Denver. She waited on a table where the bill came to $50.00. The people gave her a $3.00 tip and one of your tracts that looks like $10.00. When she saw what happened, needless to say she was not a “happy camper”. Thankfully, she is a Christian and she was the recipient of a very bad tip and a bad tract, and not one of her non-Christian co-workers. I hate to say this, but I have 2 daughters right now that are waitressing to put themselves thru college. They both will say that Christians are the worst tippers. And for my one daughter, the tip is her wage. In Colorado servers don’t make minimum wage plus a tip. Their wage is about $3/hr, so their checks are zero dollars, because of taxes.

Jesus said in Matthew, if a son asks his father for bread, will he give him a stone, or if he asks for fish, a serpent? God is our representation of extravagant giving….for you to print out money and then have that given out is a horrible representation of the gospel. I don’t believe Jesus would have ever done that. It makes Christ look cheap….he wasn’t….if someone wants to leave a tract, leave a tract, but then leave an actual tip that blesses the person who served them. And don’t make the tract look like money!

Thanks for listening

I just shook my head in disgust as I read the e-mail. And of course, I responded to the e-mail right away. If you are a Christian reader of this blog and you have ever left a money tract (either a Living Waters tract or one from another ministry) in lieu of a monetary tip, please confess your sin before God--your sin of being unloving, unkind, and stingy. And please understand that doing something like this, while you may leave the gospel on the restaurant table, is a very poor witness for the Lord Jesus Christ.

When I dine in a restaurant, I always try to leave a money tract with a tip. I don't leave a money tract unless I am prepared to leave a generous tip--more than the customary 15%. I don't just leave a tract. I make sure to sign the back of the tract with a nice note thanking the server for their service. I make sure to mention the server by name in the note, and I make sure to sign my name as well. Personalizing the tract in this way makes it more likely that the server will keep the tract long enough to read it. And leaving a generous tip with the tract will hopefully show the server that I care about them--that I care for both their physical well being and their soul.

So, just a little friendly advice, from one sinner saved by grace to another: please never leave a tract for a restaurant server in lieu of a tip. Come on. You can do better than that--for the server, and for the Lord Jesus Christ.