win schuler's

Winston Schuler ran the Win Schuler restaurants of Michigan and Indiana. He received many awards for the success of his restaurants. Eventually, he decided to retire and leave the restaurants to his son. Although he was retired, he didn't stop working. He would make it a habit of going from restaurant to restaurant and asking people how they enjoyed the food and service. Why would he care if he were retired? He would commonly tell people that although he was retired, it was his name on the restaurant, and that mattered to him. My dad told me that story last week, out of the blue, of course. He's a wealth of knowledge and stories. I really don't know how we get to the point of him telling me most of this stuff, but we always do.

As soon as he told me the story, I thought of the church. At His ascension, Jesus left the church under our management. It's as though he's retired, although He is still quite active. And, just as Winston Schuler, He's probably pretty concerned with how people feel about the church. After all, it is His name on the line.



By the way, you should know that Winston's son did not take very good care of the family business. He did not treat people the same way his dad did, and he did not train his managers to do so. They eventually closed the doors of 8 out of 9 restaurants. They re-focused, and the last restaurant standing is doing quite well. It just makes me wonder if we're doing the same thing. Are we treating people like Jesus, or will we end up closing the doors of most of our churches before we refocus?