PeaceBang

An Offering For a Growing Congregation

September 20, 2007 on 1:37 pm | In Liturgy |

I like to think of the Offering as a great moment for story-telling and sharing of pastoral observations on the spirit of the church. I just don’t like to see it as a “throwaway” moment in the liturgy, where someone says something incredibly brief about giving, using the most euphemistic language possible and then scrambles out of the pulpit like they just committed some kind of unspeakable indiscretion.

I often say that the reason we take up an offering during the church service is because we recognize the spiritual value of generosity and the importance of lifting that up in a worshipful manner.

I wrote this to use in my own church on Sunday and share it as an offering for other pastors in similar situations:

Last week I looked out over the congregation at this time and counted ___ adults after the children and the teachers left for Sunday School. All this bounty, and a good number of our members still have yet to return after summer hiatus!

This is exciting. It means that something within many of you urged you out of the comfort of your Sunday morning routine and into this house of worship, into the great project of seeking after deeper truths, and into the adventure of community with other flawed and faithful human beings.

We who have been at this for some time congratulate and welcome you. We will try to remember that the most important reason people come to church is to become part of a caring community, and we will make an effort to become that to you. We promise to make room for you in our hearts, our programming and in our pews.
We invite you to join us in all aspects of church life, remembering that we need to go slowly and respectfully as we get to know each other.

Church, as we prepare to take up the offering today, I am going to ask that you make a spiritual offering in addition to your financial gift. I ask that each one of us make a commitment to visit with two people we don’t know –or don’t know well—at coffee hour today and for the next few months. We have been blessed by sharing our lives together, and we are being invited to extend that blessing to more souls every week. Let us give generously in all ways to our beloved community. The morning offering is most gratefully received.

You have my permission to use these words. However, please do not publish them without attribution and permission.