1) I was just at a contemporary service in a suburban evangelical congregation. The music was pretty good, the prayer astonishing in its range and depth, the preaching so-so (I try not to critique other clergy, but my daughter agreed with my assessment). But the treatment of the offering was surprising. One of the church leaders got up and said–and this is the entire quote–”It is customary for us to take the offering now.” Not a single biblical word about the “cheerful giver.” Not a theological word about our gracious response to God’s even more gracious gift. Not a practical word about the program of the church. Just that “It is customary.” This may have been just the Sunday, I’m a little saddened at the shallowness of the presentation (of a piece, by the way, with the downplaying of communion that Sunday and the actual absence of Scripture reading). When did a church with a lively spiritual life become afraid of spiritual depth? When did they act with less depth than my mainline UMC? (Sigh.) It made me wish I was back at context number…

2) A worship service in Peki, Volta Region, Ghana, where I think they have the kind of offering I want. It’s an Evangelical Presbyterian Church (very traditional German origin). But as the offering comes up, the pastor stands up and talks about the goodness of God. People are ill from malaria, they are heartbreakingly poor, they work hard and have almost nothing. But suddenly they are up on their feet, singing and dancing. And they *dance* their offering forward! The bills (the Ghanaian equivalent at the time of two mites would have looked like bricks of bills) are in their right hands as they dance and sing a song of joy and wonder–the right hand is the clean one. There are two plastic buckets up front: one for the men and one for the women. This is a competition!–and I’m told the women always win! The second offering (and the third that Sunday) has seven buckets, one for each day of the week, and congregants are to put their offerings into the bucket representing the weekday of their birth. I take part, of course, but I find that I’m swept up in the enthusiasm, find myself completely across the room from my friends, blessing and being blessed in the Ewe language. And when the Doxology comes, I am in tears. Something has shifted inside of me.

I share some of your ambivalence about the offering. I’ve not done a very good job of sharing this experience with my lovely but very white-bread congregations over the years. It’s probably all a matter of context. (The divergent experiences in the comments on this post seem to reveal that. Maybe it’s good the NT is so vague!) But I do know this: I’ve given offerings in boxes outside the sanctuary, at a plain ol’ Sunday American Protestant offering tray, at a “customary practice” service, and in a plastic bin marked “Yawo” for “Thursday.” Only in the last have I been surrounded by brothers and sisters filled with joy at the practice. If I had my pick, I would choose that West African context in a heartbeat. But I think I’m called here, to rural Nebraska, to share a small drop of the taste of that joy with my brothers and sisters who may not believe such a thing could exist. Who knows what that drop might water?

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Only a slight change of topic: One of my UMC churches *has* started to take a special offering to support mission shares (new UMC-speak for “apportionments”). As part of the practice, we’ve made it a point to pray for this offering before it goes out the door and to the Conference. We pray for the colleagues that will use it, the people who will benefit, and for Christ’s people whom we may never meet but whom we will touch. A simple thing, but it fits wonderfully into worship, especially before communion. My farmers and business folk don’t dance yet–but they have begun to smile, maybe even be enthusiastic, when we talk about mission shares.

And nearby is attendance at services and SS.

Further, I’m tired of every evanglical ministry (including churches) telling me to give to my local church first. I can make $200 go a LOT further in the kingdom by giving 4 single moms an extra few bags of groceries a month than paying for the A/C in the church to run an extra hour in August.

I’ve done several things, in the past year since leaving brick and mortar church, that I felt God leading me to do out of love and generosity. And I don’t regret a one of them.

Whether large gift of small (and some have been on either end of the spectrum), I do it because He asks me to. Not because someone tells me I need to or suffer the lack of a blessing.

True story: the last church we attended had numbered offering envelopes. You wrote the $ amount on the front and the treasury would write the # and the $ on a sheet to total them up faster – and to keep the books on giving. The envelopes were used to “gently remind people to give weekly”. The church was in the red at one point, so I suggested we save a bit of money on printing the 80 boxes of envelopes. I was shot down by the pastor’s wife who said that the reminder induces guilt and guilt induces giving.

I’m all for ACH payments, BTW.