When in the Service should you take the Offering?

At what point in the worship service should you invite the congregation to give their financial gifts? Actually, the more fundamental question is whether or not you should set aside time for this activity at all. Many churches opt out of the offering altogether, asking people to donate online or via a donation box placed elsewhere in the building.

Photo from newstribune.com

Offerings have been a part of Christian worship services since the earliest written records of the church. In the book of Acts we read about conflicts among the worshipers regarding unfairness in how the offered food was shared among them (6:1-7). In these early days, food was probably not collected as part of a formal offering, but we know that church meals were connected to the worship service from very early on. For instance, Paul wrote specific instructions to the church in Corinth about appropriate sharing and distribution of the food that was brought for the Lord's Supper. (See 1 Corinthians 11:17-34.)

In later decades, as Christian worship slowly standardized across various culture groups, the offering became directly connected to the celebration of Communion. It seems that initially these offerings were the very bread and wine that would be consumed during the service. In documents known as the Apostolic Tradition, probably written in the third century, we read that deacons would bring "the oblation" (the elements of bread and wine) to the bishop presiding over the service, after exchanging a kiss of peace. This would have happened between the proclamation of the Word and the celebration at the table.

These days offerings are almost always currency of some kind, usually in the form of cash or check. In many churches the offering is taken in the middle of the service, perhaps following a time of singing and/or scripture reading, often before the sermon. However, it is not at all uncommon for churches to take the offering after the sermon, just before celebrating Holy Communion. These congregations remember that the offering is rooted in the ancient practice of preparing for Eucharist. In the United Methodist Church's Service of Word and Table, the Offering happens as part of a bigger movement of responses, thereby linking the preaching of the Word and the Prayer of Great Thanksgiving. These five actions are sometimes called the "Invitation-Confession-Pardon-Peace-Offering." The United Methodist Hymnal provides an order of worship that guides a congregation through these steps on pages 7 and 8, along with these prompts for the worship leader:

• Invitation: "Christ our Lord invites to his table all who love him, who earnestly repent of their sin and seek to live at peace with one another."
• Confession: "Therefore, let us confess our sin before God and one another."
• Pardon: "Hear the good news: Christ died for us while we were yet sinners; that proves God's love toward us. In the name of Christ, you are forgiven."
• Peace: "Let us offer signs of reconciliation and love."
• Offering: "As forgiven and reconciled people, let us offer ourselves and our gifts to God." 

In this order of worship, the offering immediately follows the passing of the peace because of Jesus's words in Matthew 5:23-24: "So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift."

Placing the offering between the sermon and Communion, as a link between the Word and the Table, is more than a restoration of an ancient practice. It is a way to live out the truth that our offerings -- that is, not just our money, but how we live our entire lives -- are presented as a response to God's revealed grace, as heard in the proclamation of the Word. These offerings also play a role in transforming the givers, preparing us for the work of the church in the world, asking God to be present in the ministry of healing, reconciliation, and forgiveness. Placing the offering after the sermon, whether or not you plan to celebrate Communion, can be a powerful reminder of these truths -- that our acts of grateful response are also transformational, for ourselves and for the world.

George Herbert on Inside-Out Worship Leadership

George Herbert was a priest in the Church of England who lived from 1593 to 1633. Before his untimely death he wrote a book about how to be a pastor of a church. It was published posthumously, with the pithy title of A Priest to the Temple, or, The Country Parson: His Character, and Rule of Holy Life.

Herbert was writing at a time when ideas about spirituality were shifting rapidly in the English-speaking world. Faith was becoming less something that you enacted or demonstrated in a corporate worship service; it was increasingly thought of as something that you primarily thought and/or felt internally. As the English Civil War was brewing in the early 17th century, and as dissenters against the state-sponsored church were combining forces, some Christian groups (like the Puritans) insisted that one's eternal soul was free from any forced or required demonstrations done in church. According to these folks, one's own spiritual status could be confirmed in a personal way, outside of the gaze of church and state.

Herbert wrote before those anti-establishment ideas were fully en vogue. But he already noticed the need for "authenticity" (my word, not his) in worship leadership. Take, for instance, his instructions to pastors who would lead their congregations in prayer, using outward actions to prompt internal affections. Remember, at this point the prayers were not made up by the pastor -- they were read word-for-word from the Book of Common Prayer:

The Country Parson, when he is to read divine services, composeth himself to all possible reverence; lifting up his heart and hands, and eyes, and using all other gestures which may express a hearty, and unfeigned devotion. This he doth, first, as being truly touched and amazed with the Majesty of God, before whom he then presents himself; yet not as himself alone, but as presenting with himself the whole Congregation, whose sins he then bears, and brings with his own to the heavenly altar to be bathed, and washed in the sacred Laver of Christ's blood. Secondly, as this is the true reason of his inward fear, so he is content to express this outwardly to the utmost of his power; that being first affected himself, he may affect also his people, knowing that no Sermon moves them so much to a reverence, which they forget again, when they come to pray, as a devout behavior in the very act of praying. Accordingly his voice is humble, his words treatable, and slow; yet not so slow neither, as to let the fervency of the supplicant hand and die between speaking, but with a grave liveliness, between fear and zeal, pausing yet pressing, he performs his duty.*

I would not change much of this advice for worship leaders today. For Herbert, the pastor's outward motions reflected an inward piety, and those very movements and gestures in turn encouraged the faith of others. The leader's role is to prompt a spiritual response in the worshippers, but this is not faked ("feigned" in Herbert's words) as a mere performance, because the pastor's own faith comes from a real (and internal) place.

Herbert, I believe, had a good grasp of human nature. We are neither unthinking animals nor disembodied spirits. Our minds (and its related powers of reason) work in a coordinated way with our "hearts" (think emotion and affections), and both of these aspects affect what we actually do with our bodies -- actions that can turn into habits, which in turn shape our will and affections. Some days we "feel" God more than we "know" God, and other days it is just the opposite. Worship is both a response to what God has done and a means to form our spirits to grow in faith. Those who lead worship need to recognize that faith is neither merely internal nor external; mind and body work together to express what we think and feel, even as these expressions strengthen our faith -- in ourselves and in others.

* Quotation taken from an edition of Herbert's works edited by John N. Wall, Jr., published by Paulist Press in 1981. Pages 60-1.