We’re pleased to offer a new resource to help you prepare for the time of giving and taking communion in your Hope Avenue. These are meaningful formational practices that we can plan with care and intentionality.
How to Use This Resource
An outline is provided for you to use as a guide, followed by a sample script. Both the offering moment and communion can be presented as a short reflection before the congregation participates. Here’s how to use it effectively:
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- Scripture Reflection: Include the relevant Scripture to root the offering and communion in biblical teaching.
- Key Point and Invitation: Briefly highlight the theme’s key point and offer an invitation that connects the theme to the practice.
- Prayer: Include a short prayer that aligns with the theme. Invite God to bless the gifts and the givers. Ask God to bless the bread and the wine and the partakers.
- Logistics: Explain the process; this helps everyone know how they can participate. For giving, indicate whether baskets will be passed, if there are designated offering boxes, or if digital options like text-to-give or web giving are available. Clearly explain how the communion elements will be shared and that participation is voluntary.
- Encouragement: For the giving moment, invite congregants to reflect on their role in supporting the church’s mission, reminding them that their gifts impact both local and global ministry. For communion, encourage congregants to express gratitude for Jesus’ love poured out for us and the unity present in the body of Christ.
For more information, see Church Hack: Offering and Church Hack: Communion
Offering
January Theme: Unity in Giving
Scripture Focus: 1 Corinthians 16:1-3
Key Point: This offering moment highlights Paul’s guidance on giving as a practice shared across early churches. Just as the New Testament church collected offerings in unity, we are invited to join in this same spirit of peace, unity, and purpose. Giving together strengthens our bonds as the body of Christ and supports the mission of the church both locally and globally.
Invitation: “As we give today, let’s join together in unity, celebrating that our offerings help sustain the work of God’s church, near and far.”
Sample Script (time: 2-3 minutes, not including giving instructions)
In some parts of the Bible, we find clear guidance on practical matters in the church. The apostle Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth gives us such direction when it comes to offerings.
In 1 Corinthians 16, Paul says:
Now concerning the collection for the saints: you should follow the directions I gave to the churches of Galatia. On the first day of every week, each of you is to put aside and save whatever extra you earn, so that collections need not be taken when I come. And when I arrive, I will send any whom you approve with letters to take your gift to Jerusalem. 1 Corinthians 16:1-3
A few things stand out in Paul’s instruction:
Unity in Practice: Paul had given the same guidance to the church in Galatia. Collecting offerings was a practice across the early church. In this letter, Paul also emphasizes doing things ‘decently and in order,’ in peace and without confusion. This model encourages us to offer our gifts in a spirit of unity and peace today.
Prepared and Purposeful Giving: Paul says, ‘each of you,’ suggesting that this practice was meant for all believers. This guidance invites us to prepare and plan our giving thoughtfully. While spontaneous generosity is beautiful and welcome, regular giving can be something we pray over and reflect on in advance.
Supporting Both Local and Distant Needs: The specific offering Paul describes here was intended for the persecuted church in Jerusalem. Paul’s example shows us that a healthy church is a giving church — one that meets needs both close to home and in the wider community of believers.
As we prepare to give today, may we do so with hearts centered on Jesus and with an understanding of how our giving joins us in the larger work of Christ’s body. Our offering here is a reflection of God’s love and provision, shared freely and joyfully.
Communion
January Theme: Trusting Jesus, Our All-Sufficient Savior
Scripture Focus: 1 Corinthians 12:12-13
Key Points: Jesus, as the light of the world, reconciles us to the Father, taking what doesn’t bear His image and making it new. In doing so, He makes us one body — united in His life and love.
Invitation: “Let us be reminded that we can always and forever trust Jesus to call us, guide us, accept us into His body, and love us for eternity.”
Sample Script (time: about 2 minutes, not including giving instructions)
During this season of Epiphany, we focus on Jesus being the light of the world — a light that not only exposes darkness but replaces it — all of it. How does he replace it? By being our all-sufficient Savior. By not only dying on our behalf for us to be reconciled to our Father, but also by taking everything in our lives that does not bear His image and redeeming it. He then tells us there is only one body, and we are part of it.
Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form on body — whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 1 Corinthians 12:12-13
When we share in communion, we are acknowledging two amazing truths. One, Jesus offers us His life — the bread of life — and reminds us we are now part of that life — His life, the one body. And two, Jesus offers us the cup of love — or as Paul called it, “the cup of thanksgiving” — reminding us that we are part of that one body because He is our Savior. Let us be reminded that we can always and forever trust Jesus to call us, guide us, accept us into his body, and love us for eternity.
Thanks. This is really helpful