In January we introduced 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
March Theme: Giving as Worship
Scripture Focus: 2 Corinthians 8:9
Key Point: Here, the focus is on Jesus as our model of giving. His self-sacrifice invites us to give freely, not out of obligation but as an act of worship. This offering moment reminds us that giving is part of our devotion, much like prayer or worship songs, and it comes from a heart shaped by Christ’s grace.
Invitation: As we give today, let’s remember that this act of generosity is an act of worship, joyfully done in response to Christ’s love for us.
Sample Script (time: 1.5 minutes, not including giving instructions)
No other section of Scripture offers more guidance on giving in the church than 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9. I encourage you to spend time reading through it.
This sacred act of giving is not about coercion, nor is it a transaction where giving obligates God to bless us. Sadly, there have been times in the greater church when giving was misrepresented in ways that don’t reflect God’s heart. From these missteps, we learn how not to approach giving.
Instead, we look to Jesus as our example.
In 2 Corinthians 8:9, we read:
For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.
We give because we follow in the steps of Jesus.
Our giving flows from the abundance we have in Christ, which brings a deeper joy within us. In giving, we experience the truth that it is indeed more blessed to give than to receive. This discipline shapes us into cheerful and faithful givers.
As we prepare to give today, let’s remember that giving is an act of worship. Just as we pray, read Scripture, sing hymns, and receive the word with reverence, we approach our offering with the same spirit of devotion. May our giving today be filled with joy as we engage in this sacred act, reflecting the love of Christ who gave everything for us.
Communion
March Theme: Christ’s Sacrifice and Our Confident Hope
Scripture Focus: 2 Corinthians 5:17-18
Key Point: In the taking of communion, we remember Jesus’ sacrifice and His power to make us new creations. His love brought Him to the cross, reconciling us to the Father and giving us confident hope in His resurrection. Communion reminds us of our need for Him and the truth of our new identity in Christ.
Invitation: As we take the bread, let us remember the life we have in Christ. As we take the cup, let us remember the hope we have because of his love. Let us give thanks for his sacrifice and confident hope.
Sample Script (time: 1.5 minutes, not including giving instructions)
The season of Easter Preparation reminds us that Jesus is our constant hope. Just as he went into the wilderness to be strengthened and encouraged for the ministry he was about to begin and to keep focused on his purpose, we spend this season of Easter Prep asking God to keep us focused on the center of the center, Jesus Christ.
We ask God to help us remember our true identity, as Paul emphasized in his 2nd letter to believers in Corinth:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ who gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
Because of his love for us, Jesus chose to go to the cross and share his life and his blood with us, reconciling us to Father, Son, and Spirit. He is the ultimate sacrifice that reconciled the world to the Father. He is now our reminder that we have a new identity. He is our confident hope that God has us in his hands and nothing – no thing – can snatch us out of those hands.
The season of Easter Preparation keeps us focused on our need for Jesus, and the truth that he is our one and only Hope — but we can be confident in that hope because of the cross and his resurrection. The bread and the cup remind us why we hope — because of Jesus and his great love for us.
