We hope you find this new resource helpful as 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
August Theme: Jesus is our treasure
Scripture Focus: Hebrews 13:16
Key Point: We can join the ministry of a generous God.
Invitation: Rather than storing treasures, what if we were open-hearted and open-handed?
Sample Script (time: 1.5 minutes, not including giving instructions)
Hebrews 13: 16 NIV says, “And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.”
Why does the writer say, “Do not forget?” Maybe because we do forget in our distracted, busy lives. What should we not forget? Two things: to do good and to share with others.
Doing good refers to acts of kindness and service. This can be many things — a compliment, words of encouragement, watering your neighbor’s plants when they are out of town, returning the bins after trash pick-up, etc.
Sharing with others refers to our resources and possessions. The opposite of sharing is hoarding away for self. Rather than storing treasures, what if we were open-hearted and open-handed? What if we opened our houses to entertain others (even strangers)? What if we were intentional with our money, including our giving to our church and other causes that matter?
Living a service-oriented, generous life is a sacrifice that is pleasing to God. These actions and ways of being please God because they are a representation of who he is. And when we do these things, we are joining his ministry as his ambassadors.
Communion
August Theme: Jesus is our treasure
Scripture Focus: Colossians 3:1-2
Key Point: Communion gives us the beautiful opportunity to acknowledge who he is, who we are in him, and that he is our hope and our true treasure.
Invitation: As we take the bread and the cup, let us celebrate Christ as our hope and treasure. Let us give thanks for his saving grace.
Sample Script (time: 2 minutes, not including giving instructions)
We all have things we hold dear — family heirlooms, family members, family experiences. But none of this compares to the dearest thing we have, and that is Christ himself. Hebrews 11 lists a number of faithful people who understood where their real hope and treasure lay — in God himself. Jesus told us that where our heart is, our treasure is.
Paul reminded believers in Colossae what their true hope and treasure really is. It’s true for us too.
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on early things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Colossians 3:1-4 NIV
The sacrament of communion reminds us that Jesus is our true hope and treasure. He gave us his life — it reminds us he is the bread of life. He gives us reconciliation and forgiveness — it reminds us that his shed blood was sufficient for all. We aren’t saved by the sacrament of communion; we are saved by the who of communion — Jesus. Communion gives us the beautiful opportunity to acknowledge who he is, who we are in him, and that he is our hope and our true treasure.
