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:
- 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
October Theme: Live Sacrificially
Scripture Focus: 2 Timothy 1:8–12
Key Point: The church is called to live sacrificially supporting those who proclaim Christ, ensuring the message continues to spread.
Invitation: Let’s choose to live sacrificially so that the light of the gospel continues to reach others!
Sample Script (time: 2.5 minutes, not including giving instructions)
So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God. He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day. 2 Timothy 1:8–12 NIV
Paul’s letter to Timothy reminds us that following Christ brings both suffering and joy. Paul endured persecution, imprisonment, and rejection, yet he held firm because he knew the gospel was worth everything.
The gospel reveals the greatest truth: Jesus destroyed death and brought eternal life. This is not only good news — it is the best news.
Paul was called to proclaim this message as a herald, apostle, and teacher. His ministry required sacrifice and resources, from travel to writing supplies. Today, ministers of the gospel continue this work, often at personal cost.
That is why the church is called to live sacrificially supporting those who proclaim Christ, ensuring the message continues to spread. Our offerings are first an act of worship to the God who gave us all things, and they also provide for the practical work of gospel ministry.
Let’s choose to live sacrificially so that the light of the gospel continues to reach others!
Communion
October Theme: Remember His Work
Scripture Focus: 2 Timothy 2:8–13
Key Point: When hardships arise, remember the work of Jesus, “Who saved us and called us with a holy calling … who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”
Invitation: May the bread we receive remind us that no matter what we face Jesus is always our bread of life and it is in him that we have life. May the cup remind us that he willingly went through hardship for us — proving his never-ending love for us.
Sample Script (time: 2 minutes, not including giving instructions)
In his second letter to his protégé, Timothy, Paul continues to point Timothy to Jesus. He reminded Timothy in an earlier part of the letter that God gave us a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline. Then he told Timothy that when suffering occurs and trials rise, to remember the work of Jesus, who abolished death and brings life. These words of encouragement for Timothy are just as valuable for us today as we face our own trials. We have the Spirit in us, which is not a spirit of fear, but reminds us of the power we have because we are in Christ. Communion reminds us we are one body with Christ. We are invited to share in Christ’s sufferings as well as to share in the sufferings of our brothers and sisters. We need the bread of life and the cup of forgiveness.
As Paul said to Timothy:
The saying is sure: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he will also deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful—he cannot deny himself. 2 Timothy 2:11–13 NRSVUE
Jesus did not promise us a life free of suffering; what he did promise was that he would always be with us through that suffering. As we partake of the bread and the cup, we are called to remember his life, death, resurrection, and ascension. All of it was for us.
