Last year, 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.
The Communion and Offering Starters are posted a month ahead, like the sermon resources. Below are the April starters. In case you missed it: March Starters are here.
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
April Theme: Offering a Sacrifice of Praise
Scripture Focus: Hebrews 13:15–16 NIV
Key Point: God is looking for offerings with the right response of a heart pointed to him, resulting in a sacrifice of prayer and doing good to others.
Invitation: Our giving is our heart response of praise for all Jesus has done for us and for the invitation he’s given us to participate with him in sharing our blessings and doing good to others.
Sample Script (time: 2 minutes, not including giving instructions)
Our offerings are part of our worship. We do not give because we must, or because we believe we are seeking God’s approval; we give because we are in awe of all Father, Son and Spirit has done, is doing, and will do for us.
Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise — the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. Hebrews 13:15–16 NIV
His love for us has changed the way we think about him. It’s changed the way we think about ourselves, and it’s changed the way we think about others. We no longer see God as a stern judge who is looking for fault, but as a loving Abba, Father who unconditionally loves us, and proved it by coming to us and becoming one of us. We no longer see ourselves as lost sinners, rather we see ourselves as his beloved who still struggle with the pulls of the flesh. And when we succumb, we do not beat ourselves up and run, we turn to him for his mercy and grace, which he pours out in abundance. We see others differently. It’s not us and them; it’s just us created in his image. All are offered grace, all are invited to participate in the communion shared by Father, Son, and Spirit. This compels us to do good and share our story about how our relationship with God has changed us. This is why we give; it’s an act of worship. It’s our sacrifice of praise.
Prayer
Communion
April Theme: Obtaining Eternal Redemption
Scripture Focus: Hebrews 9:11–15 NIV
Key Point: As the perfect High Priest, Jesus gave his life for all, and the blood of our Lord gives us the promise of our eternal inheritance.
Invitation: May we receive the bread remembering that Jesus’ body is given for us; to cleanse us so we can serve God without shame and guilt. May we receive the cup remembering that his sacrifice frees us from sin and offers us an eternal inheritance.
Sample Script (time: 2 minutes, not including giving instructions)
But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. Hebrews 9:11–15 NIV
We learn in Hebrews that Jesus was not only the ultimate High Priest, but he himself is the tabernacle — a tabernacle not made of hands, but one from above. Thus, his sacrifice is different than any offering from the law.
The Israelite high priests could only enter the Holy of Holies once a year after a series of blood offerings. Jesus entered as the ultimate sacrifice, shedding his own blood, giving his own life. His entering the Holy of Holies was not to give a once-a-year sacrifice but was to fulfill one sacrifice for all, for all eternity “… thus obtaining eternal redemption.“
His shed blood did not offer just a temporary redemption, but an eternal one, cleansing us from all sins — past, present, and future. He gave us new life, so we stand forgiven in Jesus before Father.
We take the bread remembering that Jesus gave his body to us so that we could not only be joined to him but be part of his Body, the Church. Communion is a beautiful reminder: Jesus includes us in the communion he shares with the Father and the Spirit. When we take cup, we remember that Jesus not only gave us a temporary feeling of being right with God, but he also made us right with the Father for all eternity.
Prayer
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