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 May starters. In case you missed it: April 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
May Theme: Preparing the Way
Scripture Focus: John 14:2–3
Key Point: Jesus told us he has prepared the way for us to enter the kingdom of God. He has invited us to participate in preparing the way for others too.
Invitation: May our offerings reflect our desire to be where Jesus is, to go where he has prepared for us to go, and to participate with him in preparing the way for others to know him. There are many rooms in the Father’s house, and we have the opportunity to join Jesus in his invitation to fill those rooms with his beloved. May our giving be a testament to our desire to fill the Father’s house.
Sample Script
2 In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.
We prepare our homes for guests. We clean. We may plan a special meal. We want our guests to feel more comfortable and provided for. We prepare their room so they will feel welcome.
Jesus has prepared our room in the Father’s house. While it may not be an actual room, what he is telling us is that we are expected, we are wanted, we are welcome.
Isn’t this the same message we want guests to our congregations and small groups to hear? You are welcome, you are expected, you are wanted. We go to great lengths to help visitors and guests feel like they belong. We prepare the way.
May our offerings reflect our desire to prepare the way for others, not just to join us in our congregation, but to learn who Jesus us and who they are in him. May we be focused on preparing living in a kingdom culture in our congregations and small groups. Kingdom living is making others feel welcome, wanted, and appreciated. May we be known for preparing the way.
Prayer
Communion
May Theme: The Empty Tomb
Scripture Focus: John 20:1b-2
Key Point: Communion is not only remembering a crucifixion but also remembering that the resurrected Jesus is our life and our blessing.
Invitation: May the bread we receive remind us that our life is in Jesus. Our resurrected Lord lives in us through the Holy Spirit. The cup is called the cup of blessing because it reminds us that we are forgiven; we have been cleansed by the blood of the lamb of God. Our sins are removed as far as the east is from the west.
Sample Script
Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”
The tomb was empty. Mary tells Peter and John. They tell other disciples that the tomb is empty. And news of the empty tomb spread to many.
Still today people travel across the world to see this tomb. It’s the only tomb to be famous, not for who is buried there, but because it is empty.
The empty tomb is a reminder that Jesus is not dead and buried, he is alive. His resurrection is truth. It is the resurrected Lord that we follow, that we worship. It is the resurrected Lord who lives in us through the Holy Spirit. And it is the resurrected Lord who gives us life – a real life, eternal life.
Participating in communion reminds us we worship, serve, and follow a living Lord. The bread we receive is a reminder that our life is in him. The cup we receive reminds us that he has made us worthy by cleansing us of all that is not in alignment with our true identity.
Prayer
Please note that comments are moderated. Your comment will not appear until it is reviewed.