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 July starters. In case you missed it: June 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
July Theme: Joyfulness and Gentleness Bring Peace to Our Neighbors
Scripture Focus: Philippians 4:4–7 NRSVUE
Key Point: Our joyfulness and our gentle approach to our neighbors lead them to that peace which surpasses understanding.
Invitation: May our giving reflect the joy we have in sharing God’s love and life with our neighbors. May we be gentle in our approach. May the results of our missions and ministry bring peace to our neighbors.
Sample Script
4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:4–7 NRSVUE
Rejoice in the Lord always. We’ve been invited to join Jesus and participate in what he’s doing in our neighborhoods. It’s not our mission or ministry — it’s his — and we join him with joy.
Let your gentleness be known to everyone. We don’t go out with hellfire warnings; we witness to God’s love. We want our neighbors to know the One who knows and loves them and to see that God is for them. Joyful participation with Jesus shapes a gentle approach as we reach out.
Take your requests and thanksgiving to God. Are we thanking God for placing us in this neighborhood? Are we joyful to share his goodness? Are we gentle in our approach?
May God bless our offerings so our missions and ministry reflect kingdom living. May he fill us with joy, guide us in gentleness, and calm our anxieties as we share the good news. And may he give us his peace to guard our hearts and minds in Jesus Christ.
Prayer
Communion
July Theme: Becoming like Christ in His Death
Scripture Focus: Philippians 3:10–11 NRSVUE
Key Point: We come to the table with the heart-felt desire to know Jesus and to share in his heart toward others.
Invitation: May we receive the broken bread in remembrance of what Jesus was willing to go through for each and every one of us. May we receive the cup in remembrance of the ultimate cost of our forgiveness and reconciliation with the Father. And may we receive both with the desire to love as he loves.
Sample Script
As Jesus stood before his disciples on the eve of what we call the Last Supper, he knew what he was going to face over the next few hours. But he also knew what they were going to face in the years to come. One can only imagine the love pouring out from his eyes as he looked around. Most of them would be martyrs for him, but he knew his resurrection was also their resurrection.
In the days that followed, the disciples’ love for him grew exponentially. They came to realize that when he offered them the bread and the cup, he was inviting them to join him and participate in his mission and ministry. They spent the rest of their lives seeking to know him more.
Years later, Paul expressed this same desire to know Christ above all else. He said everything was loss except for knowing Jesus. All good, all hope, all righteousness comes from our faith in Jesus. Paul participated in Jesus’ suffering heart for the world, and so do we. We love the world because he loved the world. We join him in his suffering heart for so many who live in darkness.
10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, 11 if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Philippians 3:10–11 NRSVUE
Let us come to the table and receive Christ.
Prayer
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