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 October starters. In case you missed it: September 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
October Theme: We Cry, “Abba! Father!”
Scripture Focus: Romans 8:14–17 NRSVUE
Key Point: We give generously to support the sharing of the gospel so that others can see God as their Abba Father.
Invitation: Through our giving and our prayers, may God help us share the truth to our neighbors. He is their Father, and his greatest desire is to be in relationship with them.
Sample Script
Many people carry misconceptions about who God is. Some see him as a stern taskmaster with a long list of dos and don’ts. Others imagine him as distant and uninvolved, a judge eager to punish, a gift giver who exists to grant our wishes, or a vending machine who responds according to how many prayers or good works we put in.
These distorted pictures shape the way people respond to God. But the gospel tells a better story. In Jesus, we see the Father as he truly is: good, near, loving, and full of grace. Through our missions and ministries, we join Jesus in helping our neighbors and community discover that they are already loved by God and invited into relationship with him.
Romans 8:14–17 reminds us:
14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Romans 8:14–17 NRSVUE
This is the good news we support through our giving: God is not a distant force or harsh judge. He is our Abba Father, and by the Spirit, we are his beloved children. We give generously because we want others to know this same Father, to experience his love, and to find their place in his family. As we give today, we participate in Jesus’ mission to make the Father known.
Prayer.
Communion
October Theme: Our Rescuer
Scripture Focus: Romans 7:24 NIV
Key Point: Who will rescue us? Let us give thanks to God for saving us through Jesus our Lord.
Invitation: May we receive the bread in thanksgiving remembering that Jesus has rescued us from the body of death. He has united us into his own body, which is symbolized by this bread. May we receive the cup in thanksgiving remembering that he has paid the price for all our sins, weaknesses, and failures. He has invited us to partake of his sinless life and his perfect right relationship with his Father.
Sample Script
For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do — this I keep on doing. Romans 7:18b–19 NIV
Paul names what every believer knows: the painful gap between our desire to do good and our inability to consistently carry it out. We know what is right, yet we stumble. We want to love, forgive, and obey, yet we still fall into old habits, patterns, and thoughts.
24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Romans 7:24 NIV
At times, we cry out with Paul, “Who will rescue me?” Who will rescue me from this sin, this fear, this anger, this shame, this thing I cannot seem to overcome? The answer is not found in our willpower, but in God’s grace.
25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! Romans 7:25 NIV
Communion reminds us of this good news: Jesus is our rescuer. Through him, we receive forgiveness, acceptance, compassion, and new life with the Father. He has rescued us from sin and death and united us to himself, one body formed by his love.
As we take the bread, we remember that we belong to the body of Christ, the Bread of Life. As we take the cup, we remember that through his blood we are thoroughly cleansed and made right with God.
So, we come to the table with gratitude and hope: Thank you, Father. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Spirit, for rescuing us, cleansing us, and giving us new life in you.
Prayer.
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