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 November starters. In case you missed it: October 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
November Theme: Providing a Place of Refuge
Scripture Focus: Psalm 107:4–7 NRSVA
Key Point: Many are crying out to the Lord, seeking light in the midst of darkness, hope in the midst of despair, refuge in the midst of wandering. God invites them to take refuge in his Body, the Church.
Invitation: May our congregation be a place of refuge for those seeking delivery, light, and spiritual sustenance. May we be the place God leads them to.
Sample Script
The psalmist seemed to be talking about our era and our neighborhood when he wrote the following:
Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to an inhabited town; hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress; he led them by a straight way, until they reached an inhabited town. Psalm 107:4–7 NRSVA
This certainly describes society today. There is so much confusion, so much darkness, leading to so many questions. It may seem as though the psalmist is describing your life. You may find yourself in darkness, longing for light. You may be spiritually hungry and thirsty, searching for answers. You cry out to God for deliverance, and where does he lead you? To himself, to his body, to this congregation. In his body, we see his light and discover that we can walk out of darkness with him. In his body, we partake of his Word and find our spiritual hunger satisfied. In his body, we experience deliverance.
Friends, this is what we pray our giving provides for others. May our missions and our ministries be part of our kingdom living as we share his love and life with others. May the Lord lead them by a straight way right to this home, where they can find answers to their questions, where they can see light in the midst of darkness, and where they can meet others who willingly join them on a journey to living in and for him.
Prayer
Communion
November Theme: Taste and See the Goodness of God
Scripture Focus: Psalm 34:6–8 NRSVA
Key Point: Through eating the bread and drinking the fruit of the vine, we use taste to be reminded of the goodness of God.
Invitation: Taste the bread and be reminded that Christ is in you. Taste the fruit of the vine and be reminded of your forgiveness and redemption. Each time we participate in communion we are reliving the words of Psalm 34:8: “Oh taste and see that the Lord is good; happy are those who take refuge in him.”
Sample Script
All through the scriptures, we see that God understands what life is like. He knows we face good and bad times. He knows we have good and bad memories. He knows we’ve gone through trials and experienced blessings. He knows our sorrow and joy, pain and peace. The psalmist wrote of the many emotions we face. And the consistent message through the Psalms is to turn to God.
Jesus himself experienced all the emotions we face. He had sorrow and joy, pain and peace, weakness and strength. He laughed and he cried. And he continually looked to the Father for whatever he needed.
In Psalm 34, the psalmist is sharing a time when God delivered him from trouble.
This poor soul cried and was heard by the Lord and was saved from every trouble. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them. O taste and see that the Lord is good; happy are those who take refuge in him. Psalm 34:6–8 NRSVA
When we taste the bread of communion, we are using one of our senses to remember that God is good. He is the bread of life who gives his life for us so that we can live in him.
When we taste the fruit of the vine, we are using the same sense to remember that God is merciful. He has forgiven us, redeemed us, and adopted us as his own.
Come to the table and taste and see that the Lord is good.
Prayer
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