You must make time and give time to have a successful offering. The time and effort you put into your weekly offering says everything about how you value the offering.
So, let me ask you a question? How much time this week have you spent planning for the offering?
The typical church spends little to no time planning out the offering. Isn’t that curious when every other element of our service is planned? Imagine arriving at church a few minutes before the service starts and only then planning out the service. What if you waited until Sunday morning to start sermon prep? What would you say if your worship leader decided at the last minute what to sing? What if everyone who serves in your church waited until the last minute to think about how to do their task? How successful do you think the day would go?
We put time and effort into the planning of our service so why would we NOT spend some time planning out the part of worship that is the offering?
Long ago I realized we spend time on what we value. In fact in our day and age there are two cherished commodities, time and money. I used to say I could tell what was important to someone by looking at their checkbook and their day timer. Those are tools of the last century but you get my point. The same can be said about the offering. If you don’t put in the time and effort to make the offering meaningful and worshipful don’t be surprised this July when the Church Treasurer tells you she can’t pay you.
How do you go about planning for an offering? Here are some recommendations…
- Designate at least thirty minutes of your week thinking about and planning for that week’s offering. If you have a staff make this a weekly part of your staff meeting.
- As part of your planning always review the last offering. What worked and what did not work? How can we make the offering better?
- As you think about your offering time asked, “What missions or ministries can we highlight and focus upon?” You want to show people what their money does, changing lives for good.
- Craft the “story” of the offering. You have about sixty seconds as the usher come forward to share why the offering is important. Write a brief offering talk or get one of mine!
- Decide who will “take up” the offering. Decide where in the service is the best place for the offering.
- Finish your planning time by spending time praying for the success of the offering. Every person on staff should know what you need weekly to make budget and that amount should be on their prayer list.
Giving time planning the offering is one thing but you must make time FOR the offering in each and every service. When you properly value the offering as an essential part of the worship service you will never allow it to be crowded out with announcements or other things that seem more important at the time. Just ask your staff if they want to get paid in July and watch how they turn their attention to making sure the offering always gets the time it deserves. Again, we plan for what we deem important and we give time for what we value.
So, every week when it comes to the offering…
Think, plan, pray and execute! If you will make time and give time to your offerings you WILL see an increase in giving.
Mark Brooks – The Stewardship Coach