We’re doing a new thing

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You might notice something’s different about our service. We’ve made some changes to how we do the offertory and there are plenty of reasons why. If you want to know how and why it’s changed, read on.

“A few years ago I was worshipping in a rural church in East Anglia with my husband, and when it came to the offertory, we appeared to be two of the only people in the church who gave anything. I was a new Christian and unfamiliar with the ways of the church, so it made us feel a bit uncomfortable and confused.

Years later I’d realise that the rest of that congregation probably contributed via Standing Order, and so when the plate came round, it went straight past them. Ah so that explains it! But even once I understood this, something still bothered me. It seemed a shame that so many of the congregation didn’t take part. It didn’t seem to fit with the spirit of the thing.

I’ve also been to plenty of churches where the offertory plate isn’t passed at all. I’ve wanted to give, but being a visitor I’ve not expected it to stay at the back, and before I know it, the plate has zipped straight past me to the altar. I haven’t been able to contribute and have felt left out.

It seems no matter how a church does it, what goes on during this bit of the service reveals a lot about how we feel about publicly giving. Rachael Phillips, Generous Giving Project Officer

At our church, we’re going to use a resource developed by Durham Diocese’s Generous Giving Project, which we think will address a much broader set of issues we may have with the offertory. Because let’s face it, some of us wish we could get this awkward money bit out of the way as quickly and as discreetly as possible. Churches have devised plenty of ways of drawing our attention away from the money bit, whether it’s avoiding looking at the plate by reading the words in our hymn books, avoiding hearing the clatter of coins by singing those words loudly, or not passing the plate at all. Does any of this sound familiar?

But what if things were different? What if we properly celebrated this bit of the service that conjured up a sense of joyful giving, and prayerful gratitude? And could we use this time to better prepare ourselves for the next part of the service; Holy Communion?

So we’ve started using prayer tokens which act as symbols of generosity, no matter how you give, how often you give, how much you give or who you are. When you arrive in church, you’ll be asked to pick a prayer out of a basket, and when it gets to the offertory, as a whole church we’ll use these prayers.

On the front it says:

“This is a symbol of the different ways I give generously to serve others, and recognition of the many ways God gives generously to me.”

These words reflect that generosity comes in many forms such as hospitality, time, resources, skills and money. And central to the offertory, which happens just before the Eucharist when we give thanks for Jesus, is God’s generosity. That’s what this token also represents: what we’ve been freely given by God.

These tokens help us with…

 

1. Our Prayer. On the reverse side is a prayer. This helps us to see God in our giving. Some are prayers of thanks, while some ask God for help when we find giving hard.
2. Our Mission. Many prayers highlight the mission of the church. This might especially help those of us who don’t know what impact our generosity actually has, helping us to see how our generosity funds and enables things like clergy and lay training, stipends, mission activities, youth events, Messy Church resources, etc.
3. Our Inclusivity. They include everybody. We all choose a prayer card from a basket to put on the plate, regardless of how or what we give. Our prayer (our generosity) is blessed at the altar along with everyone else’s prayers and gifts. This helps us to understand that we all give something at some point and we’re all included in God’s generosity. Those who can’t give (because they forgot, they weren’t aware or they’re too poor) can take part in a church-wide blessing of generosity.
4. Our Participation. When the plate is blessed, instead of using the usual words, the vicar will pick a prayer from the plate at random each week and read it out. This means whoever chose that prayer gets to be part of the worship (and we get to hear something different each week).
5. And… Pause. We’re using the offertory as an opportunity to pause and think about all the ways God’s generosity and all the ways we have given generously of ourselves, including the gifts given today on the plate. As the plate comes around, and we’re holding our prayer card, we can think about all the ways we’re blessed and bless others. We’ll listen to a piece of music which will help us get into the right frame of mind. When the music ends, we’ll all be able to hear the prayer the vicar has chosen.

This new way of doing the offertory helps us to achieve a lot. From creating a clear and obvious link between the gifts we contribute and the mission of God’s church, to everyone getting to join in, to the pressure it could take off visitors or others who can’t give much or who can only give in other ways. We think celebrating the offertory like this would certainly help an outsider to see we’re a generous church worshipping a generous God.

So, just to remind you… when you walk into church, you’ll be asked to choose a prayer token from a basket, held out by the welcome team. When it comes to the offertory, we’ll listen to a piece of music, use our prayer to focus on what we’ve been given and what we’ve given of ourselves, and when the plate comes round, we’ll place it on the plate along with our usual method of giving. It’s as easy as that.

Printable A4 copy: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1c2f9zzYATVTC9n_nRSnkjDzA6Erg_4Kz 

Let’s Be Clear

Here’s a very brief video explanation of what I’ve written below.

Have you ever visited a church and been baffled by their quite-similar-but-different-enough-to-fox-you customs? You think you’re in a familiar setting, then BAM, something completely unexpected befuddles you.

On the surface, Anglican churches seem much of a muchness, don’t they, with pretty much the same customs going on each week? But dig a little deeper, and you reveal a fascinating gem: the weird and wonderful C of E. We know this. We love our eccentricities and anomalies, our irregularities and inconsistencies. It’s what makes us British.

I spent nearly a decade of my Army career as a cultural specialist studying people from other cultures, so church culture intrigues me. I learned that to study a people, it’s best to try and fit in. My capacity to fit in was rather limited in Afghanistan as I can’t grow much of a beard and I don’t suit a turban, but I had more luck in Bosnia, where I could easily blend in among market stall holders, in bars and in cafes. Plus, when speaking Bosnian, my accent, I’m told, is very similar to that of a Slovenian. The first time I heard this I was delighted.

I digress.

But going ‘undercover’ in church isn’t simple at all. I’ve been worshipping long enough now to know my way around, but almost every time I go to a new church (most weeks in this job) there’s inevitably something strange that crops up that outs me as the outsider that I am.

I say the wrong version of the Lord’s Prayer, or accidentally and loudly continuing with the liturgy, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest,” only to find I’m in a church that stops at the previous Hosanna (we’ve all been there, right?).

I sing the wrong tune to the Gloria, or I expect the full Nicene Creed, but it’s an alternative Affirmation of Faith that I don’t know the words to.

I don’t exit the pew properly for Communion (the backwards shuffle into a reverse queue, or just joining the line like at Tesco?), or I’m in an Evangelical church and get completely confused when extra choruses and verses of the worship song are thrown in unexpectedly, and contrary to the words on the screen. Or worse, the worship band improvises their own words.

There’s always something that catches me. It makes me feel really awkward.

But what confounds me the most is being caught out by the offertory/ offering/ collection (delete as appropriate, because these terms are another thing we differ on).

When I’m visiting a different church and I’ve remembered to bring money, I want to contribute this money to the work of the church. So when the plate doesn’t even come round, and instead zooms up to the front, minus my contribution, I feel quite upset. The regulars know to put their contribution on the plate on the way in, but those not in-the-know don’t know. It makes me feel awkward, stingy and like an outsider.

Equally, some visitors don’t even know an offering will take place so don’t bring anything to give. Other visitors have no idea what this practice is all about, and just see the church as “money grabbing” which puts them off, even if they have brought money.

It’s a real can of worms.

Being newish to church means I still maintain the perspective of the outsider, and so I’ve used this viewpoint to develop a really helpful resource for your church. With one A6 information card, your church can combat awkwardness and visitor distress by answering the what, when, why and how of the offertory.

Made available on every seat, or in every pew space, or handed out to everyone who comes through the door (new and old), this information card about the offertory uses plain and friendly English and a few images to explain what this bit of the service is about, what happens, when it occurs, why generosity is part of Christian faith and how someone can contribute if they wish/are able.

But the really important thing about this information card, is that it clearly states that guest/visitor is not expected to give money today. Contributions to the ongoing mission of the church are regularly made by church members.

This relieves the visitor from the awkwardness of not being able to give, or not knowing what it’s about, whilst serving to remind the body of the church (the regulars) that its mission is made possible by their contributions. Perhaps it will be a helpful and timely reminder to those who don’t feel that their contributions matter. Here in black and white, it states that they do matter.

These simple information cards include other helpful hints and tips and can be completely adapted and tweaked by your church to reflect your own quirks and oddities. This resource has been a popular idea at PCC meetings because of its simplicity and effectiveness as a communication tool. It isn’t meant to replace verbal messages about the offertory, it’s meant to supplement them!

This, like the other Generous Giving Project resources, is aimed at improving communication and getting the message across that God is generous and we as individuals and as a church are invited to be generous too. So taking the awkwardness out of this topic and making it plain and simple means that no-one is left wondering, or left out.

You can download four similar-but-different ready-made templates to get you started by clicking here.

And there you have it.

Here’s a sneak peak of the four double-sided templates. 

 

Edit the information to suit your needs. Then just print (on both sides, flip along short end), laminate, cut up and start sharing this important and helpful information.

 

What’s Going On In Church?

A lot happens in church that goes completely over my head. When I started attending a couple of years ago I was amazed at how strange it all was. Interesting rituals were taking place that everybody but me seemed to understand.

I became a Christian in Afghanistan and for my first 9 months I worshipped in tents in Army outposts in Helmand Province. Sometimes church was cancelled because the chaplain’s convoy got attacked or diverted. Sometimes I missed a service because I was out on patrol. At least out there I didn’t need to know anything about being an Anglican. I’m not sure I even knew that the word Anglican meant Church of England. I thought it was a window fitting company.

Does anyone else feel like me? Do you know your chasubles from your chancel? Do you know your charismatics from your cloisters? New Christians have a lot to learn. It’s a completely new vocabulary that often leaves us nodding along and smiling whilst inside wondering ‘Why does the colour of the vicar’s scarf keep changing?’

Just when I thought I’d got it, I realised that Anglo-Catholics have an entirely different vocabulary to Evangelicals and was back to square one. So I bought a Matt Redman CD, dug out my church dictionary, and began dropping in the word “fellowship” to sentences whenever I felt the urge.

But what if it’s not just new Christians who don’t always know what’s going on in church? Might there be people in our parishes who’ve been members of church for decades but couldn’t explain why we stand for the Gospel reading, why we do ‘the Peace’ or why the font is at the entrance of the church? Probably. And does anyone really understand what the offering is all about? This is a question I’ve been pondering myself.

Until quite recently, I had no idea that the money I put on the collection plate had anything to do with faith. I thought it was a bit like paying subs. It never occurred to me that I was taking part in an act of worship. Maybe that’s because in all the churches I’ve worshipped in, and that’s a lot as I travelled a lot in the army, this part of the service was…a bit…rushed? Awkward? Forgotten about?

I didn’t know that what I was actually doing when I fished around for the loose change in my handbag, was presenting to God a gift that said both ‘Thank you’ and ‘I love you’.

Then I realised that every week I’d been hearing a prayer which was key to this part of the service, but I’d never noticed:

“Yours, Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the splendour, and the majesty; for everything in heaven and on earth is yours. All things come from you, and of your own do we give you.”

Maybe I wasn’t concentrating, or I’d put it in the ‘don’t understand’ pile (with all the other new things that I was learning). But those words “All things come from you and of your own do we give you.” It was a spiritual act. It was about faith. The offertory was an act of worship and I’d missed it.

Then, to my great confusion, I learned that not everyone calls it the offertory. Some call it the offering and some say collection. These differences reflect the different traditions and ways Christians worship. This variety is wonderful, but it can be confusing! For example some say the offertory is the moment in the service when we are simply presenting our gifts of money, which represents us (the offering of ourselves) to be used for the Kingdom of God.

There’s a direct link between what I give, and the continuing work of the Church. This works for me, as I think everybody should have the chance to hear about God’s love and who Jesus is. It makes sense, especially when I think of why we pay Parish Share.

And some believe that when the offering is brought up with the elements (bread and wine), it represents the idea of us sacrificing what we have, as during Holy Communion (the Eucharist) we remember that Jesus sacrificed everything for us.

No doubt, even within these two ends of the spectrum there will be Christians who hold different views. To try and simplify it, so as far as I can tell, some see the offering as an offering of themselves, and others see it as our response to Jesus’ sacrifice. And no doubt many think it’s a bit of both, and perhaps many more (like me until recently) haven’t ever really considered its representation at all.

So what does it mean to you? Is our offering an acknowledgement of all that God has generously and freely given us? Are we offering ourselves on the plate for God’s work? Is our money offering more about the sacrifice we’ve made, as we lead on to the Eucharist and remember everything Jesus sacrificed for us? Or is it something else? What does this act of worship mean to us?

As for me, what changed my mind about the offering, was the sacrifice bit. That’s what converted my giving habits.

When I paused and reminded myself that Jesus literally gave up his life for me, (I often have to do this), I felt ashamed when I thought of my own offering. That’s a strong word but it’s exactly how I felt. A slightly older and much wiser Christian friend assured me that God isn’t into the shame game. He just loves me and always desires the best for me.

That’s comforting, but nonetheless, my attitude changed and I started thinking differently about my offering. It was not generous, was not a sacrifice, was not a representation of how grateful I am, or how I love Jesus. What I’d been giving before was an amount that could easily get lost in my untidy handbag. Since deciding to give generously I actually feel that I’m taking part in an act of worship, rather than paying subs. Now what I give is part of my relationship with God. It’s saying ‘Thank you’ and ‘I love you’.

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