Churches everywhere are 100% comprised of humans, which gets messy. When I asked a friend if my book about church and money should have conflict, she asked me, “do you want anyone under 40 to read the book?” A shiny, polished view of the church won’t ring true.

A quick primer on ways churches can collect the offering when they can’t pass the plate

If you can’t pass the plate, you can still celebrate the offering during a livestream or virtual worship service. Start with gratitude to God, the giver of every good thing.

My gratitude teacher called me today. She lives in a group home, where she is recovering from COVID-19, an outbreak that infected her housemates also, leaving one dead. It’s a grim situation. Lament and gratitude aren’t mutually exclusive though.

How does the church encourage the spiritual discipline of giving without the offering plate?

Every church in Canada which is a registered charity can receive gifts online, either through the CanadaHelps website or through a donate button powered by CanadaHelps on your church’s website.

Believe it or not, I’ve met churches (note plural!) who need an elevator desperately, have the funds and won’t spend the money. It breaks my heart that these churches are excluding people like Stella.

Objections I’ve heard:

the money should go to missions instead

our church won’t be here in five years, why renovate?

we need to keep that money to support the church as we shrink

Add fear to this mix, a fear that deciding what to do with the reserve funds might cause more conflict than the church can handle.

While churches hope that donors like Stella carry on indefinitely, like the Queen, she is in fact mortal.  Have you asked Stella if she would like her legacy of caring to continue through a gift in her will?  She trusts the church.  Does the church trust Stella, believe that Stella is brave enough to have this conversation?  Remember that lots of charities ask Stella for money.  Will Stella know that the church would love to receive a bequest from her?  Ask.  Tell the story of what her gift will do.

To say MLK could preach is an obvious understatement. He knew full well the hatred and injustice in the world, yet he hung on to hope. He had courage.

Listening to MLK preach changed the way I delivered my plenary about celebrating the offering as an act of worship. I was braver than before.

Scraping layers of vintage paint offers lots of time to think.  Being me, I was thinking about cultural change in faith-based organizations.  It's a very similar undertaking. Some patches peel off easily, where the types of paint were totally incompatible and failed to stick.  Some paint had been there for decades and had NO intention of leaving.  I persisted.

What could be easier than repainting a bathroom, or changing an element of worship, or updating the website?  What could be harder?

Giving is such an important part of worship that it deserves words. Not just ‘the ushers will now come forward to collect the offering…’ and a cursory prayer, but a moment of genuine gratitude and celebration. Celebrate all the gifts, not just gifts from people sitting in the pews at the moment.