It's time to do away with the church offering plate!

It was Sunday morning and our church family was having “Friend Day.”  It was a Sunday that we had encouraged everyone to invite their friends, who didn’t participate with a church, to come and join them.   We planned everything that day to make our special guests feel welcome.  We decided that we wouldn’t pass an offering plate that morning because we didn’t want our guests to feel compelled to give—we simply wanted them to feel welcome.   Instead, we set a box out for the church family to give.  I remember making a passing comment to a fellow church leader later that day, after the service was over, that I wished we never had to pass the offering plate and he replied, “Why do we?”   I don’t remember clearly how it went from there but that was the last time we took up our general, weekly offering using offering plates.  Today we have secure offering boxes mounted in our facility and people give using them.

Over the years I’ve reflected often on that Sunday morning and how it changed our church family.  I don’t think it’s necessarily wrong to pass an offering plate, we still do for special offerings on special occasions.

I’d like to offer four reasons to encourage church leaders everywhere to make the same decision we did twenty-five plus years ago, that is, do away with the weekly offering plate.

Giving was never meant to be an act of corporate worship.  In Jesus’ day, religious people loved to tout their benevolent giving.  They wanted people to see them give and to know how much they were giving.   So in His sermon on the mount, Jesus taught his followers, “When you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:3-4).  Now I don’t think that Jesus was saying it’s wrong if someone sees you giving.  His issue is obviously with the motive behind their giving.  At the very least Jesus is telling us that giving isn’t meant to be an act of corporate worship, but rather an act of personal worship.  It’s between us and God.

Giving should never be something we compel people to do, and I suggest that the only reason we pass an offering plate is to make sure people do.  To the church at Corinth Paul writes, “Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7).  Paul even asked that they take up the offering he is calling for before he even gets there!  I have been to some churches where all the believers parade down to the front of the church, row by row, where offering baskets are placed on a table and they are expected to give.  From personal experience, I tell you the compulsion to give was intense--I didn’t want to be the only one not putting something in the basket.  On one occasion the pastor didn’t feel like we gave enough so he made us go around a second time.  Granted the compulsion to give as the offering plate comes around is not nearly that great, but nonetheless I have often felt the urge to give simply because I didn’t want people seeing me not giving and think I didn’t care.

Not passing offering plates teaches God’s people their responsibility to give systematically and sacrificially.  Some folks may read this and think I’m suggesting that we shouldn’t teach stewardship.  Please don’t misunderstand—nothing could be further from the truth.   I believe that as God’s people, we should be instructed to use every bit of money and resource God entrust to us as He instructs.  I believe our stewardship should begin with a tithe to our local church.  I believe as Paul says to the church at Corinth, my surplus is that I might help those in need, and vice versa.   When a church makes giving an act of personal obedience and worship, we strengthen that call and responsibility in the life of a believer.  As a church, we’ve made giving an act of personal worship for over two decades now, and consequently God’s people have learned their personal responsibility in stewardship.  Over the years our church family has always been amply supplied by the faithfulness of God’s people.  We’ve built several buildings debt free; and though we haven’t always made our budget, we’ve always given more than we’ve spent.  We allocate fifteen percent of our undesignated giving to missions and support several other mission endeavors beyond that.   On Sundays that we don’t meet our giving is not affected,  because people give systematically.  I say all that to show that when people understand God’s expectation of stewardship, they give as God directs whether you pass the offering plate or not.

A most compelling reason to not pass the offering plate is the affect it has on people who have yet to come to know Jesus.  I guess it’s due to TV preachers and evangelists, but most people outside the church think that all the church wants is their money.   I’ve heard that all my life as a ministry leader, and it was that sentiment exactly that led me to not want to pass the offering plate that first “Friend Day.”  I can’t tell you how many times in the last two decades people who are not involved with a church family have come to visit us, and have been impacted by our commitment to giving as an act of personal worship.  I’ve told many seekers over the years that God is not interested in their money but in them; yet at the same time, if they ever came to know Him they would gladly give Him their all.  So many churches have resorted to telling their guests, “As the offering plate passes, please don’t feel compelled to give.”  I understand that statement.  They are seeking to say to their guests,  “This isn’t about your money.”  However, as much as we want to communicate that reality, I believe guests often feel awkward and compelled otherwise.  So why not take that stumbling block away from someone who may be far from God?

So follower of Jesus, I urge you to give.  I encourage you to give graciously and willingly.  I challenge you to give systematically and sacrificially.   I exhort you to give because you love the Lord Jesus, as an act of personal worship.  And church leader, I urge you to give believers a chance to do all that without passing the offering plate!