Emmanuel Enid [a Baptist church in Oklahoma] receives offerings in our four morning worship services the old fashioned way – we pass plates. Since coming as pastor of Emmanuel in 1992, it has been our standard practice to invite people in the auditorium to either give to the offering or receive from the offering. When we pass the plates we encourage those in financial need to take from the offering if they have genuine need. We only ask that they take the cash and leave the checks and the envelopes because those are checks made to Emmanuel, and they couldn’t cash them anyway. We also typically announce that if there is not enough cash in the plate to meet their need, they can see us after the service and we will see what we can do to help them financially. There are no restrictions. Members and guests are invited to take from the offering plate. Money can be taken by the same person every week for fifty-two weeks.
We mean what we say, and we have many stories of people who have been helped through our offering, sometimes in surprising fashions. One young lady who was in college stopped me one Sunday with tears in her eyes. She was an only child. Her only surviving parent and grandparent, her father, was dying of cancer. She was driving sixty miles one way from Stillwater every weekend to relieve her father’s caregiver. She could not afford the gas, and for the past several weeks she had been faithfully taking her gas money from the offering plate. Her father was not a believer in Christ, though she was, and after she told her dad what we had said about the offering, and what she was doing for gas money in order to get home to care for him, he said, “If that is what Christians are all about, then I want to be one.” Anyway, you can understand her tears.
Last Sunday a friend of mine told me at lunch that the lady in front of him took her hand and scooped up almost the entire offering, cash, checks, envelopes — everything. Obviously, that presents a problem, particularly if people are giving to Emmanuel in the form of checks. The problem is not so much that we will not receive the money (the Lord ultimately is in charge of meeting our needs, and we trust Him), but that we don’t look real professional if we have someone who has written a check and we have no record of receiving it and they have no record of it being cashed. On occasion we have had different individuals unsuccessfully try to cash checks at banks, and of course, we don’t press charges because we just assume there is a misunderstanding of what can and cannot be taken from the offering plate. It’s almost worth the adventure just to see the expression on the faces of bank employees when they are told that worship attenders at Emmanuel are encouraged to take what they need from the offering plate.
Anyway, Monday’s offering count was the lowest it has been in many months. Emmanuel takes no giving commitment cards. We do not emphasize the “tithe.” We tell people to give what the Holy Spirit leads them to give. For the past eighteen years in a row we have exceeded our church budget in receipts. Last year we exceeded it by a quarter of a million dollars. Around Thanksgiving however, we are always behind in budget receipts, sometimes to the tune of $200,000 to $300,000 dollars. Emmanuel has no guarantee that we will meet budget by the end of the year, and we make no special emphasis — but somehow, someway, God has provided.
After my friend told me about the woman who emptied everything from the offering plate, and after I received the news of the low offering this past Sunday, I found myself thinking through our practice of encouraging people to take from the offering plate. After a little reflection, I came up with the reasons why we will not change a thing.
(1). God is quite capable of meeting our needs as a church ministry as He sees fit.
(2). If we ever fall short in our missions and ministry budget, we will cut our budget to reflect the giving we have received (or not received). The people of Emmanuel, having been filled by the Spirit, will give precisely what the Spirit leads them to give and take what the Spirit leads them to take. The answer is not for leaders to demand more, but for leaders to trust more.
(3). Trust in God involves trusting Him to work in the lives of those who give to and of those who receive from Emmanuel. Sure, people can abuse the offering, misuse the church’s generosity, and take money from the offering plate for things that some might not consider appropriate, but our God is big enough to handle His people. He neither needs our control or demands our micromanagement.
(4). Thanksgiving reminds us not only to give thanks, but to be thankful for giving. Too many of us are so accustomed to being on the receiving end that the concept of churches being the initiators of giving has been lost.
(5). In time, the lives of people are changed by the love involved in giving, not the control needed in taking.
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Adaptation used by David Holwick in a sermon:
Emmanuel Enid is a large Baptist church in Oklahoma. By “large” I mean they have four morning worship services. Sometimes they are $300,000 behind in their annual budget – that would be how much we raise for an entire year.
Even so, they have a very interesting tradition. When they pass the plates to take up the collection, people are invited to either give to the offering or receive from it.
Those who are having a hard time financially are encouraged to take money out of the plate if they have a genuine need. The church even announces that if your pew’s plate doesn’t have enough cash in it for you, talk to them after the service. There are no restrictions – members and guests alike can dip in. Money can be taken by the same person every week for 52 weeks.
Some people get a little too enthusiastic. Recently a member saw a woman scoop out the entire contents of the plate – cash, checks, and envelopes. That creates a problem because the church won’t have a record of what people contributed, and the woman wouldn’t be able to cash the checks anyway.
Though some have tried. On occasion they have had banks call them up and say someone is trying to cash a check from one of the church members. The church never presses charges and explains it is just a misunderstanding of what people can take out of the plates. The eyes of the bank employees always get real big when the pastor tells them attenders can take what they need from the offering.
The leaders have heard many stories of people who have been helped, sometimes in surprising fashions. One young woman who was in college stopped the pastor one Sunday with tears in her eyes. She was an only child. Her only surviving parent, her father, was dying of cancer. She was driving sixty miles one way every weekend to relieve her father’s caregiver.
She could not afford the gas, and for the past several weeks she had been faithfully taking her gas money from the offering plate. She was a believer in Christ but her father was not. After she told her dad what the pastor had said about the offering, and what she was doing for gas money in order to get home to care for him, he said, “If that is what Christians are all about, then I want to be one.” You can understand her tears.
Emmanuel Enid doesn’t pressure people about giving, even when the church falls behind in its budget. They don’t emphasize tithing. They tell people to give what the Holy Spirit leads them to give.
Here is their guiding philosophy:
(1) God is quite capable of meeting their needs as He sees fit.
(2) If they ever fall short in their budget, they cut the budget to reflect the giving they have received (or not received). In this situation, the answer is not for the leaders to demand more, but for the leaders to trust more.
(3) Trust in God involves trusting Him to work in the lives of those who participate in their church. They know that some people will abuse the generosity – they will let God handle those people.
(4) Thanksgiving reminds them not only to give thanks, but to be thankful for giving. As Jesus himself said, it is more blessed to give than to receive.
Who are you going to bless this Thanksgiving with the bounty God has given you?