7 Points That Reveal Your Attitude About the Offering

When I start working with a church I always begin with how they take up the offering. Why? Your attitude about receiving the offering says everything about how you view biblical stewardship. Here is a true story.

During the last crisis, The Great Recession, a top 50 church engaged my services to help them reverse a -3% decline in giving. I met with each of their campus staff to ask questions and gather information. At the main campus, one staff member said, “Just as we get started in worship we have to stop and take up the offering.” For her, the offering was an interruption and a distraction from the worship she loved. I find this attitude is pervasive among staff members and many senior pastors.

The offering is not an interruption to worship. The offering is worship! You’ll never be financially stable as a church unless your attitude is correct when it comes to the offering. Does your staff need an attitude adjustment? Do you?

How to tell if you need an attitude adjustment about the offering. Here is my seven point list,

1. You don’t take up the offering at all. Guess what, churches that fail to take up an offering bring in 15% less than churches that do collect an offering.
2. You are more concerned with attracting guests than teaching biblical stewardship. Why would any church fail to receive the offering? The answer given would be to attract lost people. So, lost people determine your worship, not the Bible?
3. You apologize for taking up the offering. The apology goes like this, “If you are a guest with us this morning please don’t feel like you have to give. The offering is for our members.” Why do we feel we need to tell people not to worship if we truly have an attitude that the offering is worship?
4. The offering is an afterthought. Tell me how much time you put into planning out your offering time and you have a clear answer of how you truly feel about the offering. We give time to what we value.
5. The amount of time given for the offering in your services speaks volumes. Again, we give time to what we value.
6. Stopping worship for announcements doesn’t bother you like stopping your “worship” for the offering. Find announcements in the Bible. Yet the typical church spends more time announcing the upcoming pot luck than they do celebrating the joy of generosity.
7. You take up the offering weekly but haven’t changed how it’s received, when it’s received, or explained the offering in, well, forever. This is called a rut. The offering time is the greatest time to teach that disciples live generously as we live to be good stewards of what God has entrusted to us.

How a church staff handles the weekly offering tells me everything about where that church stands. The easiest way to increase giving at any church is to first and foremost have a high view of the offering. You and everyone in leadership, must see the offering as worship not an interruption to worship!

I can help you improve your offerings! I write each week for my clients a weekly offering talk. In 2 minutes or less we position the offering as a time of worship and invite everyone to participate. Here is a link on how you can join my offering talk club. https://acts17generosity.com/memberships/silver/

I also write manuals to help you improve your offering time with special offerings. Check out my latest manual, “Recovering the Lost Offering of COVID19.” https://acts17generosity.com/shop/recovering-the-lost-offering-of-covid-19/

Let me help you change your attitude about the offering and at the same time increase the amounts given to your offering!

Mark Brooks – The Stewardship Coach

@stewardshipman