Some time ago, a visitor to Living Water asked me when we were going to take an offering.  He assumed we take an offering once a month since he hadn’t seen “the plate” passed in three weeks.  I told him that we do not take formal offerings at Living Water, and have not since the founding of the church.  He looked at me with a surprised look.  “How do you meet the material needs of the church, let alone the community needs?” he asked.  We were standing in the foyer near the offering box, so I pointed to it.  I told him that it was our desire at Living Water that giving be planned and intentional for those who call us their home.  Not only that, but we desire that our guests experience the worship service without any feelings of pressure to give.  “Sometimes passing the plate seems like a polite stick-up,” I said.  He agreed, and was amazed that we had been faithful from our founding to this practice,  when it seemed logical to him that passing a plate would undoubtedly bring in more money.

Not long after that, another person, who was also new to Living Water, wondered why we placed the offering box out in the foyer on a cluttered table, seeming to disassociate giving from the worship service.  He thought that the offering box should be inside the sanctuary where people could give as an act of worship within the worship service.    For him, I had no answer.  His was a great question that the elders have since wrestled over for a few months.  Because we do affirm giving as an act of worship at Living Water, we began to consider how to make giving more a part of the worship service while remaining true to our original conviction that giving ought to be a planned and willful decision for every believer.

Below are the principles that we affirm at Living Water pertaining to giving:

Giving is an Act of Worship

We do believe that giving is an act of worship (Matt 5:23-24; Luke 12:32-34).  Worship itself is that inner essence of valuing God as infinitely more valuable than all other things.   The outer essence of this comes in many forms (i.e. prayer, singing to the Lord, giving, sharing the Lord’s supper, preaching and hearing the Word of God, and so on).  A person who inwardly worships God above all other things will show it in these outward forms; any acts that reveal the inner essence, or that reveal how much we treasure Jesus Christ.   All of life is in fact meant to show forth the fact that we value God above all things.  I Cor 10:31 says, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Because money, and all the things we buy with money, take such a prominent place in our lives, they, in many ways, can be some of the biggest areas for showing that we do in fact treasure Christ more.  We can show by the way we get money, use money, and even lose money, that God, not money is most important to us.  We worship God when we get money, use money and lose (give) money in a way that proves we do in fact love the Lord more than money. This is true worship.

Giving Should be a Planned and Willful Decision

Though there ought to be plenty of spontaneous moments of worship in our lives, including moments of spontaneous giving, without being determined in our giving, and without making a definite plan to regularly give, chances are we will conveniently forget to give.   This in fact often reveals the true nature of our hearts.  So we affirm that giving should be a planned and willful decision for every believer.

Every Christian Should Tithe

We also believe that each believer should tithe and that 10% should in fact be the starting place for giving.  It is the first fruit of what the Lord provides.  In Matthew 23:23 Jesus said to the Pharisees, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.” Tithing is not as essential as love, mercy and justice, but it must not be neglected.   We believe, in fact, that the New Testament  principle is to go beyond the tithe.  In II Cor 9:6-8 we read, “The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.  Each one must give as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.  And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.”

The Local Church First

We also believe that the local church should be the first place giving should be directed.  Although there are numerous God glorifying organizations that we highly encourage people at Living Water to give to, it should always be after they have first given to their local body (Mal 3:10).

Because we affirm these things, it only seems proper that we give offering a more prominent place at Living Water and not relegate our worshipful giving to a cluttered back table in the foyer.  Therefore, we have decided to place new offering boxes in the back of the sanctuary (one of each side) and will invite people to worship the Lord in their giving during the fellowship break before the sermon.  After the break, we will pray for wisdom and integrity in the use and distribution of the offerings.  Our hope and prayer is that the changes will assist us in worshipping God with all of our lives while remaining  committed to allowing our guests to experience our worship service without feeling pressured to give.

For the Spreading of His Kingdom and for the Glory of our Great God and Savior,
Pastor Jeff