As Church Council has dealt with budget cutbacks, the implementing of the Mission Offering at each of worship service has become critical in the stewardship and benevolence efforts of our congregation. We now depend entirely upon offerings like the Mission Offerings to fund our benevolences (except Synod Benevolence). That would be sad news if it were not for the fact that we have solidly established the Mission Offering and that members and friends continue to pledge and give regularly to these causes.
I am writing to encourage all of us to become intentional givers as a part of worship. Worship is the proper context for giving to help the poor, the disadvantaged and the distressed. This faith is clearly reflected in some of the earliest manuscripts describing Christian worship. For example, Justin Martyr (born about 100 A.D. and died about 165 A.D.) writes in the Second Century:
Those who have the means help all those who are in want, and we continually meet together. . . Then the records of the apostles or the writing of the prophets are read for as long as there is time. When the reader has concluded, the presider, in a discourse, admonishes and invites us into the pattern of these good things. Then we all stand together and offer prayer. . . Bread is set out to eat, together with wine and water. The presider likewise offers up prayer and thanksgiving, as much as he can, and the people sing out their assent saying the amen. There is a distribution of the things over which thanks have been said and each person participates, and these things are sent by the deacons to those who are not present. Those who are prosperous and who desire to do so, give what they wish, according to each one’s own choice, and the collection is deposited with the presider. He aids orphans and widows, those who are in want through disease or through another cause, those who are in prison, and foreigners who are sojourning here. In short, the presider is a guardian to all those who are in need. (First Apology 67, translation by Gordon Lathrop)
The final sentences from Justin reveal the extent to which the act of Christian worship was directed toward caring for others. The centripetal force of the liturgy (assembling together) is matched by its centrifugal force, distributing the holy things of the Eucharist to members not present and necessary things for life to the poor and the alien. The mission of Christ’s church is to proclaim the Lord’s will and grace and to embody that proclamation through word and deed.
In twelve months of 2007 we received over $25,000 for causes to which our congregation is committed.
January Heifer Project International $1,573.82
February SEARCH Homeless Project 1,724.21
March Women’s Center of the Central African Republic 1,928.33
April Christian Community Service Center 917.27
May Kijabe Hospital AIDS Relief in Kenya 2,133.79
June Lutheran Church of Galilean La Place, Louisiana 1,653.88
July Lutheran Social Services Children’s Ministry 1,264.39
August Synod Mission Endowment Fund 796.35
September Hospitality Apartments 4,272.59
October Thrivent Builds-Habitat for Humanity 1,466.63
November Central African Republic (CAR) Village Education 1,538.67
December ELCA World Hunger 6,443.73*
Total received in worship in 2007 $25,713.66*We gave a total of $29,665 to the World Hunger Appeal in 2007.
In 2007 we had approximately 19,000 participants in Saturday and Sunday worship. That means roughly that each person gave $1.40 each weekend. One has only to think about the significant increase that would be possible by a high percentage of our congregation planning for and giving to the Mission Offering. We are doing well, but only a minority of our congregation participates. I am encouraged by many of our parents who are now teaching their children to prepare for this offering as an integral part of the act of worship.
The Mission Offering belongs to that part of the liturgy often referred to as the Sending. Having assembled for Word and Sacrament, we send the Lay Eucharist Ministers to the home-bound and hospitalized members. The congregation is then dismissed to go back into the world to bring peace and serve the Lord in thanksgiving, and we receive an offering for those in need.
Thus, we fulfill the prayer of the church at the conclusion of the Eucharist:
O God, we give you thanks that you have set before us this feast, the body and blood of your Son. By your Spirit strengthen us to serve all in need and to give ourselves away as bread for the hungry, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.