It was likely the most surreal thing I’ve ever witnessed at a worship service. Not surprisingly it happened Sunday morning at the Orlando Convention Center. My esteemed father was scheduled to preach at this service in conjunction with the annual Christian Booksellers Association convention. Back in those days CBA was a huge deal, with more than 5,000 souls in attendance representing book and music publishers, authors and artists and Christian bookstore owners. I don’t remember what big name sang the offertory, but it was a big name. Just before my father got up to speak, however, a gentleman in a nice suit went up the microphone to let us all know, “This worship service is being brought to you by the W@#R Music Group.” (I honestly don’t remember which music company it was and if I did I’d likely leave it out to protect the guilty.) A corporate sponsor for a worship service? What?

What are Tithes & Offerings?
My concern, however, is less with what happened 20 years ago and more with the perspective I fear may be behind it. Too often we look at the presentation of our tithes and offerings as some sort of commercial time out — that portion of the service where we tend to the necessary business of financing the work of the church. It’s sort of like a smoking break — necessary for some, a bit of an intrusion, and not a little unseemly.

I have these suspicions in part because of how I hear some churches explain their reasoning for removing the giving of tithes and offerings from their liturgy. We’re told they don’t want the unbelievers in the meeting to feel uncomfortable or pressured, and they don’t want them believing we care too much about money. But, they reason, the necessary chore of meeting the financial needs of the church can be met by a collection box near the narthex, or even direct deposit from members’ checking accounts.

Tithes & Worship
I honestly have no strong quarrel with differing views of how tithes and offerings are collected. Nor am I particularly concerned with the practical side, wanting to make sure the church has the money it needs. Instead I fear what we lose when we remove this aspect of worship from our liturgies.

That is, the giving of tithes and offerings isn’t a business transaction, but an act of worship. We are responding, in God’s presence, to God. We are handing these tokens back to Him as a way of acknowledging not that the bills must be paid, but that all that we are and all that we have are His. In the same way that we set aside the Lord’s Day not to say to God, “We love you so much we’re willing to give you a whole day” but instead to say, “We give you this day to remember that all our days are Yours” so we do not say, “One tenth of our income is Yours, but instead, “I have been bought with a price. All that I have received is from Your hand, and You have made me but Your steward. I, and all I have, belong to You alone.”

Might this make unbelievers uncomfortable? Perhaps. So ought the preaching of the gospel. Might it make them feel pressured to give? Perhaps. So ought the preaching of the gospel make them feel pressured to repent. Might it make them not want to come back? Perhaps. So might the preaching of the gospel make them not want to come back. We are there, remember, not for W@#R Music Group, not for the lost, not for ourselves, but for Him. Our liturgies ought to reflect such.

This post was first published on rcsprouljr.com.

Related: Ask RC: Why do some churches take an offering, and others do not?

I cannot speak for all churches on both sides of the issue, but I can recount what I have been told on at least a few instances of churches that do not, and explain why churches ought to take an offering. The reason I have been told why this church and that do not take up an offering as part of the worship service is that the church did not want to communicate to visitors that the service was all about money. My friend taking this position rightly pointed out that one of the common perceptions among those outside the church is that the church is always asking for money. By removing the offering from the service, you avoid that particular stumbling block.

Though I do not embrace such a position, I at least understand it, given what I have seen from time to time in worship services. Some churches that do in fact take up an offering present it almost like a commercial time out. The implicit (usually) message is, “We hope you’ve enjoyed the service thus far. Now we will take a time out to pay for all this.” On one occasion, in the middle of a worship service at a large gathering of Christians in the book selling business, an executive from a music company I will not name literally came to the microphone, immediately after one of their stars sang a bit of “special music” to tell us “This worship service is being brought to you by ____ Christian Music Company.” Though of course far less dramatic, I have also experienced in many worship services a similar perspective. The offering too often presents itself as that time that children are sent off to use the bathroom, musicians are given opportunity to showcase their talents, and the rest of us read through the upcoming events in the bulletin.

Such ought not to be the case. The offering is a critical part of the worship service, not because it is that time when we pay for the whole process, but because it is an act of worship. At Saint Peter Presbyterian Church, where I served for thirteen years, our habit has been to collect the offering right after the giving of the sermon. We believe that when the Word is preached what we are hearing is our marching orders from our Lord. We have come, as His soldiers, to appear before Him for inspection. In the sermon He tells us what it is that He requires of us. We, of course, want nothing more than to say to Him, “Yeah, and amen.” In the giving of our tithes and offerings, that is precisely what we are doing. We see the tithe as a symbol, not unlike how the sabbath is a symbol. We give one day is seven to remind ourselves that all our days are His. We give one part in ten to remind ourselves that all that we have has been given to us by Him, and we return it all to Him. This, indeed, is why we stand as the offering is brought forward. We want our posture to affirm that all that we have and all that we are is His to do with what He pleases.

If the offering is simply, “Here is how we finance what we are experiencing” then by all means we ought to hide it, diminish it, keep it from sight. If, however, the giving of our tithes is both our “Amen” to His Word preached, and our affirmation that all that we are and all that we have are His, then it not only ought to be a part of our worship service, but a sacred part.