Dear Friends,
For our guidance as a church, we have in our Book of Order the Six Great Ends of the Church. The second on the list is, “The shelter, nurture and spiritual fellowship of the children of God.” The third one is, “The maintenance of divine worship.” Well here at Westminster we have had a collision of the two, now what to do?
When it comes to the “maintenance of divine worship,” our traditional order is to offer our resources and our lives to God following the sermon. Actually, the offering is to be thought of as part of the Communion Service, for it is at the Table we offer ourselves to God in response to the Word which has been proclaimed, and in the elements Jesus Christ offers Himself to us. When we do not celebrate the Sacrament, we should understand that the offering is still, in a sense Communion though the regular elements are not present.
Now for the clash; when I was a child my mother gave me one dollar a week for my allowance, actually she gave me ten dimes. The purpose was to teach me to tithe, because I was not to spend this small fortune until I had placed one dime in the offering plate. This brings me to the problem. We are missing out on a great educational opportunity by sending our small children to the Shepherding Time before the offering.
So what do we do when “The shelter, nurture . . .,” clashes with the “maintenance of divine worship?” That is a “no brainer.” We change our order of worship so the children can participate in the offering.
Now you adults need to remember a few things:
1. The purpose of the offering is to respond to God’s word, even though we have now placed it in a less than traditional place.
2. Of course the offering is an appropriate response to the fact that we are forgiven, and in our new order we will place the offering following the Assurance of Pardon.
3. It is the responsibility for all of us to teach our children by our word and example, (hummmmm, does that say something about tithing).
Just a thought,
Steve
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