At the church I used to be a member of, they simply placed offering boxes in the back of the auditorium and then reminded folks at the beginning and/or end of service they were there. That way there was no awkwardness during the service (for us, or especially for visitors), and we avoided the giving-out-of-guilt or compulsion issues. Supposedly, the literature out there says that passing a plate garners you more money, but for us maintaining the feel and flow of the service, it was worth it.

I have heard of several churches that have the boxes Matt mentioned, and I think it’s a fantastic idea. I’ve heard them referred to as “Joash boxes” referencing when King Joash was raising money for the temple that was in disrepair in Jerusalem in the OT. We’ve never been anywhere that would make the switch though.

We collect the offering during the music set. Before a song, someone on the worship team will pray and let people know we are going to collect the offering, then the ushers pass the trays during a song. It doesn’t really interrupt the flow much this way.

In out tradition, we have communion that is passed through the crowd every week. Most weeks immediately after communion we pass the offering trays as well. It won’t work for everyone, but it’s pretty unobtrusive for us. The problem we have is that many folks think of the offering as part of the Eucharist, which is something we’re constantly battling.

At Praxis, we have boxes in the back on our sermon response time includes giving and communion. We host communion up front so people get out of their seats to come forward and take communion, and they give if they feel led to do so by going to the boxes in the back before going back to their seat.

During this time our band is playing and the lights are off. It’s a very non-threatening way of doing offering and works well for us.

There are times when the praise team will play a song during the offering or it is at the end of the service.

Our Pastor goes out of his way to make visitors feel comfortable and asks that they fill out the communication card from the bulletin and throw that in the offering plate when it comes around.

We give online so we don’t put anything in the plate, but it doesn’t bother me even if somebody else might think something. It’s just not something I concern myself with.

We take two approaches. Most Sundays, it comes right before our announcements/time for community joys and concerns. There’s a short “pause” in the worship at this point anyway, so it seems to work. On communion Sundays, we just set the plates out for folks to drop in after they’ve taken the elements. Seems to work well, although I still don’t like the possible “paying for the meal” symbology.

At our church, communion is offered each week. The offering takes place afterwards, and this is all before the message. Instrumental music is played by the worship leader during communion, but not during the collection of the offering.

I don’t find the logistics of how we do it awkward, but I definitely feel awkward in my heart during it. I think I’ve seen too much ‘behind the scenes’ stuff in my days in leadership. I need God to change my heart on that, pronto.

Stark silence broken by the sound of shuffling paper, throat clearing and velcro wallets. Actually, we sing through our offering, usually standing. Since it is a part of our worship, we marry it to another part of worship.

Hey Tyler

Long time since we’ve chatted… but i do keep up with you.

Great post! I struggle with this too… but we try to blend it in with the area of the order where it lands (usually the same place). Biblically, offering should be a response to the word… but I find that rare in church services since we’ve got to have people count the $$$ and sort the information gathered. So then–is it an offering or a collection…hmmmm?

We don’t take an offering. We have the offering plate near the entrance (not too close, of course) and periodically remind people it’s there. Also, we’ve intentionally emphasized the option of giving our offering online. The people who are committed to participating with our church in building the kingdom of God give, and those who aren’t at that level of commitment yet, don’t feel obligated or guilted into giving.

Best I’ve seen it done is turning it into the creative launch time into the talk…playing a song, video or something that sets the speaker up well. It’s almost like people forget that the offering is even happening.

At my first church, we made the switch from collecting by passing to doing the offering box thing. It was successful for us in that it freed up time in the service and we saw no negative impact on giving, and in fact saw a slight increase.

In my current ministry, the offering usually comes at a mid point in the service, and we work very hard to help people connect the act of giving with an expression of worship just like singing, praying, etc. Often during that time, we will either have a special related song or a video piece related to the theme of the day.

Our pastor often says something like, “We never apologize for taking an offering around here. We really believe in the ministries of this church, and we want to invite you to play a part” or something like that. Tithes are awkward at churches that waste money (not implying in any way that yours is). I actually WANT to give to our ministries, which is… a new thing for me.

T,
We don’t take up an offering at all … we have offering boxes in the back, at the entrances, etc. If we DID take up an offering, I’d do my best to make that as much a part of the flow of worship as anything else.

We have offering boxes by the rear exits and there is often a little reminder during announcements. We also have a “poor box” up front. 100% of the “poor box” money goes to various charities to help the poor.

We use to put an offering box in the back and then we put an offering plate up front for people to give at sometime before they left but when we started taking up an offering it seemed like we were putting more importance on giving when we took the time to receive it plus it helped those who would just forget to give. Our offerings more than doubled. My thoughts are expecially people who are of a low income needs to learn the blessing that comes from giving.

We just last week decided to start making offering a little more important. We were doing what a lot of you are, just trying to blend it in without interrupting the flow. But now we want to try to emphasize it a little more by talking about it, maybe sing a song to make our giving an act of worship, instead of something we have to “work around”.