Out of the Bag

Giving is down. At least at my church it is. So say our elders, and I have no cause to disbelieve them.

When I attended this same local church in my early twenties, two offering bags sat each week during our celebration of the Lord’s Supper on the small, central table, to one side of the bread and wine. At least, they did so prior to our COVID interregnum. For years, after we had passed the bread and wine around, the bags went through the congregation during the weekly meeting at which all the most mature, committed believers were likely to be present, and the fewest visitors troubled by the (incorrect) perception that we expected them to follow suit.

We didn’t.

Without a Trace

Back then, I would discreetly slide the occasional rolled twenty-dollar bill (or pair of twenties on a good week … those were not days of high bank account balances) from my hip pocket into the bag as it passed, and older folks who wanted tax receipts at year-end would slip their personal cheques into the bag the same way. I never thought twice about the practice or its mechanics until I participated in a Lord’s Supper post-COVID. Lo and behold, the bags were gone.

There was a certain relentless logic to the change. Government edict closed local churches for some weeks. Zoom meetings became the order of the day, and believers broke bread from house to house, usually their own. Obviously, there was no bag to pass, so no bag passed. However, my church still had bills for the building they weren’t using, and still had missionaries and full-time workers they wished to support, so our elders switched to one or another of the popular online collection methods currently available, and Christians here were advised they could send in bank transfers whenever they wished.

Trending Downward

Anyway, this little group of believers has been back in their building for several years now. The bags are still gone. Frankly, I hadn’t missed them much. On the one hand, both Testaments assure us giving is an act of worship, as is remembering the Lord. The logic of putting the bags out in plain sight side by side with the “emblems”, as they are sometimes called around here, is biblical even if it always struck me as potentially wide open to misinterpretation by visitors who might not be aware of the scriptural teaching on the subject.

Churches are so often accused of mercenary impulses that I figure it’s imprudent to give the cynics and naysayers unnecessary fodder for their critiques. A simple Old Testament-style box with a hole in the lid sitting inside the entrance into the auditorium, ideally unmarked and unremarked, would be equally visible but comparatively unobtrusive, I thought. That way it’s not obvious to the critics, but Christians looking to contribute could easily locate it. I am told our collection bags are still around “somewhere” if people want to contribute, but in six months, I sure haven’t run across them. I’ve just been sending e-transfers to one more account that wasn’t on my list last year.

Anyway, our treasurer is looking at the financial statements for the last few years. Giving is definitely down. Expenses are definitely up. The proposed solution: put back the bags on the table during the Lord’s Supper as they were prior to COVID. If it’s not a perfect solution, it’s at least a passive weekly reminder that giving to the Lord is a regular part of any mature Christian weekly routine.

Giving to the Lord

A parenthesis: I must add here that it really is “giving to the Lord” that is in view, not giving to our leaders or administrators. Churches with mortgages or other significant debts, and/or a pastoral staff on salary, may give their congregants reason to question whether they are really giving to the Lord’s work or (indirectly) just passing funds from one hand to another within their own little group to cover cost heads that mainly benefit themselves.

To their credit, our leadership is not only unsalaried but also entirely unpaid. One elder is retired and the other three work full time. There is no mortgage on the building and no debt outstanding. While it’s obvious money has to be spent to maintain the facility and keep the corporate assets in shape, you would have to look far and wide to encounter four men stingier with the Lord’s money or a more waste-conscious congregation. In a recent meeting, annual expenses were queried that were not only reasonable but ridiculously low. It’s apparent many people involved in regular activities at our local church are subsidizing them on the sly out of their own pockets rather than passing on the expenses to the treasurer. Our most significant outflow of funds in any normal fiscal period is the support of full-time Christian workers, missionaries and organizations dedicated to spreading the gospel or serving the Lord’s people.

So then, the concern that “giving is down” has nothing whatsoever to do with fear over any potential elimination of (or salary reductions for) pastoral or administrative positions, or with our local church’s relationship with lenders. It’s entirely about making sure good people doing the Lord’s work across the province and around the world continue to receive the level of support from us they have always enjoyed.

Is It Really the Bags?

No, it’s giving to the Lord that’s down, and our elders are right to pass on that information. It’s not that numbers have flagged post-COVID. We have some Sundays where almost every seat is filled. With the bags visible on the table every Sunday, we were almost always able to be generous with the Lord’s servants. Without them, apparently we’re in trouble.

Is it really the bags though? That’s what I’m asking myself.

Mature Christians should not need a weekly reminder to give, should they? Occasionally, sure. There may be new believers present who have never given the matter a thought yet. But giving is such an important and scripturally-documented part of normal Christian experience that it should be habitual for anybody who has been saved more than a few months. If you need a reminder, you’ve never made it a habit, and you’re way too casual about it. Giving to the Lord on a regular basis should be as natural to believers as reading our Bibles every day, praying, worshiping, or giving thanks at a meal. If you have never made giving a regular habit, you are just not in your Bible enough.

Moreover, I’ve never much liked passing a bag. It puts people on the spot in ways I don’t believe the New Testament ever does. Oh, the scripture very much encourages the habit of giving. Perhaps in the days when currency was only physical, a bag, plate or box was the most logical way to collect it. But if we really believe our left hand shouldn’t know what our right hand is doing, why do our giving in plain sight in front of the entire gathered church when alternatives now exist that enable almost complete discretion?

Other Possibilities

One more thought. So few people these days make a habit of actually carrying cash on a regular basis that passing a bag may turn out to be almost entirely irrelevant to the church’s annual bottom line. It should be possible to leave the option to drop off cash or a cheque in some spot sufficiently visible to locate but sufficiently discreet to give to the Lord unobtrusively (say, for kids from Christian families who are too young to have bank accounts or for the occasional militant soul who loathes using the corrupt banking system), while recognizing that most Christian giving is more convenient online.

Giving may be down for legitimate reasons. A hard look at the demographics of our gatherings post-COVID may help. If they suggest the numbers of mature believers who consider this their regular local church are down, and the numbers of visitors and other interested parties still at the stage of trying us on for size are up, perhaps we should adjust our spending in accordance with what the Lord is currently doing in this corner of our city.

If, on the other hand, we are maintaining a similar type of mature believer/new believer balance as in days of yore, perhaps it’s time to do a little discreet and appropriate teaching on the subject.