church

As a preadolescent, I had very few experience in church. One of those rare experiences stands out. I remember attending church services one time with friends of my family. We were visiting them at their home in another city. They were church goers, so we went to church with them on the Sunday we were at their home. They had a son who was about the same age as me and my twin brother. He acted as a kind of guide, providing running commentary during the worship service, so we’d know what to do.

When it came time for the contribution, he was particularly helpful. I’d never experienced the contribution before, and I didn’t know what to do. My parents hadn’t adequately prepared us. They hadn’t provided Craig and I any coins or bills to put in the wicker baskets that were now making their way down the pews, marching inevitably toward us. And everyone else, it seemed, was putting something in the baskets. No one, it seemed, was just passing the basket to the person next to them without dropping something into the basket. This was long before the days of electronic giving when someone might be assumed to have arranged his or her giving through direct deposit. Everyone in this congregation was dropping coins or bills into these baskets. And I was feeling an increasing amount of pressure to do something when the basket came to me, to drop something in it. But I had nothing to put in it! Not a penny. Not a crayon. Not even a piece of paper on which I could scratch out to God an “I. O. U.” And those baskets were getting closer. My heart was racing. Sweat droplets were forming on my brow. What was I going to do?Read More »The Ministry of Giving (Luke 8:1-3) Chris Altrock – 7/22/18