Fall in the air feels good, doesn’t it? We even jumped the gun out of excitement last night and had a fire in our fireplace (I forgot to open the flue - I don’t recommend burning a fire in your house without using the chimney). It’s hard to believe that we’re nearly in the last three months of this wild year. God has been so good to provide for His people through these difficult times, and I know each one of us as individuals and as families can testify to the many ways that we have experienced His faithfulness.
Pear Orchard Presbyterian Church has experienced God’s faithfulness as well, through the faithful generosity that He has worked within you. Thank you! And thank our gracious God with me! It has been truly remarkable to see how He has provided for His gospel work here through the saints, even though we haven’t taken up a physical collection in corporate worship since early March. You have given online, mailed in your gifts, or sought out the offering plate at church, in spite of a downturn in the economy, the loss of jobs or hours, and an uncertain future. Be encouraged as your officers have been, that ministry is being supported, our facilities are being maintained for ministry, and the spread of the gospel is being funded around the world.
As we continue to reopen and resume our ministries, the elders have approved beginning once more to receive your tithes and offerings during the worship service. The deacons will be discussing soon when exactly to restart this familiar practice. The plan is that like the elders did as they served the Lord’s Supper, our ushers will hold the offering plates while walking down the empty rows in the Sanctuary and between the rows in the Gym (assuming there are enough ushers in the Gym), so that the plates are not passed from person to person.
We want to resume the giving of tithes and offerings in worship soon for a variety of reasons:
Because giving is an act of worship. Throughout the Scriptures (i.e., Deuteronomy 16:16; Malachi 3:7ff.; Mark 12:41ff.; I Corinthians 16:1-2; Hebrews 13:16) God’s people give to the Lord as they gather for corporate worship. Even if you have given to the Lord online during the week, or if you give at a different frequency than weekly, in the gathered assembly you worship as you acknowledge from your heart that God is the owner of all your wealth and has allowed you to be a steward, and as you rededicate to Him yourself and all that He has given you.
In order to give everyone a ready opportunity to give to the Lord during corporate worship, including those who don’t have online accounts or who prefer to give cash.
So that our children and others will have the opportunity to worship the Lord with their dollar bills and coins (Mark 12:42), and to see the adults around them also honor the Lord with the firstfruits of their wealth. The lack of a time to give within the worship service has meant the lack of a teachable moment for our youngest worshippers. More is caught than taught, as the saying goes, and there is little more important to catch at a young age than the necessity of giving at least a tenth of your money to the Lord.
Whenever the passing of the offering plates is resumed, let it be an opportunity to remind yourself of the gospel of Jesus: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich” (II Cor. 8:9).
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This Sunday morning we will have a guest preacher in our pulpit: Dr. E. Calvin Beisner, a friend of Pastor Dean, and a prolific author and teacher. He has been a ruling elder in PCA and OPC congregations, as well as a professor at Covenant College and Knox Theological Seminary, and is currently the President of The Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, a network of evangelical scholars dedicated to teaching about Biblical earth stewardship, economic development for the poor, and the Christian gospel and worldview. Dr. Beisner will be preaching what is turning out to be the last of our sermon series on idolatry - the idol of science. Don’t miss this chance to think about what the Bible has to say about our culture’s (and our) propensity to worship the creature rather than the Creator.