This almost never happens today outside of a large church. Ushering should be viewed as a full-time job anytime the church is hosting a public meeting. I do not view these as improvements to our worship.Ī church should have a trained ushering crew in place 30 minutes before the service and throughout the service – to hand out bulletins, help people in the door, take care of needs, patrol the building for safety, etc. It is rare to see an ushering crew at the ready in the back of the church any more. Even if they were asked, they often just get up out of their seats and meander to the front, and often they are dressed in a manner in which people did not even come to church until just a few years ago. I am amazed, as I am in churches, at the number of times that no one has even been asked to be part of the ushering crew until the very moment the call is given from the pulpit to take up the offering. To me the bigger problem is that no one is prepared to usher at all. With my Lutheran upbringing still firmly entrenched in my soul, I would prefer that prepared men in suits/sport coats take up the offering and treat it as the act of worship that folks are debating here. Given scripture’s view on secret acts of worship, I fail to see how an act done in secret (at a box in back when no one is looking or by a mouse-click on a screen) is less of an act of worship than doing it publicly, when done with the right motives and heart, of course. I don’t see that that’s necessarily the case for giving to the church, but I think Matt 6 would give some weight to that argument. Fasting, another act of worship, was *explicitly* supposed to be done secretly. It sounds fairly clear that both of these were acts of worship, but doing them openly was getting reward from men, not from God. What about Matt 6:1-4 speaking of giving alms in secret? Of course, this may not be exactly the same as giving an offering to the church, but this was said in context with prayer, both of which were supposed to be done in secret, and the Father would reward openly. Of course dropping a check in the offering plate by itself is no different than dropping it in a box on your way in. We bring our prepared financial offering and give it at a communal time. The offering is part of the worship service.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |