WORSHIP 1O1: THE PURPOSE OF OFFERTORY
So what do you think about while the offering is being received every Sunday morning or evening? While the pianist and/or organist play, what is going through your mind? Are you thinking about how well they are playing or are you letting the text of that familiar hymn they are playing run through your mind? Are you thinking about the time and that we may be past the top of the hour and you sure do wish they would finish so you can get home or to a local restaurant for lunch? What do you spend those few moments thinking?

Worship is a dialogue, or at least it should be a dialogue between us and our God. It is initiated by Him, but what he reveals to us about Himself during worship requires a response. Some may say, “Well I don’t like the offering at the end of the service. It’s always been in the middle of the service. That’s where it belongs.” There is no right or wrong time in the service to take up the offering, but I would suggest that there are better times. If you follow the pattern of worship set up for us in Isaiah 6 where the prophet has his face-to-face encounter with God, the flow of worship happens this way…

1. Isaiah sees God for who God is;
2. Isaiah sees himself for who he is;
3. Isaiah responds with a commitment of all that he is to do all that God asks.

That third part of the conversation, to me, is where the Hymn of Response and the Giving of Tithes and Offerings fit. We are committing to God, first, our lives during the Hymn of Response, and then His Tithe and Our Offerings during the Offertory. This time of musical meditation is a great opportunity to continue the idea of giving ourselves to God, just like we have the opportunity to do during the Hymn of Response.

So what are you thinking about during the Offertory? Let me offer a suggestion: Take the theme of that day’s sermon and continue to apply it to your heart and life during the offertory. Think on how you might be able to make a renewed commitment of your life this next week to God. Think of how you might be able to truly “give yourself to God” during the next week. Nail it down…again. Don’t focus on the music unless it is helping you make that renewed commitment. Perhaps the text of the song they are playing does play through your mind and helps you to solidify the commitment you are trying to make. Or perhaps that music just gives you another moment to be still and know that He is God.

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