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8 Powerful Ways to Make Your Offering Talk Work

The three minutes before you receive the offering at your church are incredibly important. You need to craft out that experience with the same intention that you would the core message from the service.

Making sure the “offering talk” is done well every week will boost the resources you have for your ministry and will ensure your people understand more about this vitally important aspect of your church service.

Here are six different elements of effective offering talks … plus some example scripts of what you could say:

1. Express thanks. 

Make sure to take some time out to thank people for supporting the mission of your church. There are a lot of worthy Kingdom causes that people could give toward, and it’s an honor that people have decided to give to your piece of it.

Example: “We know that you work really hard at your work … it’s our honor that you would give to what God is doing at our church … I want you to know that we’re going to work really hard to leverage your gift wisely in our mission. Thank you.”

2. Get personal.

People will give to an important cause … but they love to give to a personal story. Connect where the offering of your church is making a difference in individuals in your community.

Example: “Last weekend our student ministry had an amazing weekend at their retreat … did you know that your offerings help supported a number of students to go on that trip who couldn’t otherwise do so? Let me read this email we got this week from one student for whom the retreat made a difference in their life … ”

3. Reduce pressure, but don’t ask them not to give.

We want to be clear that we’re not after first-time guest’s money … it’s a common criticism of churches … but what we don’t want to do is ever ask people not to give to the church … they are giving to God’s mission and we don’t want to stand in the way of that if they are sensing God is asking them to give today.

Example: “If you are new here at our church, we want you to know that we’re not after your money! Your presence is a gift to us … thank you for being here today. Please don’t feel any undue pressure from us to give today.” (It’s subtle … but the words “don’t give today” aren’t mentioned.)

4. Receive … don’t collect.

A pet peeve of mine … don’t say “we’re going to collect today’s offering” … we’re not a collections agency! People are choosing to give to the church … receive that offering!

Example: “In just a few moments, we’re going to ask our ushers to receive today’s offering … ” (Bonus Idea: Have your ushers come to the front of the room before your “offering talk” so it’s a visual cue that you are going to receive the offering as you are leading up to it.)