Time, talent or treasures

It’s a familiar part of the worship service.

The Giving of Our Tithes and Gifts to God

Also known as “the Offering” or “the Collection.” At FUMC there is beautiful music to accompany this portion of worship. In the summer time it’s usually a soloist (or two or three) contributing their symphonious instrumental sounds. And hey! They are giving a gift to God!

That’s the point of our Rotation this month about the Widow’s Offering – to define an “offering” as gifts given to God and to discover that offerings can be time, talents, or money.

Ready for some family discussion about our story?

Gather kids around the computer and scroll down only far enough to expose a speech bubble and its question…

Time Out. Talk about…What happens in this story?

Read together Mark 12:41-44.
Did you catch all of the details? It’s a short story isn’t it!

Time Out. Talk about…What was Jesus doing?

Jesus was sitting in the Temple, the place where Jewish people came to worship. He was watching people give their offerings.

Time Out. Talk about…What is an offering?

Offerings are gifts to God. Right off the bat we think of an offering as money; it’s what we put into the plate that gets passed around at church. Money is an important part of what we give in our offerings but our gifts can be more than just money!

Time Out. Talk about…What are other examples of giving gifts to God?

There are many ways that people give gifts to God! An offering can be our time and our talents as well as our money. In church when we receive the offering, there are musicians or singers who share their gifts with us. The ushers are giving their time and leadership to collect the money we raise for God’s use. Other people oversee the use of the money that is collected. People who are teaching Sunday Cool classes, people singing in the choir, those who take turns in the nursery – all of these people are making a gift of themselves to God!

Of course this is just the start of the list; then there are people who give of themselves outside of the worship service.

Kids on a Mission trip to Appalachia.

Youth on a Kenya Mission trip assisting with the school’s feeding program.

Kids & adults in the kitchen during a Fish Fri event.

Time Out. Talk about…Brainstorm ways that kids can give gifts to God.

For a list of activities where kids can get involved in offering their time see this list for summer 2011. (Updated: sorry, this list is no longer available.)

Photo credits:
Collection plate by rubber bullets, who licensed his/her photos under: Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic.
Mission trip photos by various FUMC church members, used by permission.