Josh GriffinMore PostsPOLL: Taking an Offering in Your Student MinistryWe took up a special collection this weekend to help cover the shipping costs of our Operation Christmas Child project. We typically just have a collection mailbox in the back, and mention/promote it occasionally. Vote today in the poll on how you do this!
JG
Josh Griffin has been in youth ministry for 15+ years and serves as the High School Pastor at Saddleback Church. [read more]
Geoff Stewart serves the Jr / Sr High School Pastor at Peace Portal Alliance Church in Surrey B.C.
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We actually don’t take an offering but we have a child through compassion international that the students pay for each month. We just sit a jar up with his picture on it and they donate to that.
no, but I wish we did. It would be a great way to teach kids about tithing….
Bryan
Our students still go to “big church” and we encourage them to give it then. IMO asking students to tithe towards one particular thing, i.e compassion child, is not such a Biblical way of tithing/giving. What we see is the tithe/offering going to the apostles who then distributed it as people had needs. I don’t want to teach students that the church at large isn’t worth tithing to, only starving kids in asia deserve it. What that will lead to is a bunch of bankrupt, can’t do missions churches. But I may be in the minority on that.
At my youth group back home they have a compassion child that students donate to. The group also occasionally takes an offering on special occasions. A memorable one was an offering for some mission trips to Peru. Apparently the offering and the trips were very successful and I think it was an awesome experience for everyone.
Our students who understand the tithe and normally would tithe go to the service on the weekends…this is on top of that. I have also found it is great for an entry level service. Those students who are new to the church see that we are a part of something bigger than ourselves.
We sponsor a kid through world vision, so we pass around a bucket each week for kids to help support her. The offering goes strictly through that.
One youth group I worked with took up offering every week and told the students that if they didn’t give, the ministry couldn’t do anything/wouldn’t grow–which was true! The church couldn’t provide a budget for the youth group at the time. It was a good, honest approach because it helped the students take ownership and see the impact of their actions.
Good perspectives! And yes, our Operation Christmas Child offering was above and beyond the normal tithe collections.
JG
I agree with Bryan and that is the reason we do take an offering every time we meet on sunday for service.
My guess is that groups whose primary youth service is the only one (no big church for the youth) are more likely to do an offering.
We don’t take an offering but one week we did a sort of table game (except in rows) of seeing which row could raise the most money for our compassion child in 30 seconds (yes we have one).
My church is a part of the SBC and the cooperative program so while we don’t get the picture of an individual child we may be helping we can be sure that many children, maybe even some world vision/compassion kids, are being cared for and ministered to on a regular and face to face basis. The cooperative program may be the only good reason for being SBC but its a doozy.
BTW, has anyone heard of Compassion and World vision giving away bonuses to the artists who promote them based on the number of new people they get to sign up at their concert/event? If it’s true it sounds like amway or something, sort of takes some of the fun out of it too. IMO.
Yes, we take a weekly offering for a child that we are sponsoring through World Vision. We use it to teach about tithing and about giving for a cause greater than yourself.
Hmm, thats given me a lot to think about!!!
Live the Dream
Neil
I’ve been missing out on this blog apparently— so for that i apologize— but i loved this poll— ignorance wasn’t blissful in this case— We are starting a series in December that is all about tithes/offerings/firstfruits/etc… and then from that pt we’ll begin to fully worship in our Student Ministry—
I’d love to pick your brain about this… see what the factors were in landing wherever you’ve landed—
We started sponsoring a single Compassion child through offerings taken during our Sunday Bible class. We’ve grown to three now. I have a pledge drive at the start of the school year and track giving by placing envelopes near the donation box and asking kids to write their names on it. I send out quarterly reports of how they are doing compared to what their pledge is. It’s just like our congregation. Some kids that pledge give nothing. Some that don’t pledge give plenty. Regardless. God has blessed us with always enough to pay our Compassion bill and sometimes much more than that. Been doing this for 8 years now and we’re nearing the stage to move to a 4th child. I encourage kids to pledge above and beyond their normal tithing to our congregation.
No ,not yet but hopefully in the fall we will start