Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 The ties and offerings time is one of the most important parts of every church service, but there are several pitfalls that we see a lot of churches falling into. In today's episode, we go through several dos and don'ts of how you handle your ties and offerings time. We hope this conversation helps your church reach more people and grow. This is the reach right podcast. You're listening to the reach, right podcast, the show dedicated to helping pastors and church leaders reach people the right way, hosted by me, Thomas Costello, and with me as always as my co-host Ian Hyat, we're here to help your church see more visitors and grow. Hey guys, welcome to the reach, right. Podcast episode number 103. I am your host Thomas Costello. And with me as always is my co-host
Speaker 4 00:01:06 Ian Hyat what's up Thomas.
Speaker 0 00:01:08 Hey, not much Ian. Excited to talk today. We're gonna be talking about the critical dues and don't of church ties and offerings. I think that's an important topic. Yeah. Uh, I think a lot of pastors wrestle with, uh, how we should be doing our church ties and offerings times. Uh, I think every church should be doing it. That's a big spoiler for us is yeah. You should be having some kind of time in your, in your service where you talk about church ties and offerings there. So there
Speaker 4 00:01:35 Might be some churches that disagree with that.
Speaker 0 00:01:37 Yeah, no, it's probably true. But here we are to tell you that you probably ought change. Yeah. Uh, you might wanna do it a little bit differently there. So, you know, I, I have been, there was a movement. I remember when I was younger, I was probably a young pastor in my, uh, late twenties or something. And I might have even done this. I don't know. Maybe you remember when we planted a church together? Yeah. We talked about, we talked about ties and offerings, right?
Speaker 4 00:01:59 We did.
Speaker 0 00:02:00 Yeah. I feel like we did, but I, I don't know. There, there was definitely a movement where it was really cool to like, not standing about ties and offerings play it all. Cool. Like we did,
Speaker 4 00:02:10 We, we did minimally address it. Yeah. Yeah. We minimally in that time. Yeah,
Speaker 0 00:02:14 That's right. You play it all cool. Like that. We don't even need your money. We don't even, God doesn't need your money. So we're not gonna come here and, and, you know, kind of do the whole ties and offerings time just to be different. I am a hundred percent against that now. Um, I am not for majoring on ties it offs time. Right. And making it the whole focal point of your service. But I think it is something that, uh, needs to be a part of every church service that you do, because it is important on so many levels that we'll get into. Yeah. Uh, so you concur, you agree on that. I
Speaker 4 00:02:44 Concur. I agree with you now. Yeah. Different time. And uh, yeah, I think we're a better place with it too, with, with a lot of the successful churches, which we'll dig into when I say successful churches, that sounds bad. I guess, you know, churches that are growing churches that are doing great ministry. I, I think the common denominator is they don't shy away from it, uh, is what I've seen.
Speaker 0 00:03:05 Yeah. Yeah. I'll tell you what, um, when I was younger ministry, I remember this so vividly. One of the strongest rebukes I ever received was from a pastor, uh, who had kind of poured into me and he told me, Thomas, you should never apologize for talking about giving. Uh, yeah. And that was something that I think that I used to be guilty of. I go up there and I'd say, Hey, I know you're, if you're here for the first time or you're a guest I'm, I'm so sorry we have to do this. And we're gonna talk about giving for a second. Or God forbid, we were doing a message on ties and offerings and talking about the, the active worship. And I would give a whole apology before I started. Oh yeah. And that's really the wrong approach because we have to remember that this is, this is something that is there for our benefit.
Speaker 0 00:03:53 It's not that God needs our money. It's not for, for God. I mean, it does bless the Lord, I think, but he doesn't need this. It's really for our blessing, it's our act of worship upon him. And it's our blessing that we give because it's more blessed to give than to receive right. Receive. Right. Yeah. It's absolutely. Um, something that I struggled with as a young pastor is this idea of apologizing before I talked about giving never again. Right. That was something that I really shifted inside of me and I, yeah. Um, now we weren't on the other end, have you ever been to a church? I, I went to one once where the pastor would say, or one of the announcement people would say, Hey, it's time to do our ties and offerings and all the churches would go. Yeah. And they would all scream and yell and like cheer and they, it was kind of a big show. And then it was the, it was really something weird. I remember
Speaker 4 00:04:39 Think about that, that person there for the first time that, that maybe has a bad taste and that thinks has that stigma, the church is just after my money. Yeah. And, uh, yeah. So what would
Speaker 0 00:04:49 I remember sitting there in the audience and I, I just, everybody started screaming out of the blue and they, they terrified me just kind of, everybody's yelling for ti. I, I would never, I had never experienced that before. So maybe you're one of those churches and it works well, let us know in the comments. I don't have enough background. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 4 00:05:04 And if you remember too, I've never been in a church that did it that way, but I've seen some funny things in our years of seeing a lot of websites and social media and stuff that, of course we do day in and day out. I remember there was, uh, one website that we developed at, at a long time ago and the church decided to put right on the homepage instead of saying, give it said the joy button. Uh, so that was kind of funny. That was funny. I mean, not, not that there's anything wrong with that. Right. You should, uh, God loves a cheerful giver, right? Yeah. So at the joy button, I think the funniest thing I saw though, uh, and, and, and I know we're gonna talk about some dos and don't, so I don't wanna jump ahead too much, but it's probably funny to mention at this time I saw this on a church, a video, a church service that the church passed out the offering plate, and it went, went all around. It was a smaller church, very charismatic church, and they've passed it out and then it comes back up. And I think one of the deacons looks at it and then the pastor goes, no, we're gonna, we're gonna pass it out a second time. I feel like we're still, uh, that the Spirit's still moving. <laugh> it's like, there isn't enough in there. So
Speaker 0 00:06:06 We'll call that a bonus. Don't that's so we don't, we don't bonus
Speaker 4 00:06:09 Don't
Speaker 0 00:06:09 Don't list it in there, but that'll be a bonus one. That'll be a fifth don't for you later in this that's it here. Don't pass the plate a second time. So yeah.
Speaker 4 00:06:17 That's,
Speaker 0 00:06:17 That's good. Well, so let's start with this, I guess kind of in the dos and Don's vein, let's talk a little bit about when churches should be doing their ties and offerings time. Cause there's a lot of debate about that. Yeah. Um, I think, uh, if you break it down to beginning, so I, I call that for, we're gonna assume that your church does worship and then does a sermon. And so that's kind of before worship between worship and sermon and after sermon are the three kind of times, um, I, I can make a case for two of those. The one that I'm not, uh, too keen on is before worship. So starting your service off, agree with ties and offerings. And here's the reason why not that it's, again, I can understand if people, um, really feel
Speaker 4 00:07:00 You wanna get outta this
Speaker 0 00:07:01 Way or you wanna do it, but I think that it, it's not something you wanna lead off, especially with first time visitors and guests. I don't think it's a good thing to lead off with. And kind of talking about ties and offerings before you get into any, uh, active worship or any, I guess that is an worship getting into any of the meat of the service. Yeah. I think it's probably a bad way to start a service and yeah, you do want a little bit of runway sort of leading up to that. I dunno. Do you agree with not doing it in the beginning or what do you think? I
Speaker 4 00:07:28 Do agree with that for the exact example you gave first time visitors, you know, think about that person. It may have been a stretch for them to make it to church. It could be someone coming for the first time that was apprehensive. It could be that person that, that de-churched person that hadn't been in a while, and maybe they left because they felt like, you know, the church was all after their money. So I think it is, uh, probably too much too soon. I agree.
Speaker 0 00:07:51 Yeah. Yeah. So that leaves us with the middle or I guess in most churches after the worship time. Right. Or at the end? Uh, yeah, the after sermon time. So, um, I dunno, tell me what, what does your church do?
Speaker 4 00:08:03 We do the middle, so yeah, I'll, I'll cover that one. Um, and, and it, I, I think it really works well for us and not that this would work for every church, but, you know, we have a, as we've said on, uh, all of our episode, well, when we've talked about each of our churches, you know, I'm a part of a larger, uh, what you would call a mega size church. So there is a lot put into the warship, the production, um, announced, um, announcements. We have big video announcements, those types of things that, that happen. And so the reason I mention all of that is I feel like for us, it being, so after we have a very engaging worship, we have great worship. People get really, um, you know, emotionally, spiritually, uh, involved and, and, um, not crazy or anything, but, but yeah, you know, expressive, I would call it.
Speaker 4 00:08:48 Yeah. And then out of that, you know, with the, uh, announcements and everything, because we, I think do a really good job of the production. We can kind of slip it in there at the middle, like, cuz it's coming outta worship and it is an act of worship and we believe that at our church. Yeah. So it's coming outta worship and I, uh, and I think the timing is good for us then, uh, you know, before going into the, the the message. So, uh, because of just how we do church and how we believe it's a part of worship.
Speaker 0 00:09:15 Yeah. Let me ask you, cuz I haven't been to your church in, uh, like a decade long time, so it's been a long time. Yeah. Do they still pass, uh, buckets or plates or anything? Does that still happen at your church?
Speaker 4 00:09:26 You know what, we don't do that anymore. Um, you know, and, and I think, uh, maybe it's because of just our very modern approach we have. Yeah. You know, everything we have ki giving kiosks, we have an app, we mention the website, giving a course through the website. There's all
Speaker 0 00:09:41 Of that there's you can put money in, in the back and that kind of stuff too.
Speaker 4 00:09:43 There's boxes in the back. There's QR code stuff to begin all this. So, um, so they
Speaker 0 00:09:48 Still, you guys still talk about it? Uh, yeah. So you guys will you'll address it during the service. Yeah. You guys have the QR code, like to give up on the, up on the screen. So if people wanna do that on their phones, they can. Right.
Speaker 4 00:10:00 Yeah. And it's on the back of giving envelopes that are right in the seat in front of, uh, people. Yeah, that's right there. And then we also mention that they can put it in the box in the back if they prefer to do physical check or whatever. So yeah.
Speaker 0 00:10:12 Perfect. Yeah. That's
Speaker 4 00:10:13 We have, we have a lot of options. So that's, uh,
Speaker 0 00:10:16 That's talk about a changing world though. Right? I mean, I think that, and we saw this, uh, at reach right here, pre pandemic, most people were still giving via paper check, post pandemic. Yeah. I, I don't have any, I haven't seen any hard research on this. Right. But just, it seems like most of the churches we talk to and we ask them that percentage. Yeah. It's close to 75% is coming in online now. So yeah. Uh, it's a, a huge
Speaker 4 00:10:39 Difference. Our put it out there, our church put it out there, not too long ago, that about 90% of our giving is, is digital. Wow. You know? Yeah. So none and, and I, I was still shocked kind of shocked by that. Not, but also was like, wow, it has come that far. Yeah,
Speaker 0 00:10:55 Yeah, yeah. That's good stuff. So, all right. So I, I don't mind the middle. I, I personally the church, I am a part of now. Um, I, we do a middle offering time. We don't pass any kind of plates, but yeah, we do talk about it and people have the opportunity to give, we still pray for our ties and offerings. In that time there, the church I pastored most recently, we were an end of service group of people. Now here's how we did it is that we were from, I'm not from a traditional background, but I happen to be at a church where we did communion every week. And you remember this, you preached there. Yeah. And I'm, I don't know if you, I don't remember if you led that part or not, but it's, uh, we would do communion after the message every single week.
Speaker 0 00:11:36 And part of our process, uh, is that people would, uh, we would, as a response to the message, we would take communion. And with that, when you come and get the elements, so grape juice cracker, you come and get that people would also have an opportunity to bring their ties and offerings up to the front there. And that really worked well for us now. Yeah. I know that that's a very small minority of churches that do that exact kind of a flow. Right. But I've very much liked the opportunity to give the word. Uh, and I feel like people were at their most receptive, uh, to the holy spirit and to the Lord after the sermon. Maybe that's just my own big headedness about my preaching or something like that. Oh yeah. Perhaps that's what that is. But I felt like people were most ready to respond and continue in worship, uh, after that time of message.
Speaker 0 00:12:24 And we would always make it very clear that, Hey, visitors, we don't expect, and we'd actually almost prefer, right. That you not give today. If you're here for the first time, this isn't something we're charging for, this is a free gift that you are with us here. Yeah. So, um, but for our people that were part of our church family, it was, I felt like it was good for them to be in that posture of, uh, musical worship. And then they, uh, were dedicating some part of their lives to the Lord in response to the sermon and they were able to stand up and, and give in that time there. So I personally really like that. Um, you know, it's, I don't ha I could tell you that our ties and offerings were better. Uh, they grew over time as we did this. Yeah. But you know, there's a lot of other things we're doing, right.
Speaker 0 00:13:04 It wasn't just the location of your ties and offerings in your service. Right. I don't think that one of these is gonna be like, Hey, if you do it at the end, you'll get a 50% increase in your income as a church. That's, that's not gonna happen that way. I don't think this is gonna make, I just think really it's not so much a question of income. It's a question to me of when it makes, when it makes the biggest impact on people, uh, when it has the, when it's the best opportunity for them to respond, uh, and have an intimate encounter with the Lord, because in the end, that's what the most important part is for me is that people would have an encounter with the Lord and it would be a continuation of their worship. And they would be able to be blessed as they give, uh, that's something that we wanna see happen. So
Speaker 4 00:13:40 I totally agree. Totally agree. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:13:42 Cool. Good. Well, how about this question then? So how do you think we should be talking about ties and offerings in church? Do you have any feedback for, or advice before we get into the dos and don'ts, uh, any kind of, uh, ideas there?
Speaker 4 00:13:55 You know, I think it's somewhere in the middle of what we were joking about, uh, at the beginning of the call, you know, it's not, uh, you know, everyone's screaming and ranting and raving and getting over, I guess, exuberant about it. I think that, uh, then on the flip side, you, you don't wanna, you know, come into it a little apprehensive or tiptoeing into it. Like it's, uh, don't make it something too sensitive, you know, don't make it something by your tone and the way that you address it, whether or not it's as pastor or another leader that's doing announcements or whoever does it, um, you know, come into it, I'd say kind of middle ground, if you will. So that's, I have a that's what comes to mind first.
Speaker 0 00:14:36 Yeah. Yeah. So a couple things I think of, as I think about this question, how we should talk about it. One, I think you said, we said before, we should, we should talk about it. Yeah. You shouldn't, uh, do the silent approach. I don't think. Yeah. Uh, number two, I think it is still healthy even when you're not passing a plate. I think there's still some health in praying, uh, over your ties and offerings time. Um, so as people are doing that, um, I don't know if you folks do that or not. If there's a prayer that goes with that there, but I know at our church, we still pray, even though we don't pass buckets, we still pray right now. Uh, yeah. And it, it felt more natural when we were about to pass buckets down the aisles and those things that we prey over these buckets kind of a, a loaves and fishes approach that God's gonna multiply.
Speaker 0 00:15:19 What goes into here, you know, now that people are gonna give at their convenience and on their timetable more regularly. Right. I don't know that it, it makes as much sense, but I still like that part of it there. Yeah. And then one thing that I have always loved is bringing in some kind of a why as we talk about it, like, so usually that's gonna be a scripture. Um, so someone sharing some, something from the word, that's an encouragement. Uh, there are a few versus I think 2000, 300, some odd versus on giving or finances and those things in the Bible. So you could probably find one, if not, um, I I've told you this before. I think Ian, but for our audience, our most visited blog post in the history of re right, as a company, uh, is called 18 scriptures. You can use before your next offering time.
Speaker 0 00:16:05 Yeah. Is what it is. So it's just, it really, it's something so simple that you could have done any Google search to find it, but it's, uh, it's 18 scriptures that talk about giving and ones that people use in churches. And it's so funny that every single Sunday, right before church time, like so 8:00 AM on Sunday, right. That post it's skyrockets in all of its all of its hits and everything. Yeah. I'm four, every single Sunday morning for people all over the world trying to find, Hey, what verse should I share before our offering time here?
Speaker 4 00:16:35 I'm glad it's benefiting churches again. That's why we said this. This is a hot topic. If you will, this is a sensitive talk topic, if you will. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 0 00:16:43 For sure. Yeah. So that's it. So anyway, so I think praying, uh, is a good sharing scripture. Um, I think that's good. Um, testimonials
Speaker 4 00:16:52 For you testimonials, testimonials. Yeah. Not to interrupt. Uh, I, I, I really was benefited by that. Um, whenever I was a newer believer and I came to faith, I, I think I've told you this before. One of the first messages I heard was on tithing and it was an actual message about tithing. So that was even bold. We're not just talking about it, mentioning it during the service, this was an actual sermon. Yeah. And the testimonials of how people were blessed by it and, and how God honored it and all of that. And as a new, and this is great. I think for some of our pastors to hear as a new believer in someone, it did, did the, it didn't turn me away or make, put a bad taste in my mouth. It actually inspired my faith. And I put God to the test, like he said, and we were blessed by it, but testimonial stories of it. I mean, cuz it is something that God honors, you know, so it is something that he, he will bless. And so the more that, uh, that, that, you know, you can sh have, and, and it's also kind of great when it's coming from a third party, right. It's not coming from the pastor. So if it's coming from a member or someone who's seen the benefit of it even more powerful sometimes.
Speaker 0 00:17:59 Yeah. As much as we know that pastors don't, uh, don't directly always benefit from the tide. It's not like that goes right into their family checking account when you give ties and offerings. So people have that impression that that's what happens with ties. Yeah, of course this guy's gonna tell me a testimony because he makes all the money that we give here. And that's not the case we know, but I think you're right about third parties, having somebody else share it other than people that are on the payroll of the church. Yeah. I think that goes a long way. People that just have been blessed, uh, and want a share of their own accord. I think that's really good. So definitely all right. Let's get into the meat of it. Let's get into some, uh, dues and don'ts um, why don't, uh, I guess I don't, why don't you go ahead and tackle the first one for us.
Speaker 4 00:18:40 Yeah. So don't make it the main focus of your service. Uh, you know, it's, it's, it's one big part of the big picture, but, uh, and I just kind of gave an maybe an example where you'd be thinking it was the main focus. There was an actual sermon on tithing. Uh, but I will say that, you know, and you may not do that, but even though that was the, the topic that our pastor was preaching on at that time, I would say he and the church did a good job of not just making it the main focus. I mean, you know, when worship was happening, they were not all songs about giving money <laugh> right. Or anything like that. And, and other announcements and other things that we were focused on were varied. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:19:20 Yeah. No, that's, that's good. I, I think that you, I think it's appropriate to have sermons on tithing and, and yeah. And what that means and why you should do it. I think I, it's one of my favorite topics honestly, to preach about may say I'm crazy, but I do enjoy that. So, yeah. Um, but yeah, I'm, I'm very much for that, but not making it the main focus of every service. I think it's a good way to say it. <laugh>
Speaker 4 00:19:41 For sure. I would
Speaker 0 00:19:41 Think, yeah, it'll be tough for your church. So yeah. Next one is don't put pressure on people to give and make ways so that they're, they don't feel like they're being watched or judged or, um, anything like that when they are giving, I went to a church once, uh, where, um, it was, it was a totally unique experience for me. And they were one of those bring up your ties and offerings kind of church, kind of like my church was, it wasn't an inspiration for me, but I, I did see this is a very large church and, uh, they did the bring up your ties and offerings, but everybody kind of like held up their ties and offerings and did kind of a little dance up to the front to go put it into the box and kind of, uh, they, they had a whole, a whole ritual and kind of a show that went with it.
Speaker 0 00:20:25 And so not from, it's not from my culture where this kind of stuff happens. I think that that was a, a different cultural kind of a church. And you know what, I, I, I just think that in general, as a rule, you want people to be able to give completely anonymously, uh, yeah. And not have anybody know if people are giving, if they're not giving let's face it. I, I give once a month in my church on the first day of the month. Sure. I have an automatic draft coming out of my yeah. Checking account that goes to my church. Nobody in my church has ever seen me go up to the box after service. Yeah. No one's ever seen me pull out my phone or scan the QR code or yeah. Any of those things and that's okay. I, I assume nobody's judging me and say, I've never seen Thomas give over there. So, you know, that's, that's just, uh, we gotta put things in place and know that people aren't gonna give every Sunday. So do your best to make it, uh, a non-judgment zone. That's a joke.
Speaker 4 00:21:16 Yeah. Yeah, no, that's funny. That's funny. Uh, I, uh, I'll cover the next one and it's making me think of, uh, another story, but don't make people feel manipulated, you know, it shouldn't be too big of an emotional hype or, um, sensational and, and you shouldn't, you know, offer false promises that are unbiblical or anything like that. Yeah. As well. Um, you know, talking about, uh, pressure and sensation. I do, we were talking about the example of seeing a funny video about the offering plate be being passed out a second time. Right. Wasn't that same church, but another one I did see one that, where a guy got a little, uh, over zealous, I would say, and he took his watch off and he shot it like a basketball into the bucket. Oh no. And so, um, <laugh> and so I don't know if, oh my goodness. I don't know. You know,
Speaker 0 00:22:03 Does the church traditionally take people's household goods? Is that what they are? They take, uh, jewelry in those things.
Speaker 4 00:22:09 I, I was, you know, just kind of getting a feel for this service on YouTube. And I have no idea if that was their regular practice, but I don't know how that would come off to a first time visitor, especially. What if, I don't know, what if your grandfather, father just got you a watch for graduating college? I, I wouldn't want to toss it in the offering plate just yet. So
Speaker 0 00:22:28 Yeah. Give it some time. Yeah. That that's something else. How funny? Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. So don't make people feel manipulated. The next one is, uh, don't joke about taking people's money or really anything. I, I think that that's probably the worst time for humor. I'm all for humor. Yeah. But I think the offering and tithing time is the worst time for humor. Yeah. Uh, maybe the, the alter call is a little bit worse or like if you're giving an invitation to follow Jesus, don't do jokes then. And then also don't do jokes during the ties and offerings time. Yeah. I think that's a, a time of worship and prayer. And so, uh, be careful to, to not do that, then I know there's a temptation when we are uncomfortable to sometimes make light of things and kind of put in a little joke there and that kind of stuff. I, I resist that temptation. That's a definite don't, uh, to make it, to lighten the mood and just, you know, leave it, leave it to the Lord. He's gonna do it and, uh, prepare, but don't make it humorous. I'd say what's
Speaker 4 00:23:24 Funny to you is probably, may not be funny to that first time visitor that already has a bad taste in their mouth about it. And they could be thinking what this church is. Church is joking about that. Um, so yeah, so anyway, but,
Speaker 0 00:23:35 Um, alright. What did it hit the dos for us? What are some things that we should do during our ties and offering time?
Speaker 4 00:23:40 Yeah. Dos, uh, I, I guess, you know, first thing is, you know, support your discussion about tides and, and offering. So, you know, um, you know, it's, it's one of those things, do your homework, uh, do your homework be prepared, um, but be confident. I, I would say that word support, I would say, be confident about it. Like we said earlier, you don't wanna tip toe into this topic or anything like that or make it feel dark and ominous or something like that. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:24:08 Yeah. So, um, yeah, I think just the scripture is like, obviously one of the ways that you do that is supporting it with, uh, you know, making it feel, um, serious and giving it scripture. I think that's really important. I think the next one is do your best to make it voluntary and anonymous. Uh, so that people wouldn't know like Jesus talks about not letting your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Yeah. When you're giving. Right. So it's something that it, it's a biblical command that we do our best to keep these things very private. I almost, every church has closed giving records. Yeah. I was always a pastor that I, and people can disagree with me on this, but I never knew who gave how much, uh, at our church. That was something that I was, it was ingrained in me in Bible college.
Speaker 0 00:24:54 I know a lot of churches have a different view on that and they try to know who their biggest givers are and they want to really do special outreach and things to them. And yeah. You know, I, I, I can, I, I can see some of the thought behind that. I just felt for me, I never wanted to be beholden to anybody within our church and sure. Uh, make it, I didn't want to change what I was preaching because I knew this person gave, uh, a lion share of our income towards this particular project or anything like that. So I was always very careful to not do that. And I would encourage you as a general rule to keep things as anonymous as you possibly can. I think it's just healthy for churches.
Speaker 4 00:25:29 Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, I'll get the next one here. Keep it Theo theologically sound. I think you definitely wanna with a sensitive topic like this, you know, make sure you are, uh, backing it with scripture and sticking to scripture and, uh, not making any false promises. Like we talked about, you know, promising, someone's gonna get a jet plane if they give today, uh, if they give over a certain amount or something silly like that. Um, and again, I've seen that stuff over the years. I've seen some of it and no,
Speaker 0 00:25:59 So we have a reputation, I think, because I think for so many people, especially people that do not, that aren't, that don't regularly go to church. Their understanding of churches is driven a lot by what they see late at night on television. Yeah. Uh, or, you know, these kinds of commercials or whatever it is, and those are rife with terrible theology as you. And I know. Yeah. Uh, and our audience I'm sure knows that as well. So be very careful with that understanding that's, people's understanding. So you need to do the exact opposite, uh, and be very theologically, sound back everything up with scripture. I think that's really important. So that's good. Uh, last do is make sure you offer a disclaimer for visitors. Yeah. Uh, this again is not something that you, you have to do it like I do it, but what I've always done is I've, I've gone so far to say, we do not want you to give, if you're here for the first time, some churches will say something softer. Like you don't need to give, or it's optional to give and that's, unless
Speaker 4 00:26:58 You feel that's really compelled or something. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:27:00 Right. But so I, I just kind of took the leap and took it one step further and say, Hey, we don't want you to give today today. Right. Is a, a totally free gift. Jesus. He died freely for us. We do our service not to get your money. Uh, but to have you, uh, help you find a relationship with Jesus, so we don't expect or want or need any of your money, uh, today. Yeah. Uh, but for those that are our members and people are part of our church family, we'd love for you to take part in this. So I would always make some kind of a disclaimer. So visitors knew that there was no obligation for them to give in our Sunday services there. Yeah. So,
Speaker 4 00:27:34 No, I think that's good. I would completely agree with that.
Speaker 0 00:27:37 Awesome. Any closing thoughts as we wrap up today?
Speaker 4 00:27:41 No, don't be afraid. Uh, pastors out there, don't be afraid to address this. Don't be afraid. Uh, we think it's biblical to, to mention it, like you said, Thomas, several times, this is for the benefit of the believer. Yeah. This is the benefit, uh, for people. And so, yeah, I would just, uh, challenge pastors. We hope this was helpful and that, that pastors have some takeaways that maybe you'll make, uh, I don't know. Maybe you'll address it this next Sunday after you hear this.
Speaker 0 00:28:05 Yeah. Hopefully, hopefully there's something you can, uh, put into action right away. So if this has been helpful to you or if it has been unhelpful to you and you have a serious disagreement about how we talked about ties and offerings, it's all the same to the algorithm. So let us know down in the comments below, they don't really care if it was a good comment or a bad comment, or you liked it, or you didn't just comment, let us know down below there. Uh, you do, I do encourage you to hit the like button, but you can hit the dislike button if you don't like it as well. That's fine. Uh, we wanna thank you guys so much for being a part of our reach, right family. It means so much to us. Um, if you do have other ideas for topics that you want to hear us discuss on the reach right podcast, you can let us know about those in the comments too. Uh, some of our, uh, conversations now they are listener driven. So yeah, any opportunity we get to share in that way, we really do love to do that. So thanks guys for being a part of our reach, right family, and we'll catch you next week.
Speaker 0 00:28:59 Thanks for listening to the reach right podcast. We hope this episode will help you reach people the right way, looking for more resources for your church. Check us out online at reach, right studios.com. If this episode has been helpful to you, it would mean the world to us. If you would rate, review and subscribe on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks again for listening. And we'll see you next week
Speaker 2 00:29:28 To get.
