By April Yamasaki

Last year when my church switched from worshipping together in person to worshipping together over Zoom, we kept the same format as much as possible. Those responsible for preparing our Sunday services still prepared a full liturgy focused around the lectionary Scripture readings. As usual, our worship time began with a call to worship; included songs and prayers, a time of confession and assurance, an affirmation of faith; and ended with a benediction. We celebrated communion on the first Sunday of the month, and I continued to preach once a month, with other speakers taking turns as usual.

Yet there was so much unusual about worshipping together online. We each stayed at home, reduced to head and shoulders on a screen. We no longer shook hands or shared hugs as we gathered for worship. There was no choir to lead us in singing. No standing up and moving around our worship space to pass the peace. No sharing the same loaf of bread, or dipping a morsel into the same cup for communion. No time of offering.

Wait, no offering? No offering prayer?

Our printed liturgy for each week still listed the offering, offertory, and offering prayer, but on Zoom those parts were omitted from our worship. Since we weren’t gathering together in person, there were no ushers to pass the offering bags, no bags to pass from hand to hand, from one person to the next. Instead, our finance committee had asked congregants to send their donations in the form of a cheque and mail it to the church office. So without a physical offering, our worship leaders had skipped over the time of offering altogether.

But I missed that part of our worship. After all, I’ve always thought of the offering time mainly as our response of offering ourselves to God. Yes, it’s about giving our money to support the ministry of the church and to pay the rent, utility bills, and other practical expenses. But it’s also about giving our time and talents in ministry. It’s about dedicating our everyday thoughts and the way we use our everyday time. It’s about offering our middle-of-the-week life at work and home. It’s about giving our whole selves to God.

So even though we couldn’t physically receive an offering of money over Zoom, it made good sense to restore a time of offering as part of our worship anyway. Just as we continued to include words of peace even though we couldn’t do a full passing of the peace in person, we could also include words of offering as our response of worship before God. We could pray over the offerings that were being mailed in. We could reflect on what it means to give our money — and our lives — to God.

O God who breathes in us the breath of life, we respond to your gracious gift by offering ourselves to you. With our tithes and offerings, we offer our words and our silence, our time and abilities, our work and our play. May these gifts be used in life-giving ways for the sake of Jesus. Amen.

April Yamasaki is a pastor and author. Her books include Four Gifts: Seeking Self-Care for Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength and Sacred Pauses: Spiritual Practices for Personal Renewal.  She currently serves as resident author with Valley CrossWay Church in Abbotsford, British Columbia, and often speaks in churches and other settings. For more information, see AprilYamasaki.com and WhenYouWorkfortheChurch.com.