A New Jersey church – already a bit different in that its three congregations gather weekly at two hotels and a middle school – put a new spin on the collection plate Sunday by having congregants take cash-filled envelopes from the plate in hopes that the money will be put to charitable use.
“People are cynical about religion and expect to come to church and be shaken down, but really, it’s all God’s money,” Liquid Church pastor Tim Lucas said prior to Sunday services. “Every bill in the U.S. economy says ‘In God we trust,’ and we’re going to put that to the test.”
Read it all. Please note that I know churches here both in the Diocese and in the area who have done this; and they have been blessed–KSH.
in the church (in Paris) where I was a curate we regularly passed round the offering plate and said “if you have money to give, put some in; if you need money, take some out, no questions asked”. it worked well in a church with the extremes of wealth and hardship in it; and of course most of the church’s income came by electronic bank transfer anyway.